Brazil has won the quarter final but lost the services of its star performer Neymar through injury. The captain Thiago Silva will also miss the important semifinal against Germany. The absence of two key players of the starting eleven in an important match will definitely have some impacts on close match. But life goes on.
A championship aspiring team and that too of Brazil’s reputation cannot keep its fingers crossed in this situation. The team and its very intelligent boss Luis Philip Scholari definitely have plan B and C what to do in this situation .We have seen Brazil play for years and know it very well whatever be the composition of the Brazil team they are very difficult side to beat and more so on their own soil.
Many had some reservation when Scholari did not include experienced Kaka and still young Robinho in the squad. He was also aware that his racing horse Neymar would be hunted by opponent defence.
He could have taken out Neymar after Brazil scored the second goal against Colombia in a bid to protect him as he was a bit struggling with his niggles right through the match. But there won’t be any benefit in asking what has not been done. Brazil must plan what has to be done now to meet present challenge of overcoming Germans in the semifinal and if situation such emerge plan for the final.
One must not forget Brazil still has one of best defence of the tournament and it can very well survive one match of Thiagos absence with Bayern Munich defender Dante exploiting his knowledge of his German colleagues. Moreover, Danny Alves is fresh being not required in the quarter final.
Thiago Silva one of other impressive attacking midfielder will be back after serving a one match suspension from two yellow cards boosting the midfield. If defence and midfield play their part they can very well soak German attacks cutting out the space for the German forwards supply line and generating more attacks for their own forwards Fred and Hulk.
We have seen Brazil started pushing more and more men in the attack and wing backs are making more contributions. In the last match two deep defenders Thiago and David Luiz scored.
In the midfield Paulinho is still to come to his own and upfront there is Bernard option. Neymer will all he contributed so far in his first appearance in the world still did not do what Messi contributed for Argentina. Brazil without Neymar may not panic in a situation like Argentina requiring playing without Messi.
One must not also forget that this German team apart from the first match also struggled in the other three matches. Ghana and Algeria showed how to cut open the heart of German defence with consistent attacks. Germans against France also looked a bit fatigued may be for hot and humid conditions.
Entire Brazil will now be aware that they will have to lift their game to overcome the Neymar shock and who is a better surgeon to operate in the situation than Mastermind Scholari?
Brazil with all its experience and exploiting home condition as well as home support will definitely leave nothing unturned to realize their HEXA dream. It is too early to dismiss a team which is always considered favorite in any tournament they play. This writer has FB chat with some Brazilian friends and some English Journalists covering the event. They have advised us of high morale in the Brazil camp.
** Neymar returns to training camp
BDST: 1943 HRS, JUL 05, 2014
