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Reinventing the beautiful game

It is hard to come up with a one-paragraph definition of “the Beautiful Game.” But aficionados of Brazilian football will agree that samba soccer at its best comprised these ingredients — players interchanging positions fluidly; passes zinging to all corners of the field, connecting one blue and gold figure to another as if the whole team was in a state of mystical union; ball touches getting more intricate with steadily accelerating exchanges; and then t he crescendo directed at the opponent’s goal. The Pele-Jairzinho-Rivelino combo played this way in the 1970 World Cup and so did the Socrates-led team a generation later. Since the early 1990s that kind of magic has been on display only in patches. There were a few occasions when an opponent, such as Holland, had the courage to indulge in an open, free-flowing game. There was a match or two — the clash with Japan in the 2006 World Cup comes immediately to mind — when the Brazilians threw caution to the winds after their pride was pricked by an early reverse. To a large extent however, the last decade-and-a-half has been the ‘Dunga era.’ From the time the man who is now Brazil’s coach became the hard, uncompromising heart of the team, a degree of dourness crept into the Selecao’s game. Carlos Caetano Bledorn Verri, to call the former captain by his real name, is not in the least apologetic. In his view, no team can triumph in a highly professionalised sport if it does not have discipline, organisation, and tactical acumen.

Brazil’s victory in the Copa America final on July 15 has vindicated Dunga’s approach. Argentina, which waltzed through the earlier rounds, seems to have become the new exponents of the Brazilian way. With Alfio Basile, a football romantic, as its coach, the albiceleste was given freedom of expression. The little men, Messi and Tevez, playing to the rhythms set by the master orchestrator, Riquelme, tore opposing defences to shreds even as the old guard of Veron, Cambiasso, and Ayala cleaned up behind. Brazil came to the tournament with only the lesser lights of its World Cup team. Yet less than five minutes into the Copa final, the Selecao established a dominance it just would not relinquish for the next 90-odd minutes. No one who watched the game will dispute that the Brazilians played rough. They packed their box, outmuscled the Argentineans, and committed one cynical foul after another in the midfield. But the old magic was still there. There is nothing in football to match the dazzling dynamism with which Brazil launches its attacking waves. It’s early days but Dunga might just have discovered a way to play the beautiful game in the modern era.

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