If in Europe there is a crisis in Italian football and the elimination of Italy at the last European Championships is causing discussion, and the way in which it happened, the same thing is happening in the American continent. with Brazil. As in Euro 2024, there is not much good play to be seen in the ongoing Copa America in the USA, especially not from those who should be the bearers of “futebol bonito”. So Brazil falls already in the quarter-finalsunable to make an impact with its stars Vinicius Junior and Rodrygoprobably tired, like the various Bellingham, Mbappé and Kane, after a season with too many matches, and with the new phenomenon Endrick left dry.
Thus came the defeat on penalties (after a 0-0 draw after 120 minutes) against Uruguay of Maestro Marcelo Bielsa, who continues to teach football in his own way and has made the Celeste the best national team seen so far in this tournament. Now “El Loco” also wants to beat Colombia in the semifinals and dreams of challenging Argentina in the final and causing them a disappointment, him, a purebred “rosarino”. But in the meantime there is the crisis of Brazil, which not even the new coach Dorival Junior can revive. Out of the America’s Cup after the Seleçao is only sixth in the South American qualifiers of the 2026 World Cup and if it continues like this it risks not going there. And it no longer makes Olimpica dream, who won gold in Rio and Tokyo: in Paris it will not be there, to the benefit of Argentina and Paraguay. In short, even if Dorival Jr. says that we shouldn’t get too depressed, “because we’re going home after having highlighted more positive things than negative ones”, the cure doesn’t seem easy to find, and in the meantime the coach must also defend himself from the criticism of the not very tender press of his country, not to mention social media. They accuse him, among other things, of having made the wrong choice of penalty takers (Eder Militao and Douglas Luiz were the mistakes that caused the elimination), “and yet in training we have always trained a lot from the spot”. It’s a shame, however, that two of the usual penalty takers, Rodrygo and Lucas Paquetà, were removed during the match, plus Dorival “put the load on”, many have pointed out, not going to motivate his players before the start of the “lottery”. The truth is that, especially in the middle of the field, even Brazil lacks true champions because Paquetà is not influential, nor is Joao Gomes, Andreas Pereira was the mysterious object of Lazio where he never played and, judging by his performances in Coippa America, perhaps those in Formello who kept him out were not wrong. So even for Brazil it is time to rebuild, even if today’s football does not allow much of it.
The decisive ones errors from the penalty spot by Militao and new Juventus player Douglas Luiz. Regular and extra time ended goalless despite the Selecao playing with an extra man from the 74th minute following Nandez’s expulsion. Bielsa’s Celeste will face the semi-finalists on Thursday 11 July Colombia, who swept Panama in the quarter-finals with a resounding 5-0 thanks: match already secured in the first half with goals by Cordoba (8′), Rodriguez on penalty (15′) and Diaz (41′), in the second half also Rios (70′) and Miguel Borja from the penalty spot (94′) scored. In the other semi-final (July 10) the world champions Argentina and Canada took the field.