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Brazil 3, Spain 0
Neymar and Brazil Rout Spain and Live Up to Their Billing
Kai Pfaffenbach/Reuters
By JAMES MONTAGUE
RIO DE JANEIRO — Neymar da Silva Santos Júnior was having an unusually
quiet first half when the ball was poked through to him on the left side
of Spain’s penalty area.
It was a few minutes before halftime of the FIFA Confederations Cup
final between host Brazil and the world and European champion Spain at
the refurbished Maracanã stadium.
Before the tournament, there was still a question about the ability of Neymar, a 21-year-old Brazilian striker.
Was he overrated? Was he more about style, with his crazy haircuts, over
substance? Did he have what it took to have his name whispered in the
same breath as Romário, Ronaldo and the greatest of all, Pelé?
Neymar took one touch before blasting the ball, left-footed, high into
the goal over goalkeeper Iker Casillas. It was his fourth goal in five
games. Neymar, who led Brazil to a 3-0 victory, was the undoubted star
of his team’s Confederations Cup campaign, his face painted on a
thousand murals in a thousand favelas across the country.
No one will talk of him as overrated anymore. Certainly not the 73,000
fans dressed in the ubiquitous yellow jerseys of Brazil, the fans who
greeted his goal with a deafening roar. Neymar had come of age.
His fellow striker Fred added two goals in the victory. But this was
Neymar’s night, when seemingly unbeatable Spain was not so much beaten
as humiliated.
“I can’t feel any better than how I feel now,” said Luiz Felipe Scolari,
the 64-year-old coach who won the World Cup with Brazil in 2002 and
will try to do the same here next summer. “We can now dream that we have
a path ahead toward the World Cup.”
The Confederations Cup was a lot of things it should not have been, and a
lot of things it could only have dreamed of being.
The tournament is a dress rehearsal for the World Cup finals, a chance
for the infrastructure and stadiums to be put to the test. Brazil has
enjoyed a remarkable economic boom in recent years, and the World Cup,
along with the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio, was supposed to be its moment in the sun.
Instead, the tournament became a political lightning rod, with mass
protests taking place outside the stadiums hosting the games. Many
turned violent as Brazilians railed against corruption, the high cost of
living, high taxes and poor public services.
Brazil’s new and refurbished soccer stadiums, some running double over
budget, came to symbolize the largess of the ruling classes. The
protests have forced Brazil’s leftist president, Dilma Rousseff, herself
a politician born in the fires of street protest, into a number of
important concessions.
After 300,000 protesters took to the streets last week in Rio, where the
military police fired tear gas, flash grenades and rubber bullets,
security for the final resembled something from a war zone. Banks of
armed officers guarded the stadiums. Some had dogs. Dozens more were on
horseback.
“I’m excited and nervous; I hope we win,” said Jonia Rodgriguez, a
26-year old fan who had battled through the checkpoints.
“This event is pretty important,” she added. “We do not have enough
money for everybody; that is why the fans complain, and they are totally
right. But too much violence was caused by these protests. I hope our
government is going to change.”
Protests had been arranged for the day of the final, too, with banners
denouncing the government and soccer’s governing body, FIFA.
“At the Confederations Cup, it went quite well,” the FIFA secretary general, Jérôme Valcke, said in an interview Friday.
When asked what FIFA had learned from the protests, he said: “We need
more facilities and flexibility to move people between the match cities.
We are expecting a lot more people.”
The trouble on the streets had another effect. Brazil’s team progressed
without the crushing weight of expectation it usually carries.
Within two minutes at the Maracanã, Brazil was ahead. In a goal-mouth
scramble, Fred hooked the ball into the net while on the ground.
Minutes before the end of the first half, Neymar made it 2-0 with his
spectacular strike. Fred scored his second goal early in the second
half.
When Spain defender Gerard Piqué was shown a straight red card, there
was no route back for the world champions, who looked tired and devoid
of any kind of cutting edge or artistry, outside of the metronomic
passing of midfielder Andrés Iniesta. Sergio Ramos compounded Spain’s
misery with a missed penalty kick in the 55th minute.
After the final whistle, no one had left the stadium as the Brazil team
did a lap of honor. Neymar won the man of the match award, as well as
the Golden Ball as the top player of the tournament.
“I believe that Brazil has shown the world we must be respected,” Neymar said.
Next season he will join Lionel Messi and a good chunk of Spain’s roster
after agreeing to a transfer to Barcelona. “I hope I adapt very
quickly,” he said. “I’m going to the biggest team in the world. I’m very
happy.”
The world will see a lot of Neymar over the next 12 months, but it was
in the Maracanã on Sunday night that a star was born.
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