As the World Cup kicks off Thursday, much has been made of the summer heat in Brazil. Chances are no athlete in history has been feeling more heat than Neymar, who will lead the hosts against Croatia at the Arena de Sao Paulo — and is expected to lead them all the way to a titlea month later.
“For all Brazilians, I want to say our time has arrived. We want to go together. This is our World Cup. My team is ready,’’ coach Luiz Felipe Scolari, who led Brazil to the 2002 World Cup, said at a press conference Wednesday in Sao Paulo. “We have seven steps. We have to go up these seven steps. But to start, we have to think of the first step. We can’t jump the seven.’’
And they can’t afford any missteps. It’s hard to imagine a team facing more pressure, or a star player shouldering more of a burden — the responsibility of lifting an entire country’s morale and healing a 64-year-old wound. On Thursday, we’ll begin to find out if Neymar will be hardened by that weight, or crushed by it.
“As Mr. Scolari has said, the time has arrived that all Brazilians — that I think the whole world — was waiting for,’’ Neymar said. “I don’t want to be the best player in the World Cup, I don’t want to be the top scorer, I want to win the World Cup.”
That’s the bar that has been set, despite this team’s youth. Only six players have World Cup experience, and only three are likely to start. But Brazil is the only team to participate in every single World Cup, and the only nation to have claimed five. The Brazilians expect to make it six, with a roster featuring Neymar, Paulinho and Hulk in the attack, and Dani Alves and Thiago Silva on defense.
Brazilian fans don’t reminisce about the World Cups they’ve won as much as ruminate over those that got away — especially 1950, when all they needed was a tie against Uruguay on home soil to claim the title.
A victory samba had already been commissioned, and the players had already received engraved watches that read “For the World Champions.” They took a lead before 199,854 Brazilians but blew it and lost 2-1 in the Maracana.
The defeat was so painful they coined a word for it — the Maracanazo — playwright Nelson Rodrigues likened it to Hiroshima, and they ditched the white kit for the yellow they’ve gone on to make famous.
Now, 64 years later, the July 13 final will be in the same stadium, Brazil returning to the scene of the crime with a chance to make things right.
Brazilian officials hope that will help quell the civil unrest the country has been suffering through, police clashing with strikers and protestors.
Neymar, ranked the world’s most marketable athlete by SportsPro Media, with 5 million followers on Instagram and twice that on Twitter, may have the requisite string of model girlfriends and be part of the selfie generation, but he’s politically conscious. His #weareallmonkeys hashtag after a racist fan threw a banana at Barcelona teammate Alves went viral, and he’s moved by the protests.
“The only way I can represent and defend the country is by playing football,’’ Neymar said. “And from now on I’ll walk on the field inspired by this movement.’’
Scolari didn’t directly address the protests, but alluded to them and his own heartache, his nephew killed in a car crash on Tuesday.
“Yes, we’ve gone through difficult times together and we know what this means; but life goes on. We do what we have to do and we go on. Each one has a path to follow,’’ said Scolari. “I find my strength from working with the players.’’
Brazil hopes that path includes seven steps, the first on Thursday against Croatia, and that it ends with victory — and redemption — in the Maracana.