Neymar & Co dribble and dance en route to 4-1 thrashing of South Korea at Stadium 974; coach Tite reveals how boys taught him Samba-like moves
Vinicius Junior (extreme left), Raphinha, Lucas Paqueta (2nd from right) and Neymar celebrate win over South Korea on Monday. Pic/Getty Images
A football match normally lasts 90 minutes, stoppage-time excluding. On Monday, the Round-of-16 clash between Brazil and South Korea lasted just 30. Post that, it was just a fixture, not a match anymore!
That’s how dominant the five-time champions from Sambaland were, even doing a Samba-like dance on the sidelines along with coach Tite while the hapless Koreans danced to their tunes on the pitch.
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It was not as much about the result, but rather how emphatically the Brazilians achieved it that stunned the 43,847-strong audience at Stadium 974. It’s one thing to get a tough job done and quite another to enjoy yourself while doing it. And the Brazilians were having a ball while playing ball against the Koreans.
The evening began with the Thiago Silva & Co entering the turf as Black Eyed Peas’ famed track ‘I gotta feeling (that tonight’s gonna be a good night)’ played across the stadium. The signs were ominous.
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Vinicius Jr scores opener
And rightly so, a smiling Vinicius Jr opened the scoring (7th minute) after which Neymar made it 2-0 with an audaciously taken penalty that literally rolled inches away from Korean ’keeper Kim Seung-gyu and into the goal.
Richarlison then sidefooted in the third (29th) and it was game over even before the half-hour mark. Lucas Paqueta (36th) made it 4-0 before the Korea’s Paik Seung-ho (76th) finally managed to beat resilient Brazil goalkeeper Alisson Becker. More than their moves with the ball however, the dance moves of Neymar, Vinicius, Raphinha and Lucas Paqueta—as they celebrated their goals—entertained the crowd.
Stunningly, they roped in their 61-year-old coach too. After Richarlison made it 3-0, he headed straight for the bench, pointing towards coach Tite.
The group formed a small circle and the coach began to ape their dance moves. Tite later revealed that it’s his way of trying to be part of a much younger generation.
Young and the old
“Most of them are very young, they dance a lot and I try to adapt to their ways. Once I went over to them while they were dancing and tried to join in. They promptly taught me, saying: ‘not that way, turn sideways’. It’s hard to learn their dance, but I told them I would and I did,” Tite explained.
Fun and happiness is a major focus of this Brazilian bunch and this came through with another of their moves, substituting goalkeeper Becker with reserve custodian Weverton Pererira da Silva (80th minute).
Assistant coach Cesar Sampaio reasoned that there was only one player in the squad who hadn’t played, so despite it being rare and “hard to sub ‘keepers like that” they did it because “it made him and the team very happy.”
Player of the Match Neymar also stressed on the happiness factor. “This team deserves congratulations. We are all very happy without our performance today. That’s our mission and our dream. We’re getting closer. It will all work out. I’m sure we’ll come out smiling in the end,” he said. They were indeed smiling and dancing in the end.
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