“You will go Pombo here alone,” Tite laughed. The Brazil coach had finished his media duties for the evening, spilling the espresso cup in his hand. “I won’t be able to hug Richarlison?” he said, worried. Brazil’s winner in control was connected to anti-doping, he was waiting for the call of nature.
“I’m trying to pitch, it’s tough,” Richarlison said, though he didn’t let time go to waste.
“I was able to call Ney and see how he is,” Richarlison revealed. Neymar buried his head in his yellow and green shirt to hide his tears after spraining his right leg, Tite “cheated” and played the next 11 minutes against Serbia in pain relief. “I told him to put some ice on it,” Richarlison said as if he were a member of Brazil’s medical staff.
Despite Tite’s belief that Neymar will “continue in the World Cup”, previous injuries in this competition have been a haunting theme of his career and will continue to haunt him.
Richarlison promised to stop by his room at the Westin before going to bed. “When I get to the hotel I’ll go see how he’s doing,” he said. Richarlison may not sleep, the thrill of scoring the goal of the tournament unlikely to be lost on the short bus ride from Lusail.
“I think it was a beautiful goal,” he said. “I already scored a goal like that against Fluminense and Everton. Today I had the opportunity to score an acrobatic goal, probably one of the best goals of my career. It was a tough match so I think it was one of the best of my career.” scored a goal last week at a training camp in Turin.
“It’s the result of practice,” Fred said in the confused area. “It’s not easy to get there and score a goal. This is the result of his and the whole group’s training.”
Completes the practice. At half-time against Serbia, the score still 0-0, Richarlison gathered his teammates around and said something needed to change. “I told them I needed a ball and it came, I was ready and I managed to score.”
The first was a tap-in after Vanja Milinkovic-Savic spilled a Vini Jnr shot. The second one was something else. Earlier this week, Richarlison’s team-mate Pedro, a contender for the role of Brazil’s starting midfielder, said the Tottenham Hotspur player has essenza do brasileiro – the essence of Brazil. This goal proved it.
On the subway to the game, there were fans from all over the world heading to Lusail to watch Brazil. The idea that they play football because it has to be played with style and skill, it takes hold of the imagination.
Rich Qataris in Brazil shirts wanted to show their children what football is all about. Richarlison’s goal was exactly that, the epitome of the Brazilian ideal going back to Pele and Garrincha in 1958.
It started with an outside leg cross from Vinicius Jnr, Richarlison then stunned the ball with his left, lifted the ball into the air, put a hand on the ground and turned his right foot, Capoeira style, to strike. turned to Milinkovic-Savic.
Just like his first goal, the entire Brazilian bench came out of the street and down to the corner flag to celebrate with him and the rest of the team.
They even took Tite. “Sometimes feelings cannot be explained,” he said. “They are feelings.” Dressed in a cobalt blue suit, the 61-year-old wanted to say “how much work is behind that goal”.
He spoke about the physique, currently working on Neymar, who has helped Richarlison return to form after the calf injury he suffered against former club Everton in mid-October.
Richarlison was “terrified”, panicked that it might ruin his World Cup. Tite was also sad.
When Gabriel Jesus was sent off in the 2019 Copa America final against Peru, potentially jeopardizing Brazil’s chances of winning the competition, Richarlison came on and coolly saved the game-killing penalty.
He was the top scorer in the 2020 Olympics when Brazil won the gold medal in 2022 and Brazil’s top scorer in 2022. “As O’Professor (Tite) says,” Richarlison recalled Thursday night. They “smell” goals. That is why he is selected in the form of Jesus of Arsenal.
To explain Serbia’s 2-0 defeat, their coach, the legendary Piksi Stojkovic, said: “We are not Brazil with 200 million people (for the election). We are a small nation.” If Dusan Vlahovic and Filip Kostic are injured and Aleksandar Mitrovic is not fully available, this is a problem.
On the other hand, Tite was weighing up his options, in Qatar and those he left at home, such as Copa Libertadores winner Gabriel Barbosa, Roberto Firmino, Matheus Cunha and Hulk. He is looking to match the competition that Richarlison has seen to make the No.9 jersey his own.
It is the same at 200 m. “It’s a kid’s dream come true,” smiled Richarlison.
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(Photo: Markus Gilliar – GES Sportfoto/Getty Images)
