When you think of football, you think of Brazil e Argentina. Invariably. And when one thinks of a football rivalry (even if those between us and the Germans, or between us and the French, are no joke) one thinks of the one between the two South American giants, who have always been the masters in their continent and who will compete , once again, at 00:45 tonight, in Belo Horizonte, where Brazil returns to play after the seven to one suffered by Germany in the World Cup two years ago.
A challenge between two champions, Messi e Neymar, who are great friends and teammates, and between two powers in crisis, of results or of identity. On the one hand there is the suffering of Argentina, which has lost the last two Copa America in the final against Chile, inflicting on its symbol player, Leo Messi, the best of today and perhaps ever, two of the three deepest wounds (the other is the World Cup final lost to Germany) of his brilliant career.
After all, rivers of ink have already been spent on the tormented relationship between the number ten and his national team. Often putting rhetoric before football, or speaking for bias. As in the case of the last Copa America final when, before badly missing his penalty, Messi had been the only one, in the very loose Argentina of Tata Martino, now replaced by Bauza, to try to play football.
Or like today: after the pantomime of farewell to the albiceleste shirt, the ten of the blaugranas confirmed himself as the lifeline of a national team that in the three matches in which he was able to field him scored nine points, always winning, while in the other seven he only made seven, condemning himself to one qualifying round run-up. To date, Argentina is sixth. The first four pass, and the fifth draws with the winner of Oceania.
In terms of standings, Brazil can smile. With the new coach Titus they make four victories out of four and, now, after an initial crisis, the green-and-gold are all watching from above with twenty-one points in the standings. The first Olympic gold, after a new psychodrama close to Germany, has given a new peace of mind to the Brazilians, even if it hasn't erased the shame of Mineiraço and the premature elimination in the centenary Copa America.
The dominant feeling is that Brazilian grandeur, and the myth of Joga bonitohave now completely vanished. Replaced by a pragmatism that is difficult to reconcile with the green-gold mythology. Apart from Neymar, and flashes of the new wave of Coutinho and Firmino, Brazil seems to have flattened out on a mediocrity just enough to overcome the South American football bourgeoisie. Against the other noble, even if in an identity crisis, it might not be enough.
