“We came here for the gold and we are one match away from getting it. There’s no mystery. We have to keep doing what we have been doing so far in the tournament, it has been working. […] No Brazilian has ever won this and I feel I’m prepared to help the team leave with the gold medal.” — Neymar (The Independent, 09 August 2012… Three days before Mexico defeated Brazil 2×1)
Neymar was right in saying that Brazil was going to do in the Olympics Football Final against Mexico, exactly what they had done so far in the tournament, that is underestimate all the nations they have been playing, taking it easy, thinking the Gold medal was theirs since the London 2012 Olympics had started.
Of course, Brazil got it all wrong! Mexico eventually won the game 2-1 (Brazil scored its only goal in the last minute of the game) and scooped the Gold medal that all the Brazilian media had predicted was Brazil’s!
Has Brazil’s football entered into a crisis? No, Brazil has not won a major trophy for three years. There’s nothing new in there. In fact, this shocking result, which sounds actually almost like a defeat for Brazilian people, proves that Brazil is right in the middle of a sporting crisis, where Brazilians competing in individual sports barely win anything at all and where Brazil’s sporting teams are now also struggling to live to the promise that they could be very successful in London (in feminine and masculine football, feminine and masculine beach-volley, etc.)
In sports, investments are certainly needed in Brazil. However, humility is paramount!
Remember when Brazilian President, Dilma Roussef, famously said, last year: “We (Brazil) have taken very great steps in the direction of stability. This is the second time that a crisis affects the world and it is the second time that Brazil doesn’t shake.” Some economic experts are now warning that Brazil is about to enter into recession, like the European Union and the United States before. President Roussef isn’t singing any more!
Brazil should learn that in sports, like in politics, humility is a great virtue!