DOHA, Qatar — Even the coach danced.
Dressed in a dark suit as he sauntered through the grass in front of Brazil’s bench, Tite let his players swarm over him as they frolicked around him in celebration, finally joining them with a wobble of his shoulders and hips. There were still over 15 minutes to play in the first half.
That’s how carefree it was for Brazil, how much fun it took to dismantle an unsurpassed South Korean team in the eighth finals on a sultry Monday evening in Doha. The Brazilians repeated the same pattern all night – cool-blooded goal, merry dance – until the final whistle blew to end their fun. The lopsided score, 4-1, somehow failed to fully capture the team’s dominance.
Brazil’s performance, despite South Korea offering only mild resistance to the burst of collective skill, has certainly cemented its status as one of the favorites to lift the FIFA World Cup Trophy on December 18. Brazil will play Croatia in the quarterfinals next Friday. , and it will be preferable to win that game as well.
The goal the 61-year-old Tite was kicking off was the team’s third, coming off the foot of his striker, Richarlison, in one of the finest displays of individual wizardry in the tournament to date.
In a battle with a South Korean defender just outside the box, Richarlison bounced the ball off his head three times in a stylish attempt to retain possession. Finally, he brought the ball down, shuffled into a small open space, and knocked it over to a teammate. The ball was already on its way back to him when he sprinted for goal, and all he had to do was slide it past South Korea’s goalkeeper Kim Seung-gyu.
“I’m very happy with our coach,” Richarlison said of his side dance through an interpreter. “We rehearsed the celebration together in the hotel. And I was thrilled that we had the chance to do it with him.
A brief guide to the 2022 World Cup
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It was Richarlison’s third goal of the tournament, who has used the big stage to establish himself as one of the most exciting attacking players in the world.
But it wasn’t just Richarlison and Tite who happily shuffled their feet on Monday. The Brazilians danced all night.
There was Vinícius Júnior, who led three of his teammates in a coordinated mold at the left corner flag after scoring Brazil’s first goal in the seventh minute.
There was Neymar, who took center stage in an impromptu mosh pit after scoring the team’s second from a penalty in the 13th.
There was Lucas Paquetá, single-handedly tap-dancing furiously in the right corner and ripping through the grass with a sober look after reeling in fourth in the 36th.
All in all, it was a resounding return to form for the Brazilians, who lost their last group stage match against Cameroon last week while swapping much of their squad.
The only people not smiling on Monday were the South Koreans. The match must have been a hard awakening for them so soon after the euphoria of their last group stage match, when a stunning stoppage time goal catapulted them through to the knockout round.
Against Brazil they looked decidedly average. Their lone goal was spectacular, drilled by Paik Seung-ho from well outside the box in the 76th minute. But otherwise they struggled to gain a foothold against Brazil’s relentless quality.
Their only other consolation – if any – was to force Brazilian goalkeeper Alisson to make his first save of the entire tournament. He made a total of five before being taken off late in the second half.
“I think it ended in a very fair way,” South Korea coach Paulo Bento said. “We have to congratulate Brazil, because they were better than us.”
For Brazil, the warm feelings started well before the opening whistle.
Stadium 974, located on Doha’s damp waterfront, was barely filling up as the first big cheers of the evening echoed around the stands. Neymar, who had missed the Brazilians’ previous two matches after injuring his right ankle in their opening match, emerged from the tunnel onto the fresh green pitch, sporting a new blonde hairdo and glittering diamonds on his earlobes.
As the next 90 minutes would show, Brazil has a prodigious array of talent, with a roster made up of some of the world’s best players. But there is still so much about Neymar, the spry playmaker from São Paulo. He was the man every fan wanted to see.
Neymar looked mostly his normal self, sliding across the grass with the ball, unbalancing defenders with his devious moves.
“I can’t be 100 per cent happy with today’s game,” said Neymar, noting that he felt no pain in his ankle. “We have to strive for more. We have to grow.”
But for the remaining teams in this tournament, the scary thing about Brazil may not be Neymar’s return, but the emergence of so many scintillating talents around him. As a group they will try to keep the dancing going deep into the tournament.