It’s often said that only two footballers, the Brazilian Mané Garrincha, in the 1962 World Cup in Chile, and the Argentinian Diego Armando Maradona, in Mexico ’86, have won a World Cup single-handedly. Their dazzling and game-changing individual performances elevated them above the collective effort. Carlo Ancelotti’s Brazil debuts tonight at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey against a resurgent Morocco (midnight, TVE-1) with Vinicius as the star of the Seleção.
The skillful and controversial Real Madrid winger faces his second appearance in the world’s biggest football competition with the weight of being the great hope of a team that, due to a lack of creativity in midfield, relies more on counter-attacks than on the beautiful game. The samba style of football is largely reserved for Vinicius’s agility and explosive pace. “I’m at the most special and important moment of my career. I’m at the physical and technical level I’ve always dreamed of. I haven’t suffered any injuries this season. I’ve prepared very well to get to this point,” he stated this Friday at a press conference.
Since taking on the challenge of managing the five-time world champions, Ancelotti has tried to create an environment that favors the qualities of his former Real Madrid protégé, as well as those of Raphinha. The Italian coach brought out the best in Vinicius as a Real Madrid player during his second stint on the Bernabéu bench. “Carlo [Ancelotti] was the one who changed Vini. There were some doubts, and he transformed him and Militão as well,” Casemiro recently recalled in an interview with Globo Esporte.
The veteran midfielder is also acting as a mentor to his former Bernabéu teammate at the five-time world champions’ training camp at the idyllic The Ridge Hotel, located in the middle of a forest outside of New Jersey. “Playing with Ancelotti gives me a lot of peace of mind, a lot of freedom and confidence to do everything I’ve already done with the national team and at Real Madrid,” Vinicius confessed.
“It’s eight games. I can change this story for our country and for the players. I’m not even talking about goals and assists, but about playing well and giving the team the confidence it needs. It doesn’t matter how many goals I score. What matters is how far we go,” he emphasized.
On Tuesday, Vinicius had already posted a message on his social media alluding to the enormous challenge that awaits him. Wearing thick-rimmed glasses and a cap that gave him the air of a studious but rebellious twenty-something student, he set the scene in his room with a childhood photo from Flamengo and a verse that the Venezuelan rapper Louis BPM dedicates to him in his catchy song MJ: “Running through the streets I am Vinicius/ Talents that are lost in the neighborhood because of vice/I came to change history and to restart it.”
