there's been a weird turnaround over here. brazil has always been the favourite country of neutrals, and a brazilian shirt is visual code of a non partisan love of football. in the run up to and autopsy of the england games, the BBC had package after commenter after package giving the "brazilian" way of developing their players and fielding a NT a giant suck-job, looking at the country's football with unabashed reverence.
that all collapsed last night. post match comments from brazilian pundits have been centred around this being the medicine brazil needs, that its entire organisation is a shambles, that they're developing their talent in completely the wrong way, that they've lost pace with the drilled mechanisms of european football.
brazil and football was the celebrity marriage the whole world loved for decades. people who have been paying attention will have seen the cracks appearing, but the break up and immediate divorce last night was as significant a cultural turning point as any of us will ever witness. it may be decades before the word "brazil" is shorthand for "great football" again.
