THE JOY IS back for Brazil.
For those watching them from afar, it has burst across the screens with the skills and the goals and the moments that will endure in the hearts and minds of football supporters of all ages during this World Cup.
And, of course, the dancing is to be cherished, even more so for a country that was left bereft and beaten after their 7-1 humiliation on home turf by Germany in 2014.
Some of that pain lingers even a decade later, a result which, at the time, was decried by one Rio de Janeiro newspaper as the “biggest shame in history”.
It cost Luiz Felipe Scolari his job, resigning soon after, with not even the glory of 2002 providing enough credit in the bank.
“The least I can say to those who want to blame me is that, if I’m the only one responsible for the defeat in 2014, I’m therefore the only one responsible for the triumph in 2002,” the then-coach said on FIFA.com.
“The Germans were happy and we weren’t. I can guarantee that a result like that will only be repeated in another 2,000 years.”
It only took another four for a further feeling of agony, the new European order seemingly taking control when, this time, Belgium cruised to what was a far more comfortable quarter-final win than the 2-1 score line suggested in 2018.
Brazil were a diminished force, their spark of excitement gone, the spirit of adventure evaporated.
Until now.
Head coach Tite began the process of rebuilding in the aftermath of Russia, a journey which is primed to reach the ultimate conclusion in Qatar. Croatia are the quarter-final opponents today and will provide a further test of resolve.
The last couple of weeks have also witnessed more Brazilian tears, but they are borne from a sense of redemption and delight at the football being produced.
A return to their place as not only great entertainers, but winners capable of doing so in the most thrilling fashion.
The latest instalment of this salvation arc came in the first-half demolition of South Korea in the last-16, and the fact that Richarlison was central to the triumph has only added to his growing deity status in his homeland.
The third goal was created by the forward’s uninhibited ability to entertain – see the flurry of headed keepie-uppies to retain possession – followed by the instinctive prowess, the sharp link-up play around the box capped off by the clinical finish.
It was sublime in every sense, and while Neymar remains the global superstar, the Tottenham Hotspur star now stands for something less vacuous, and his support for the country’s president-elect, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, only adds to his allure for those in the country who felt its moral compass was off kilter.
After Richarlison had lit a fuse for the competition during the opening group game with a bicycle kick against Serbia that will go down in lore, the Guardian’s Latin American correspondent, Tom Phillips, wrote of the elevated position he was holding:
“Brazilian fans, pundits and politicians lined up to hail Richarlison as a paragon of human decency, compassion and good sense after four gruelling years in which Jair Bolsonaro’s far-right government divided society, wrecked the environment and mishandled a Covid outbreak that killed nearly 700,000 citizens.”
Amid the Premier League pantomime, the 25-year-old has at times been cast as some kind of villain. The play-acting has not helped his cause at times, but the overreaction to his recent showboating against Nottingham Forest, when he had the temerity to flick the ball up before laying off a simple pass, was farcical.
The player himself has perhaps even revelled in some of the online fallout – you only have to see some of his past interactions with Jamie Carragher to realise that – but he also concerned himself with far more pressing matters.
“All of us who play in major leagues and have some space in the media have a great social responsibility. And this can’t be only words, we need to act more and more to help and to try to change people’s reality.
“I want to be remembered as someone who tried to change things around me for the better. And I think the first step is to expose the wounds and humanise the problems in our communities,” he said in a match programme while at Everton.
“We don’t need to be experts in everything, just to understand what’s really important. I don’t know anything about science, for example, I have never entered a laboratory in my life. But I know that the work of scientists and universities is important in this moment, so I can lend my voice to them.
“It is simple but it is an attitude that can help bring about change.”
And change is exactly what Richarlison has forced in manager Tite, his run of seven goals in six games prior to this World Cup making the head coach reconstruct a forward line which had looked set to feature Neymar as its centrepiece with some of their litany of wide attacking options supporting on either side.
But Richarlison’s force of personality on the pitch seems to be matched only by his powerful impact off it for his country.
Brazil v Croatia, Friday, 3pm (RTÉ Two)