There is no easy way to put this but Brazilian fans want goals against Cameroon in their last group match today after what has been an underwhelming tournament for the hosts so far.
Standing outside the beautiful national stadium named after mercurial forward Garrincha, a number of Brazilian fans said they were disappointed with the goalless draw against Mexico. “They missed a lot of chances, Brazilian attackers are not performing as well as the nation wants, we hope there will score some goals against Cameroon today,” said Atalia Piheiro, in her broken English, her friends another five girls echoed the same tune, “We want goals and a big win” they said.
Brazil’s forward line with the exception of Neymar have played well blow par with Fred who started the last two matches looking completely out of sorts in front of goal. And his statistics don’t lie, Fred has produced a solitary attempt on goal in 158 minutes he has played – a header from a corner. He completed 10 accurate passes against Croatia – a game when he failed to make a single run into the attacking third. Only half of the 16 passes he made during his 68 minutes on the pitch against Mexico found a Brazil shirt. He has not created a chance, never mind registered an assist, and he has lost the ball 17 times in total.
Brazil’s other attacker Hulk was injured and missed the game against Mexico throwing the team into moderate disarray. Bernard and Willain failed to fill the vacuum though they were inserted in the second half.
Brazil will seek inspiration from the name of Garrincha who was a fluent scorer and the hero of Brazil’s first World Cup triumph in 1958. Interestingly history is on their side as in 1958 under Vincent Fiola Brazil scored three goals over Austria in the first match and drew their second game 0-0 against England. Brazilians will try to draw inspiration from it and rise on the occasion against Cameroon who showed they are not a united team after two defeats of 1-0 against Mexico and 4-0 against Cameroon.
