Team profile: Brazil

Following the logic of the pre-tournament ads and hype, the world’s eyes are on the mercurial forward Neymar, inheritor of the iconic No. 10 shirt of Pelé and the burdens it carries. Now at Barcelona, he remains a potential game changer, with the consummate street footballer’s skill and guile, explosive pace and eye for goal. But he’ll be carrying a lot of pressure, and the attention he draws from opposing defenders might create space for other Brazilians to shine — particularly Oscar, the diminutive creative wizard in the playmaker role. But the Seleção’s prospects may depend, also, on its ability to control a game in the midfield and shut down opponents, and there the efforts of such less flashy but indispensable players as Paulinho and Ramires could prove decisive.

Where to begin? Probably in 1958 in Sweden, when a 17-year-old named Pelé exploded on the international scene and drove Brazil to its first World Cup triumph. But probably the most memorable triumph was in 1970, with Pelé at his peak surrounded by such outrageous talents as Jairzinho, Roberto Rivellino and Carlos Alberto, demolishing Italy 4–1 in one of the finest-ever displays of attacking soccer.

It’s theirs to lose. The adrenal effect of playing on home soil was evident in last year’s Confederations Cup final victory over Spain, in which the Seleção simply ran the Spanish off their feet and prevented them playing their progressive-possession game. Today’s Brazilians are managed, once again, by Felipe Scolari, the pragmatic coach who steered them to their last victory in 2002.

Their game is barely a shadow of the sumptuous free-flowing attacking style of 1970 or 1982, with solid defensive midfielders of the Paulinho and Fernandinho mold. Still, with the Chelsea trio of Ramires, Oscar and Willian in midfield, supported by flying wingbacks Marcelo and Dani Alves and Neymar and Hulk up front, they have more than enough firepower to beat all comers.

Those flying wingbacks can be just as much a peril as a boon. Alves and Marcelo leave a lot of space behind them when they bomb forward, and Chelsea center-back David Luiz may not have the positional discipline to help compensate. Keeper Júlio César, after languishing on the bench in the second tier of English football at Queens Park Rangers, has been getting some match practice in the MLS. Not reassuring.

The Seleção will play under immense psychological pressure from an expectant home crowd, whose national football mythology has never quite gotten over losing the final on home soil to Uruguay in 1950. Neymar has yet to prove himself on the big stage. And the nation is in turmoil amid spiraling social protests that have not been stilled with the onset of the tournament. More can go wrong for the Seleção on home soil than away, and the World Cup trophy remains up for grabs.

Coach Felipe Scolari expects his charges to do a little homework, if his successful 2002 campaign is anything to go by. That year, he handed out photocopies of extracts from Sun Tzu’s “The Art of War” to his players in the dressing room. He may want to reprise that one. Such dictums of the great Chinese strategist as “do not linger in dangerously isolated positions” would certainly be sound advice for his flying fullbacks.