Brazil’s problem: Scolari doesn’t trust tricksters

Brazil's passage through the World Cup has resembled something of a fitful weather pattern, with occasional bursts of sunlight punctuating the tactical gloom.  The open secret is that the current trustees of the Brazilian obligation to play the Beautiful Game, or "jogo bonito", have not been playing all that beautifully.  At first glance, this uncharacteristic lack of flair can swiftly be explained away.  The team are under exceptional levels of pressure to win, which seems to be limiting their creative freedom on the pitch.  But there is something else going on, which is that in building his team, coach Luis Felipe Scolari may have neglected an essential element of his country's footballing culture.

In the BBC World Service documentary The Burden of Beauty, former Brazil captain Carlos Alberto refers to "the Brazilian advantage"; the ability of his nation's finest players – Garrincha, Pele, Ronaldinho or Zico come to mind – to decide matches with moments of brilliant improvisation.  Men such as this, whose genius is as beguiling as it is unpredictable, are this sport's equivalent of tricksters: those mischievous characters from folklore, like Loki, the coyote and The Joker, whose playfulness and imagination subverts established norms.  As the author and academic Lewis Hyde has defined the trickster, "he is a character who gets involved in conflicts and fights, but does so in a cunning style, distinct from the traditional Warrior." 

Of course, Brazil has had more tricksters than most, with a long tradition of impishly memorable figures filling the role claimed today by Neymar. Unfortunately, however, Scolari doesn't seem to trust this breed of player all that much.  He prefers traditional Warriors such as Hulk, whose greatest asset is loyalty to the team's overall aim.  

This criticism may appear somewhat harsh on Scolari, given that most of his nation's most creative players are currently out of form or fitness.  AC Milan's Robinho, for example, is someone who would have been selected had he been sharper this season.  However, Lucas Moura of Paris Saint-Germain and Phillippe Coutinho of Liverpool are two men whose flamboyance and invention have so far been missed by Brazil.  Why, then, are they not at the World Cup?

The answer may lie in the almost overwhelming challenge facing the Selecao.  Ever since the country lost a World Cup final on its own soil to Uruguay in 1950, there has been talk of the need for redemption, and in that quest, Scolari has chosen to leave nothing to chance.  After all, as Lewis Hyde has written, "many times the Trickster is simultaneously a hero and a fool, smart and dumb," and it's difficult to know if you can rely on a character like that.  In the Batman movie The Dark Knight, Heath Ledger's Joker leeringly boasted that he was "an agent of chaos", and such men have not always been conducive to dressing-room unity.  

And so, though Scolari's team may play in gold, they are resolutely blue-collar in their outlook; almost all of them more notable for earnest toil than for their capacity to enthrall.  The only exceptions in the current squad are Bernard, who plays his club football for Shakhtar Donetsk, Chelsea's Oscar, and of course the irrepressible Neymar.  

Yet, Scolari's caution, though understandable, may prove to be his undoing.  It is precisely when teams are engaged in tactical deadlock, such as that which Brazil endured for long periods against Chile, that the trickster becomes most valuable.  Brazil has a long tradition of masking its most potent weapons in the guise of childlike play – capoeira was a martial art devised by slaves and disguised as a series of dance moves in order to fool their masters.  Today, it is common to hear of the "jeitinho", the way in which Brazilians use their wiles to cut corners in everyday life; sadly, the World Cup squad is lacking in the spirit of jeitinho. Scolari will have to be hoping that his faith in hard graft over mercurial genius does not cost him and his team too dearly.