"It's as if someone had died. And in a certain way that is what's happened. Unfortunately Neymar is dead for this World Cup, " lamented José Trajano on ESPN Brasil after news of the Brazilian star's fractured vertebra filtered through last night.
Brazilian joy at a first semi-final berth since 2002 after last night's 2-1 victory over Colombia was overshadowed by the realisation that the team will be without its star for the rest of the tournament.
At full-time Ronaldo, now a commentator on Globo, could not even bring himself to celebrate as he waited on news of the player’s condition.
Trajano even got upset when his fellow ESPN panellists began discussing Felipão’s alternatives now that his best player is out of Tuesday’s semi-final against Germany in Belo Horizonte. “Today is a day for bury our dead. Tomorrow we can think about that,” he argued melodramatically, comparing Neymar’s loss to the death of the great bossa nova composer Tom Jobim in 1994.
Thankfully his colleagues were having none of it and were quickly trying to identify who is this squad’s Amarildo – referring to the the player who came in for the injured Pelé during the country’s victorious 1962 campaign. “But where is this team’s Mané Garrincha? I don’t see one,” asked Juca Kfouri, referring to the other legend who led the ’62 side to a second world title in Chile.
Willian is Neymar's likeliest substitute, according to the encyclopaedic Paulo Vinicíus Coelho, with Felipão having even prepared for such an eventuality by having the Chelsea player step in for him during training sessions.
Amarildo was on hand to offer his own advice on how to replace the irreplaceable. "Whoever comes in should not think in trying to replace Neymar and just in giving his best," he told Super Esportes. "If he is in the Brazil squad, in a World Cup, then it is because he deserves it. I hope he has the same luck I had."
The former Botafogo man’s ‘luck’ is living proof of Brazil’s strength in depth. When Pelé limped out against Spain in a game where only victory would do Amarildo came on and scored twice to secure victory and keep the side rolling towards a second title.
Elsewhere there was plenty of anger directed at Juan Zúñiga, whose knee to Neymar’s third lumbar vertebra has proved so damaging to Brazil’s hopes of a sixth title. “Pure malice,” said Galvão Bueno on his post-match show on Globo. “It was malicious, an attack against art and against football.”
“A thug. He should be banned even from the Panini albums,” chipped in his guest, humourist Marcius Melhem.
But there was a welcome touch of realism about the events that led up to the Neymar incident which Globo and others were too quick to examine in isolation.
During the game the commentators on ESPN speculated that Spanish referee Carlos Velasco Carballo had been instructed to keep his cards in his pocket least he deny Brazil some of its stars for the semi-final. After all one of the players just a yellow away from missing the next game was Neymar himself.
The referee’s leniency was the signal for Brazil and Fernandinho in particular to get away with targeting Colombia’s playmaker James Rodríguez. Interrogated by Brazilian reporters after the match a somewhat sheepish Zúñiga defended himself by describing it as “that kind of game”.
"The incident and the image of the No. 10 contorted with pain obscure the truculence of Felipão's team, which fouled more than the Colombians," wrote Ricarrdo Perrone of Folha de S.Paulo.
In Colombia was well as pride at their team’s campaign there was widespread criticism of the Spanish referee, perhaps best summed up by the country’s injured striker Ramadal Falcao. “Next game remember to call a referee who today didn’t show up.”
