Ancelotti to stay on as coach for Brazil’s major rebuild

NEW YORK: Brazilian FA (CBF) football director Rodrigo Caetano said Carlo Ancelotti would remain in charge through the 2030 World Cup cycle after Brazil’s 2-1 defeat by Norway in the last 16 on Sunday extended the five-times champions’ wait for a sixth title to at least 28 years.

Erling Haaland scored twice at the New Jersey Stadium to send Brazil home, triggering a fierce inquest into the team’s performance, Ancelotti’s decisions and the direction of Brazilian football.

For a country that measures football pain in four-year cycles, the finger-pointing began quickly.

Much of it was aimed at Ancelotti, who had only one year to reshape a side who had drifted through three interim managers while the Brazilian FA waited for him to leave Real Madrid.

But Caetano told Reuters the 67-year-old Italian, who extended his contract in May until the 2030 World Cup, would not be cast overboard after one storm.

“He is our manager and will be throughout this cycle,” Caetano said.

“One of the main reasons we failed in this World Cup was not to have proper, stable guidance long term that would have prepared our national team the way it should for a World Cup and we cannot make the same mistake again.”

Ancelotti’s decisions, however, offered plenty of material for the post-mortem.

He was criticised for allowing midfielder Bruno Guimaraes to take an early penalty, which he missed, and for leaving 34-year-old duo Casemiro and Danilo on until the end of a match in which Brazil looked heavy-legged and short of ideas.

Neymar makes little impact

His introduction of forward Neymar midway through the second half also did little to alter the match, beyond the forward converting a penalty deep in added time to reduce the deficit.

O Globo was scathing about Neymar’s exchange with Norway’s goalkeeper after the spot-kick.

“The scene of Neymar arguing with the goalkeeper after the penalty – with the score already standing at a level that, even if Brazil had scored, would have seen them knocked out of the World Cup – seems to reveal a man incapable of stepping away from his own reflection,” the newspaper wrote.

“There are people who need to be the protagonists of victory. Neymar seems to need to be the protagonist of failure as well.”

SporTV host Andre Rizek offered an even bleaker diagnosis.

“Brazilian football has hit rock bottom,” he said. “Brazil have gotten used to losing. We’ve lost to Senegal, Japan, Morocco, Colombia… Ran over by Argentina twice. It is official: we are living the worst moment in Brazilian football’s history.”

Folha de Sao Paulo said: “Ancelotti’s substitutions fail to rouse a sluggish and lethargic team” and noted that, according to Opta, Brazil’s 35% possession against Norway was their lowest in a World Cup match since records began in 1966.

For Brazil, the question now is whether this defeat becomes another scar, or the start of a major revival.