When the Swiss matched up with soccer juggernauts, Brazil, in their opening match, many eyes were rightfully on the most expensive player in the world, Brazil’s Neymar. The number 10 had completed his first injury plagued year in Paris for PSG, leaving the shadow of Messi behind him in Barcelona. In just 27 games in Ligue 1 and Champions League combined, Neymar scored an astounding 25 goals and 13 assists. After going out with injury in his native country during the 2014 World Cup, Neymar had a chance to re-introduce himself on the world stage. Enter Switzerland.
Despite lacking the star power of Brazil, the Swiss have a history of being a tough beat in World Cups and entered this tournament with a perhaps their strongest side in a long time. A plethora of strong players from some of Europe’s top leagues including Juventus’s Stephan Lichsteiner, Premiere League stalwarts, Shaqiri and Xhaka and promising youngsters from the Bundesliga Embolo and Elvedi. Despite this, Brazil was heavily favored and Neymar was expected to shine. The Swiss had other ideas and capitalized on a corner forcing the Brazilian favorites to win it all, to labor to a 1-1 draw.
While the Swiss will no doubt be thrilled with the start to their campaign, the have drawn severe criticism for their game plan, namely attacking Neymar and making him as uncomfortable as possible. The Swiss fouled the superstar 10 times and kept him from having any significant impacts on the match proceedings. The tactic employed by Vladimir Petković side has been called nothing short of distasteful and disgusting by many in the footballing world, begging me to ask, why?
Neymar is undoubtedly a top 5 attacking player in the world and the Swiss went after is vulnerability which is his lack of physical play. Every dribble was punished severely by Swiss defenders, opting to foul the tricky winger in favor of allowing him time and space to act on the game. The strategy is brilliant. Making a team beat you without the use of their best weapon is sports 101. It is said by many coaches at many levels in every team sport. It does not make for “great footballing” or “entertaining viewing” but the Swiss aren’t here for us or Brazil. They are in the World Cup to win it like the rest of the field and for once maybe prove their often dubious world ranking (currently 6th according to the Swiss based FIFA). I applaud Petković tactics and argue that despite the brutalization of Neymar, the likes of Marcelo, Firmino, Coutinho, and Jesus should have been enough to see of Switzerland. However, the lack of aggressive refereeing seemed to stun the normally graceful and flamboyant Brazilians, allowing the inferior Swiss to stay in the game.
While there are arguments to be made that the ref should have come down harsher on the Swiss, the fact is that he did not. Brazil had 90 minutes to adjust to the officiating and it never happened. In soccer, refereeing is notoriously inconsistent between the individual officials and here the ref chose to allow the physical conduct. While the Swiss thrived in these conditions, Brazil faltered. Instead of being harsh on the Swiss, I defend and celebrate their ability to play within the confines of an individual game, using the style of officiating to their advantage.
This match certainly will not sink the Brazilians. I fully expect them to come out with fire in their next match but will we see a repeat the later stages when the Brazilians come up against well organized and large European sides comfortable with mucking it up to get results or will they learn from this match and exorcise the demon that was the 7-1 thrashing by the Germans last time around? Early signs point to a repeat of past sins…
