TOKYO —
Brazil is no longer relying on superstar Neymar to win games, manager Tite said
Sunday, with an Olympic gold medal-winning generation looking to step up at the
World Cup.
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Neymar underlined his
importance to Tite’s side by netting the 72nd and 73rd goals of his Brazil
career in a 5-1 friendly thrashing of South Korea in Seoul last week.
That took him within
striking distance of the legendary Pele’s record of 77 goals for the five-time
World Cup winners.
Tite played down
Brazil’s dependence on Neymar as his team prepared to face Japan in a friendly
in
Tokyo on Monday, saying a new generation of players are ready to share the
load.
“I have been in
charge of the national team for a long time, and in that time I have made lots
of mistakes and also made some good decisions,” he said.
“We have a new
generation coming through and one good thing I have done is to try out a lot of
players. Now we are not so dependent on one attacking player.”
Brazil won gold at
the pandemic-delayed
Tokyo Olympics last year, beating Spain 2-1 in the final
after extra time.
Olympians like
Richarlison and Bruno Guimaraes have broken into Tite’s senior squad, and
assistant coach Cesar Sampaio said it was a “happy problem” to have.
“The players with
experience and the players who won the Olympic gold here in Japan are now
coming together,” said the former midfielder.
“We have players with
a lot of speed and creativity, especially in attack.”
Brazil will be
looking to round off their two-game trip to Asia with a win against
Japan at
Tokyo’s Olympic Stadium on Monday.
Japan, who will be
playing at the venue for the first time since it was rebuilt to host the Games,
warmed up with a convincing 4-1 win over Paraguay last week.
Manager
Hajime Moriyasu said his players will have to be “brave and aggressive” to beat Brazil
— something Japan has never achieved in a full international.
“We want to make our mark at the World
Cup and the game against Paraguay was a start towards that,” said Moriyasu.
“We need to go
further than we’ve gone before and try to overcome our limits. I want the
players to do that tomorrow.”
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