Brazil vs Colombia: Neymar a victim of Brazil's own tactics

There is no justice in football, and the team that plays beautiful football does not win every time. Usually such commiserations are for Brazil, whenever they suffer a loss against lesser footballing nations (i.e. everybody else). But in the World Cup 2014 quarterfinal against Colombia, these would be the lament of Colombian supporters and neutrals alike. Perhaps for the first time in living memory, a Brazilian team was set up with focus firmly placed on stopping a flowing game, in a style often labelled 'Anti-football'.

Fernandinho was given the clear mission of stopping James Rodriguez, a job the Brazilian performed painfully well. Nevertheless, Rodriguez is in the form of his life, and no amount of suppression could mask his quality. The fact that he could only create one goal for Colombia must be seen as success for Brazil.
The Colombians dished it out too on Neymar, as all teams are unfortunately expected to do. On another day the offences on Neymar would have resulted in a Colombian sending off along the way and advantage for Brazil. But the consequence of Brazil's militant tactics meant that the referee was denied the use of yellow or red cards to control the game. Who do you book when everybody's at it, without reducing the game to a 9 vs 9 farce? It set the tone for a game in which eventually Neymar (and less directly Thiago Silva) were collateral damage.

That Brazil are doing this on home turf in front of an adoring crowd is remarkable, and while it is easy to condemn team manager Luiz Felipe Scolari's desecration of samba soccer, one must also acknowledge his courage and pragmatism in adopting such tactics.

What matters is that Brazil won. The tarnish on the image of samba soccer is a small price to pay, and probably made up for by success. But the direct consequence of losing Neymar and Silva (the two players most important players in the team) would be felt in the next round against Germany.

Perhaps, to Colombians at least, there would be justice in football.