But Jesus big enough for Flamengo, the Brazilian mass club, for its mythology and for its pathological obsession with victory. The Portuguese did not undeterred the relentless hysteria surrounding the Flamengo. He was calm and confident enough not to feel reduced by the legacy that imposed him and that weighed on him and the club.
In his first competitive home game at the Maracana, a compact Flamengo swept Goias, 6-1. The score was emphatic, but it was his new proactive football logo that captured the attention of Flamengo fans, whose arrogance and boasting have been part of the club’s identity.
Flamengo played a fashionable football, even though everything entered the era of first-class collectivism. His defense played on the top line, his team searched for the property and attacked. These characteristics deserve to be evident in fashionable football, where the 3 p of ownership, tension and positioning are fashionable, but in a Brazilian context, they are anything. Despite all its success, Brazilian football has been deeply conservative.
The Maracana impressed. Enthusiasts appreciated the team’s success. They had been at a disadvantage in quality football for too long. Now that he was back, they were drinking it.
The next twelve months have become a long parade of victories. The concepts of Jesus have beaten and disappointed the paradigms of Brazilian football. The local training elite simply had no answer. The striker Gabigol and his performance of Bruno Henrique have become the protagonists of the campaign, but the Spanish midfielder Pablo Mari has been the key to the good luck of the Flamengo formation. Its speed and versatility have allowed flamengo to touch this top line and move like a compact unit while maintaining the narrow space between the lines. In Brazil, strong central defenders tend to sit down.
In the air of a Maracana Serenade – “Mister, Misteeeeeer” – Jesus and Flamengo won the national crown with ease. They conquered the continent in the maxim of the Copa Libertadores for centuries. In Lima, the largely impotent Brazilian club opposed the River Plate of argentina Array, an opponent who exercised all the mastery and cunning of a protective champion and possibly the most productive team in South America in the last decade, but in a moving final A double “Gabigol” made a very good comeback 2-1.
The colour intensity and importance of these latter objectives were extraordinary. The strength of the error-free star, the unconditional loyalty of pure enthusiasts. It’s the ecstasy of football. Flamengo has been released. Finally, the club had a fashionable reaction to its excellent past. Jesus had brought a deeper reflected image to the organization of the flamengo. Even with their backs to the wall, their players have remained relentless in everything they’ve done.
In the club World Cup final, he faced Liverpool, maintaining a game that was tactically and technically refined, but left enough room for self-expression. With more than 40 million enthusiasts and a giant trophy showcase, Europe was beginning to be noticed: will Brazilians be the first outdoor superclub on the Old Continent?
But by 2020, things have changed. The Maracana is no longer in party mode, but the soil has become a site for a cash hospital to treat covid-19 patients.
Even in the field, doubts have infiltrated. Flamengo’s march to the crown of Carioca, the local state championship, was never in doubt, but Mari’s departure for Arsenal replaced the dynamics of the entire team. Its replacements, Leo Pereira of Athletico Paranaense and Gustavo Henrique de Santos, are fresh Brazilian central protectors, which protect in and around the surface. They don’t offer the same speed. As a result, Flamengo’s aerial play slowed down.
Last week Jesus was confirmed the march of Jesus to Benfica. At 65, Jesus found himself at the center of the pandemic at a club where the game staff did not fully have compatibility with his principles. After winning the right to show off locally in the Carioca Championship, coaching Benfica in their local Portugal presented a sublime result.
The austerity of former President Eduardo Bandeira de Mello has greatly benefited Flamengo, but building hegemony in Brazilian football is difficult. There has never been a Bayern Munich or Juventus in the Brazilian league. Previously, Palmeiras and Sao Paulo had failed in their superiority in winning mode. Why would Flamengo be different?
Jesus’ successor will go a long way in defining the long-term direction of the club. Along with Fleitas Solich, Claudio Coutinho, Paulo César Carpegiani and Carlinhos, the Portuguese is one of the most successful coaches in the history of Flamenpass. The Brazilian champion wants a new miraculous type that reflects the triumphs of Jesus and tames a progressive philosophy.
Going back to the guy and appointing an established local coach is not an option. To compete in the level, Flamengo just wants to keep soaking up new ideas.
I’m an independent football journalist in Belgium. I have traveled to more than 20 countries to report on the match. This summer I went to Azerbaijan for Europe