After ousting Mario Manezes last week, Brazil have reached back in time to appoint "Big Phil" Scolari as the new manager of the Brazilian National Team. I guess they're trying to bring back some of that '02 magic, but Brazil are hardly a shadow of that team. That '02 team of Lucio, Edmilson, Cafu, Gilberto Silva, Roberto Carlos, Ronaldinho, Rivaldo & Ronaldo was nothing short of spectacular & were a sheer joy to watch (And to play with in the 2002 FIFA World Cup video game I played the shit out of).
The way I see it, there's a big gap between the old guard (Ronaldinho, Kaka, Robinho, Lucio, Juan, Maicon, Elano, Luis Fabiao, etc.) and the new guard (Neymar, Ganso, David Luiz, Ramires, Leandro Damiao, Oscar, Lucas Moura, Pato, etc.) in Brazil. They're relying to much on a substantial group of twenty-somethings & expecting them to perform incredibly every time, which is just not going to happen with a team that has pretty much zero international tournament experience (Olympics don't count, U-23). Yeah the old guard underperformed mightily at the '06 & '10 World Cups, so there's that, but relying on such a large group of younger players just spells disaster. What really hampers this team is that they're already qualified for the '14 FIFA World Cup because they're the host nation, so they miss out on the invaluable experience of playing each of there South American counter parts twice over the next few years & experience some very hostile environments & teams that could help them grow together more as a team. At least they get the Confederations Cup next summer which should be a good measuring stick to see where they stand, but missing out on the South American round robin is going to hurt them mightily in experience even if they don't have to deal with half of there team probably going to the hospital at some point from dirty play.
