WHEN Gabriel Martinelli first broke into the Arsenal squad in 2019, some of their fans started calling him by a blasphemous nickname. 'Messinelli'. At a time when the North London club were going through an identity crisis, the Brazilian was a silver lining amid a line of thunderstorms. On Monday afternoon, the Arsenal winger, who has seldom come up trumps for the Selecao after making his debut in 2022, produced his biggest one yet in front of a heaving Houston Stadium.
On as a sub in the second half, the 25-year-old found his composure from the edge of the box to arrow his shot across the keeper after being set up by Bruno Guimaraes in the sixth minute of added time. After toiling their way into the contest — thanks to an equaliser from Carlos Casemiro — the five-time champions threatened the Japan goal on a regular basis but the match increasingly seemed destined for extra-time and penalties.
That's when Guimaraes and Martinelli combined to send the Stadium as well as the dugout into delirium. After the final whistle, the Japanese players looked crestfallen. They had given a good account of themselves but perhaps retreated into their shell way too early. From a Brazilian perspective, the result sent them into the last 16 but the performance, especially in the first half, left a lot to be desired.
Twice in the first 40 minutes, two Brazil players ran into each other with the ball nowhere in the vicinity. Watching their first-half, you wanted to take your head and collide against a wall. They had two times more possession than Japan (68-32), almost 2.5 times more passes (333 and 141), more shots (8 to 4) and more xG (0.31 to 0.21) but it was all tedious. Everything they were doing was taking them down a cul-de-sac. The forwards, whose twinkling foot dazzled against Scotland, couldn't find any rhythm in the final third.
In the stands, Ronaldo (the OG one) and Ronaldinho may have been forgiven if they wanted to swap their suits and formal wear for the their famous yellow. Their midfield, as was suggested before the game by pundits worldwide, was non-existent. And, so, that came to pass when Kaishu Sano carried the ball over 40 yards after a Brazilian error before finding the bottom right corner from the edge of the area. The way he raced Casemiro brought back Jamie Carragher's famous quote with respect to the midfielder. "I always remember the saying 'leave the football before the football leaves you.' The football has left him," he had remarked during a TV show in 2024.
But Casemiro, who has enjoyed a late career surge thanks to the way he attacks the ball with his headers, headed home after smart work from Gabriel Magalhaes. Post that equaliser, it was all one-way traffic. And they were rewarded in the end for showing more ambition. However, they will need to show a lot more if they are to be taken seriously in a tournament stacked with talent elsewhere.