The “world order” of football is shifting, Brazil’s coach Dorival Junior said ahead of a World Cup qualifier on Thursday against Venezuela.
“I don’t think we’ll have an easy game. Forget Venezuela, Bolivia recently. Right now the world order is changing a lot,” Dorival said on Wednesday in the Brazilian city of Belem where the team were training.
While pressure has been alleviated by Brazil beating Chile (2-1) and Peru (4-0) in the October double-header, the 62-year-old coach warned that they, like Argentina, had to recognize the earlier lost ground to previously easier opponents.
“South American football has grown a lot overall. If you look at the majority of the national line-ups, you see players playing in teams all over the world, which wasn’t the case until recently,” he said.
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“The top teams haven’t had as much room to grow, while the teams at the bottom are starting to make interesting and big strides. This is levelling things a lot and making the matches tighter contests.”
Brazil is still being forged under his watch, meaning its performance will “fluctuate” while that is being worked out, he said.
But Dorival said they were heading towards becoming a “safe”, “strong” and balanced team.
After a bad start in the qualifiers, losing half of its initial eight games in South America, Brazil swung back to beat Chile and Peru and is fourth in the table with 16 points after 10 matches. The top six South American teams directly qualify for the 2026 World Cup.
Brazil sits six points behind current leaders Argentina.
Venezuela ranks eighth in the table.
“We’re not in a totally favorable situation, we’re coming from behind... (but) we’re gaining a greater sense of greater structure in the team,” Dorival said.
After Friday’s game against Venezuela, Brazil is to play Uruguay next Tuesday.
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