Preview: Brazil prepare for game two against Haiti

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By Ian King

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Brazil need to improve after being shut out by Morocco 

Well, it wasn’t quite the triumphant kick-off that the Seleção would have hoped for. Brazil rather limped to a 1-1 draw against Morocco in their opening match, reliant on a moment of brilliance from Vinícius Júnior to rescue them from another otherwise anaemic performance during which they were dependent on an excellent late double-save from Alisson to preserve a point. 

And if anyone was thinking that Haiti will be a pushover in this group, their performance against Scotland demonstrated that they’re not in North America merely to make up the numbers. A narrow defeat in their opening fixture leaves them still very much in the competition, and their confidence will likely have been fuelled by the result of Brazil’s opening fixture. 

The Group C table prior to the second round of games

Brazil’s record against Haiti is predictably one-sided

These two teams have met on three previous occasions, and the upshot of these meetings is not very encouraging for Haiti. Their first meeting came in a warm-up game for the 1974 World Cup finals in Brasilia, with a further two coming in Port-au-Prince in 2004 and Orlando in 2015, in a Copa America group match. Those three matches finished 4-0, 6-0 and 7-1 to Brazil.

Raphinha had an injury-disrupted season, but now is his time to shine

All eyes will be on Vinícius Júnior following his goal in their opening match, but one of his attacking foils, Raphinha, deserves greater attention. He had something of a disrupted season with Barcelona, with a recurring hamstring injury limited him to just 22 appearances in LaLiga, but he scored 13 goals in that 22 from the left-wing and he’s plenty capable of both scoring and creating. 

If there was a transformative moment in Haiti’s road to qualification, it was probably persuading Jean-Ricner Bellegarde to switch his international allegiance from France to Haiti last autumn. The Wolverhampton Wanderers midfielder was their main creative outlet against Scotland, and he can play in either a defensive or attacking midfield position, or on the left-wing, and he’s a player who Brazil neglect at their peril. 

Bellegarde’s heat map vs. Scotland

Not for the first time, Brazil’s World Cup injury gossip largely concerns Neymar

The big story regarding the Brazil squad throughout this group stage will concern Neymar. Having battled his way into their squad with a series of decent displays for Santos despite undergoing knee surgery in December, he suffered a calf injury in May, which has led to intense speculation over whether he’ll play at all in this tournament. 

At the moment, it seems that he will miss the group stages at least, though he is back in training. Now 34 years of age, the decision to select him ahead of such established players as Gabriel Jesus and Richarlison was a gamble, and there’s been little indication yet that it’s going to pay off. 

Carlo Ancelotti is expected to make changes for this match, and there was something slightly ominous about him saying that his players’ “nerves were all over the place” in the post-Morocco press conference. He signed a contract extension to 2030 shortly before the start of this tournament, but the likelihood of him seeing that through will be severely diminished should Brazil not go deep. 

The Haiti head coach Sébastien Migné has no injury or suspension worries ahead of this match. If there was a controversial decision surrounding their opening match, it was his decision to omit striker Duckens Nazon, who’s their all-time record goalscorer, with 44 goals in 82 appearances for them. He’s had fitness issues of late, but may return for this match.

Brazil need to prove that their opening performance against Morocco was the exception rather than the rule

Expectation levels in Brazil ahead of this tournament were as high as ever, but the team’s performance in their opening fixture against Morocco was sub par, so the big question mark hanging over their heads as they go into this fixture is whether this was just a slow start or a sign of something more endemic within their squad. 

What they absolutely can’t afford to do is turn in more performances like the one they managed against Morocco; lifeless, lethargic, and dependent on a moment of brilliance to rescue them from what otherwise might have ended up an extremely embarrassing defeat. Morocco was not the jogo bonito that is implicitly promised by the team, and they now need to turn up the heat against one of the tournament’s biggest outsiders. 

Haiti’s narrow margin of defeat to Scotland means that their tournament is far from over, though it may start to look this way should they get obliterated in this match, so we can expect them to set up in a more defensive formation than they did in their opening fixture. Keeping the scoreline respectable would give them a puncher’s chance, going into their final match.

This should be a comfortable win for Brazil, but the first week of their tournament has raised one or two questions. Was the decision to select Neymar in the squad altogether wise? Were their poor performances against Morocco an exception or the rule? I’m going for a fairly comfortable 2-0 win for Brazil, but for any questions concerning whether they can actually win this tournament to remain unanswered.

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(Cover image from IMAGO)

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