La 1 and Dazn will bid farewell to either Erling Braut Haaland or Vinicius Junior from this World Cup. With five goals for the Norwegian and four for the Brazilian, modern football that demands total wingers brings them together in the area.
Wingers like Vinicius are no longer satisfied with dribbling, reaching the byline, and crossing. Positioned on the opposite flank mostly to shoot with their stronger foot, they are obliged by national team coaches and club managers to register respectable goal tallies. A significant number of assists is assumed. In line with current trends, Carlo Ancelotti has urged Vinicius not to get entangled by dropping deep to receive the ball in midfield, as sometimes happens at Madrid. The Italian coach prefers that he stick to the final 30 meters and avoid playing with his back to goal far from that radius. If he goes deep to the byline and crosses, good; if he cuts inside and scores, even better.
The four goals Vinicius has scored come from 15 shots, one more than Haaland. Ancelotti has designed this Brazil team for Vinicius to finish whenever possible and to verticalize and accelerate counterattacks. His dribbling stats are acceptable: 10 successful out of 28 attempts, and he has touched 35 balls in the area compared to Haaland’s 21. The legendary Romario, a prickly analyst just as he was in the box, and very critical of Vinicius for his low goal production with Brazil, has backtracked after the Canarinha’s first four matches. “In football we speak with numbers,” Romario told Brazilian outlet Extra last May; “at Real Madrid he is a key figure. But when he puts on the national team jersey, he is a different Vini. He is about to reach 50 caps and doesn’t even have 10 goals. So you can’t expect too much,” the prolific scorer, chosen best player and champion at the 1994 US World Cup, stated. “Actually, I want to make a statement here,” O Baixinho later added, “I had said in the past that a person who plays 50 games for the Brazilian national team and scores 10 goals couldn’t generate much expectation. I want to retract those words and congratulate Vinicius because he made me eat my words,” Romario now admits, a stubborn senator for Bolsonaro’s far-right Liberal Party in Rio de Janeiro. “For the football he is showing now, he demonstrates that he really knows how to play, and for me, today he is one of the five best players in the World Cup,” Romario elaborated in his praise of Vinicius.
The Rio-born winger has reiterated that with Ancelotti he has all the confidence he needs. On his shoulders rests being the star leading Brazil’s attempt to achieve a sixth world championship. By nature, the area belongs less to Vinicius than to the relaxed Haaland, who has printed the maternal surname Braut ahead of the paternal on his shirt. The voracious Manchester City goalscorer seems to be enjoying himself. A farewell from the competition tonight would not be as dramatic for him as for Vinicius and Brazil. Haaland might shake up social media with a Viking helmet or cheerfully wear a cowboy hat in a shopping mall. Intentionally or not, the City striker already lowered the pressure when he predicted that France would beat them in the third group match, which happened. “We have returned to a World Cup after 28 years and we can qualify for the quarter-finals,” Haaland said after the match against Ivory Coast, which Norway won (2-1) with his goal seven minutes from time.
In the five goals he has scored, everything that Haaland is has been appreciated: power to support counterattacks and instinct and finishing in the area. The Vinicius-Haaland duel, which FIFA had planned to delay from 4 pm to 5 pm local time, just as it intended to move the Mexico–England match six hours earlier due to fear of thunderstorms, will be held at the scheduled time, in the area and under inhuman heat.
Ståle Solbakken knows very well what Norway‘s surprising victory over Brazil meant during the 1998 World Cup. He was a substitute and watched from the sideline in Marseille as his teammates achieved possibly the greatest triumph in the history of Scandinavian men’s football. Now, as national team coach, he also knows that facing Brazil on Sunday in the round of 16 is very different from that group stage match almost three decades ago, when his powerful rival had nothing at stake. This time a place in the quarter-finals is at stake, and although Solbakken admits that it would still be a surprise if Norway eliminated the five-time world champions, it is a realistic possibility in a much more even duel. “I still see, obviously, that Brazil is the favorite but I don’t think it’s a huge, huge, huge favorite as it might have been a few years ago,” Solbakken said Saturday in a pre-match press conference. “Even so, we need to be at our best, best level. Otherwise, we have no chance. But if we are at our best level, then we have a chance.” Bookmakers support the 58-year-old coach’s assessment: Brazil is a slight favorite to advance and face the winner of the titanic duel between Mexico and England on July 11 outside Miami.
A Seleção has won three consecutive matches since opening the tournament with a draw against Morocco, also at the Meadowlands in northern New Jersey. Norway has its own victory at the stadium outside New York. It beat Senegal to advance to the knockout stage. Brazil coach Carlo Ancelotti described Norway as a demanding opponent due to its structure as well as its talent. Brazilian midfielder Bruno Guimarães commented that the Norwegians “have great players.” “They are not in the knockout rounds by accident. It’s not that we are not respecting Norway,” he warned. “We simply believe in our football. We believe in our country and we want to continue this dream.”
Norwegian striker Erling Haaland, one of the team’s stars, has five goals in the World Cup, 25 in his last 14 competitive internationals, and 60 in 53 appearances for the national team. His next challenge will be to unsettle the Brazilian defensive duo, Gabriel Magalhães and Marquinhos, which Solbakken described as one of the best center-back pairings in existence. “There will undoubtedly be some tough duels between them and Erling,” he foresaw. “But for me it’s more about Brazil against Norway and not those two against Erling.” On the other end, Brazil boasts a dangerous attack formed by Vinícius Júnior and Matheus Cunha, who have combined for seven goals in four matches. Asked to compare the 1.96-meter, 93-kilogram Haaland with “Vini,” who is 1.75 meters and 77 kilograms, Solbakken replied: “One is a machine: you see the accelerations and the great physique; and the other is more a dancer who can dance with the ball.” Guimarães called Haaland one of the best attackers in the world, in the same stratosphere as England’s Harry Kane. “He is really something else,” he warned. “We have to mark and attack. Yes, we have to attack, but we must make sure that someone stays with him, because with a single ball he can decide the match and we don’t want to allow that.”
Since this week, when Norway joined Brazil to train in New Jersey, both teams have been exposed to the heat wave hitting the East Coast. Solbakken indicated that temperatures, which have reached 37 degrees Celsius, have prevented players from going at full speed, but otherwise downplayed the effects. “It’s incredible heat, but we are still full of energy,” Solbakken said. “Actually, we haven’t noticed the heat at all.” Guimarães expects the heat to be a factor on Sunday, although rain is forecast during the night, which would lower temperatures to a maximum of 29.44 Celsius, and there is a chance of rain and thunderstorms. Brazilian midfielder Lucas Paquetá is not expected to play, having limped off at halftime and left the round of 32 match against Japan due to a hamstring injury. “We don’t have anyone else in the team with the same characteristics as Lucas Paquetá, so we will have to find someone,” Ancelotti said, although he refused to reveal his plan. Norwegian defender Julian Ryerson is a candidate to return after leaving early in the June 22 match against Senegal due to injury. He has not played since, and Solbakken was also reserved about whether he will include him in the lineup, except to say that Alexander Sørloth and Oscar Bobb are expected to participate at some point.
