Our football seems like a dance / A dance that humiliates the opposition / That’s what our game is / When we play with ginga!
Pele is the ginga expert.
He wrote a song called Ginga (lyrics above). He released an album called Ginga. (Two discs!) And earlier this week, in an interview with ESPN, he criticized Brazil’s national soccer team for its lack of ginga—the flair-infused, hip-swaying confidence that, he points out, the likes of he, Gerson, Rivelino and Tostao delivered at the 1970 World Cup.
“There is no ginga,” he declared, looking ahead to next month’s Copa America Centenario to be staged in the United States. “Other South American countries like Argentina, Chile and Ecuador now play more beautiful soccer than Brazil.”
That’s debatable. But what’s beyond dispute is Brazil’s romance with ginga, the best example of which came not in 1970 but in 1982, and, but for a few exceptions, hasn’t presented itself since.
Pele also claims that Neymar, who is just two goals shy of Zico—that specialist in futbol-arte—on his country’s all-time scoring list, is the only active Brazil international with ginga. And Neymar won’t even be at the Copa, opting instead to represent the Selecao at the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro.
“This is a big argument,” Pele told Sports Illustrated. “I don’t know exactly what to say…He belongs to Barcelona.”
It is Barcelona, beneficiaries of nearly 70 Neymar goals the past two seasons, that instructed the 24-year-old to play in one of the two closed-season tournaments for which he was eligible. Not surprisingly, he chose the Olympics and an opportunity to win a gold medal at home. But several of his Brazil teammates will participate in both competitions. Thus Pele’s bafflement.
That the Copa would be better with Neymar in it goes without saying. After all, one of the reasons for staging the tournament in the U.S. was the potential for big-economy enthusiasm generated by some of soccer’s biggest stars. The absence of one of them is a significant blow, although the strength of some of the other high-profile teams compels attention.
Lionel Messi and a strong Argentina side will play group stage matches in Santa Clara, Chicago and Seattle. Luis Suarez and Uruguay will be in greater Phoenix, Philadelphia and Santa Clara. James Rodriguez and Colombia will draw crowds in Santa Clara, Pasadena and Houston.
Then there is Mexico, which never fails to pack American stadiums.
El Tri has neither lost nor conceded a single goal since the October appointment of manager Juan Carlos Osorio and has named a strong group of players, including veterans Javier Hernandez, Andres Guardado and Hector Herrera, and youngsters Hirving Lozano, Jurgen Damm and Candido Ramirez, to their preliminary squad.
Thanks to a mostly kind grouping alongside Uruguay, Jamaica and Venezuela they’re likely to progress at least as far as the quarterfinals, where an appointment with one of Argentina and Chile will likely await.
Given the hype Euro 2016, which will mostly run concurrent to the Copa America Centenario, is sure to produce, the latter event could surely use an extended showing from Mexico to help maintain enthusiasm, especially if the United States goes out early.
To that end there is a chance, and not a small one, that this Copa could rather fizzle out by the third week of June, especially if the presumptive contenders are eliminated before the semifinals. The one-off nature of it (and it shouldn’t be a one-off; a combined CONMEBOL-CONCACAF tournament should be the template going forward) isn’t ideal, nor is the timing. Neymar’s absence completes the unhelpful trifecta.
Incidentally, Brazil will still provide reasons to follow the competition. Perhaps Gabriel Barbosa—Santos’ “Gabigol”—will bring the ginga Pele insists is lacking. And, if nothing else, another staid, uninspired display will hasten the departure of manager Dunga that already seems inevitable. Corinthians boss Tite will no doubt be watching that particular development.
Overall, the Copa America Centenario is likely to be more quirky than memorable, more a curiosity than a marvel.
It could be fun, but three weeks out it seems every bit an event without ginga.
Sportsnet’s Soccer Central podcast (featuring Thomas Dobby, Brendan Dunlop, John Molinaro and James Sharman) takes an in-depth look at the beautiful game and offers timely and thoughtful analysis on the sport’s biggest issues.