The sensational showcase of fascinating world cup qualifying is reaching its boiling point ahead of Christmas with the return of history’s most prestigious rivalry, old enemies Brazil vs Argentina. This duel beyond its traditional legacy and unique intensity, underlined a major vision in calibrating the identity of world’s purest footballers of the recent era; Messi vs Neymar, two iconic dimension of Barcelona’s extraordinary “front trio” dynamic while their fair share of golden storyline is becoming ultimate champions, but in a rare international occasion they inspired to fire against each others as two traditionally fierce competitors in the most heated up road to 2018. the Brazilian gradually redeveloped a vital collective identity since the start of this qualifying campaign by indicating a tactical clarity, technical vision and productive leadership that appeared so promising so far and it proved also to be their inspiration against their rival in a remarkable fashion. the adaptation of Neymar as the auxiliary wide playmaker along side of Gabriel Jesus and Coutinho in the dynamic front trio was amplified to produce by cohesive three men midfield of Renato Agusto, Paulinho and Fernandinho behind them to generate a wonderful balance of delightful high tempo pace and possession interchanges in attacking transition with so much confidence and determination. their performance was aspired to characterize their quick and sharp reactive style, offering mobility to win space off the ball and alternating quick build up in the midfield to open up wide runs and generating speedy combination in reliance of Neymar drifting inside to orchestrate fluid penetrative interchanges with skillful Coutinho and Jesus to exploit Argentines as much they could. their rival apparently struggled to redefine the change of transition despite initiating their possession attempt, Messi mostly was pushed away by Brazilian double pressing across the flanks as he was being limited to orchestrate press-breaking interchanges with Di Maria with intension of find pivotal space behind Marquinho and Miranda central partnership, which technically failed as the center backs stood firmly all the way to the end. Mascherano‘s deployment into central passer in the middle of two creative playmakers witnessed a poor reflection on their passing build-ups that was seen in the lack of passing continuity, inconsistent change of winning space in transition and ineffective passing runs, which gradually vanished Argentina’s reaction to cover the gaps against their fantastic host side. Neymar hit the first chance when showed a nice touch to pick up Paulinho centrally before midfielder short cross was momentarily cleared by defense and after quick exchanges between Agusto and Alves off the rebound a long range effort by the first lad went over the bar, but the host rewarded soon for their opener. the slow and patient build up from defense offered vital opening runs for midfield as Marcelo played Neymar out wide on the left and Barcelona’s delightful defense splitting touch suddenly was combined with Coutinho’s flexible change of pace to break inside three markers with a fine run before smacking his beautiful long range effort that teared the underside of the far post to lead Brazilian; it was a simply brilliant mix of timely pace and crafty passing from two creative attackers. Argentina deemed even further from showing any clear idea and flash of penetration to threaten the host side and it was eventually led to wider gaps for Neymar, Coutinho and jesus to become more comfortable switching dangerous runs. midway through the half a long ball over the midfield had Coutinho to beat Manes challenge to win a forward run and playing Neymar to fly on the right flank before his dazzling footwork to dribble two defenders left him with a close angle shot but it hit the outside wide post, near the half time they scored the second goal. another counter from left involved Jesus to lay the ball perfectly down to his path while furiously cutting deeply with full speed and vision to stretch Argentina’s back line before slicing a fine defense splitting ball for Neymar’s open run and he neatly finished into the near post to ensure the host it was their wonderful effort of returning some memorable memories to their fans. the visitor’s rare intent of sparking some flashes came when Biglia’s powerful long range shot from outside after exchanging with messi was saved by Alisson at the far post before Enzo Perez 30 yards attempted shot went wide that seemingly offered their best all the way to the end. after interval the host continued their ambitious attacking movements with aim to further disjoined Argentina’s midfield play, while Argentines showed eagerness to create equally on their part, first Neymar dazzled on the left byline freely before his short wide play wss connected with Jesus flick just inch outside, then later Agusto anticipated a fine before pausing and linking with Paulinho’s energetic run to penetrate into the middle space and his through ball for Neymar was deflected back to him when rounding Romero but his final touch was saved by Mascherano; on the other side Higuain won the midfield play to link with Perez on the right before his link up with Messi In the middle led Barca man a time to combine with Di Maria’s quick run on the left, but his close angle shot only hit the outside bar ; earned the third goal eventually. Paulinho once again engineered an exciting passing combination to offer Marcelo an open space on the left as Real Madrid left back crossed a fearsome inswing ball which simply exploited Argentina’s sluggish back line to be even more dismantled miserably as Funes Mori got caught to and Mas failed to track the speed of the ball across the post and it allowed Augusto redirecting it to the center as Paulinho smashed it to the top corner. The goal definitely killed Argentines and the host side managed to seal a brilliant win so crucial for keeping their unbeaten streak record in leading the race and gaining a moral boosting advantage over their old rival, whose horrible qualifying journey is on the verge of possible elimination. The resulted briefly embraced Brazil’s highly promising transition of team selection, tactical cohesion and vital appearance of end product efficiency; missing factors that sank and vanished their performances in major international competitions over long run; but since Olympic gold medal they rejuvenated a desirable collective identity with a rapidly ambitious vision of adoptive transitions focused primarily by the integration of enthusiastic talented generations such as Coutinho, Paulinho, Jesus in a fine mix with experienced stars like Alvez, Marcelo and David Luiz as the true leaders of selecao would be a major inspiration to return some glorious days; Neymar now has perfectly adapted into the heart of attack as a sheer playmaker with his incredible skills, vision and rhythmic runs in front of the midfield to ignite flair and productivity in the final third. when being a wide striker that drifts inside flexibly, becoming a central attacking creators behind the two strikers or roaming across the flank to interchange with joined deep passers and wingers in the mould of four interactive creators the Barca man is excelled in all of those tasks, Coutinho and Jesus excitingly have amplified extra flash of creativity to their penetrative dimension of technical capabilities courtesy to instinct dribbling skills, high change of pace and combination mobility when opening runs up front; the features particularly have inspired a dynamic movements proven so ideally in a reactive and transition style of play, it remarkably enhances the spell of possession for the generating the open runs of Alves and Marcelo to become wing back when Augusto, Paulinho and mostly Coutinho igniting crafty short interchanges from a bit deep wih their constant rotation to win quick touches and dictating the pace of passing to press defense, the crafty overlap plays and sharp wide crosses are offered by Juventus and Madrid wide men pushing high to join three centrally shifted passers as five attackersgst on the ball. Brazil looks promising to enjoy their road to Russia, but in contrary Argentina apparently are viewed sluggish, tactical lackluster and inconsistent most often; Messi and Di Maria on their part produced emphatic moments but their link up play and runs relatively suffered from the absence of real penetration punch with neither Perez, Banega and their central holding passers would spark the vital sharpness and continuity to their possession in attack and even Higuain’s dazzling plays sometimes looked predictable under intense pressing play, the fact reasonably is suggesting the return of fit and effective Aguero to their dimension of front trio to sustain a far more effort quality interchanging between him, Messi and Di Maria if they are eager to hold on their interactive 4_3_3 approach with possession seemingly appeared as their main approach; therefore the pivota appearances of speed and freshness must be sparked to adapt their dynamic vision. The widely lack of intelligent passing coordination that deemed their buildup play has caused by poor midfield set up, Mascherano doesn’t posses the versatility of deep holding passer that requires dual task of winning press and opening passes into midfield, he is an ideal defensive holding drifter behind three men, in fact with his strong tackle, reading spaces and winning balls will boost the shape of defense and either Biglia or Banega are more adapted to fill the central passer pisition with their vision of holding the ball and contribution of initiating play, so the change of midfield brings a difficult challenge to improve Argentina with many talented options on the bench that haven’t reach a clear instruction and vision to generate mobility for their Messi, Di Maria as it was the case so far; more worryingly was the display of back line that often were easily broken apart by opponents, they are fraction short of timely reading the play, poor tendency to switch and tracking press line across the flanks and seemed slow to control the pace of opponent’s movement.
