In a few months' time, the night of Mar. 25 could be remembered in two ways. One is that after blowing a 2-0 lead at home against Uruguay, Brazil toughened up and looked at the positives from their best game in ages. However, it could also be analyzed as a wondrously squandered opportunity to get some much-needed breathing space in CONMEBOL qualification for Russia 2018; so far, the 10-team round-robin has been far from predictable and comfortable for the established nations.
Yet both perspectives will have something in common: David Luiz needs to go, at least from the position he currently occupies in the Selecao lineup. The PSG defender once again had a Jekyll and Hyde evening; to say that he was at fault in both Uruguayan goals is an understatement. Some Brazilian media commentators and fans were even ironically celebrating the yellow card that suspends Luiz for Tuesday's tricky trip to Paraguay, a game made more worrisome by the fact that they're currently level on points with Brazil (and Argentina, reinvigorated by their away win at Chile), fighting for third place in the current table.
Even friendlier Selecao writers couldn't mask a bad night for the national team. While fans could spend hours discussing how unfair it is to single out a player, a quick look at highlights from the Arena Pernambuco will show that a thrilling match got extra doses of suspense because of Luiz's erratic performance. Why he was always positioned so high on the pitch remains a mystery that only the PSG man, and maybe Dunga, will be able to elucidate. People would like to know the answer quickly because it pretty much led to the erosion of Brazil's lead, including Suarez's first-ever goal against the Seleção, which came in his first game for la Celeste since biting Giorgio Chiellini at the 2014 World Cup.
Since taking over for his second stint as manager in July, Dunga has shown a lot of patience towards Luiz. It was somewhat commendable that he simply didn't shun the defender given lingering concerns over his suitability ever since his quixotic performance against Germany at the World Cup. Dunga was certainly not oblivious to Luiz' inconsistency: some nights, he can hit a free kick like Zico and on others, he performs like the video game player controlled by a child, as Gary Neville once so brilliantly described him.
But the 1994 World Cup winner needed to tread carefully after inheriting a group traumatised by Brazil's spectacular implosion at the World Cup. Besides, Luiz personifies the "heart on the sleeve" so valued by Dunga and a lot of people in Brazil; people call it "amor à camisa" in Portuguese, which literally means "love for the shirt."
Yet Dunga's TLC never really trickled significantly towards Thiago Silva. The PSG captain seems to have been snubbed by Dunga and while he had a pretty poor Copa America, it is a bit harsh to simply close the door on him, especially when it's obvious that Silva is the best partner Luiz ever had at the Selecao's defense. The decision looks even more galling when you consider that one of the central defenders called up for the Uruguay and Paraguay games is Gil, who recently joined Chinese Super League side Shandong Luneng, with Inter Milan's Miranda and PSG's Marquinhos the remaining two.
But beyond Luiz, the bucket of ice water thrown on the Selecao's promising first half in Recife felt even colder as Neymar picked up a silly yellow card, meaning he is also ineligible to play on Tuesday in Assuncion. It's a major setback given how impressive the Selecao were in attack against Uruguay.
Dunga's decision to use Neymar, Willian and Douglas Costa upfront, a proverbial trio of swarming bees, looked vindicated with less than one minute on the clock as Brazil scored without giving their opponents a single touch on the ball. Of course the mission was made easier by the fact the Celeste played without first-choice center-backs Diego Godin and Jose Gimenez, but it was still impressive, in particular the switching of flanks between the Chelsea and Bayern Munich stars either side of Neymar.
Brazil could and should have killed the game in the first half, twice with Neymar and once with Costa. Instead, the Seleção went into the dressing room with a 2-1 lead that didn't look that solid. When the Uruguayans came out for the second half with a change in formation that Dunga wasn't able to respond to, the lead looked even flimsier. Oscar Tabarez switched from a 4-4-2 to a 4-1-4-1 in which Edinson Cavani not only helped close the weakness in Uruguay's left flank, eliminating any space for Willian, but it also gave Suarez freedom to roam in the final third, something he loves more than Italian shoulders.
The switch also helped contain Neymar and the Barcelona man struggled as a result. He got frustrated to the point of getting booked in the 62nd minute, his 14th yellow card in 70 games for Brazil. The Seleção would obviously rather face Paraguay with Neymar. Tuesday's opponents managed an important point away against Ecuador, the surprise package in the qualifiers so far (they lead the tournament with 13 points followed by Uruguay, with 10) and the Paraguayans have been bogeymen for Brazilians in the last two Copa Americas.
Surely, Brazil would also have loved to head to Assuncion with a win in the bag. Dunga certainly could have done without so many key decisions to make not only for the Paraguayan showdown, but also for the rest of this long and punishing tournament. After five games in qualifying, it looks unlikely that Brazil will have an easy ride in their quest to maintain a flawless World Cup attendance record.