Qatar 2022: Neymar Junior not missed as another Junior Vini orchestrate Samba party

Vinicius Jnr is skilful, extremely fast, well balanced, well built and though just 22, he is already recognised as a world-class scorer and maker of goals.

Qatar 2022: Neymar Junior not missed as another Junior Vini orchestrate Samba party
Vinicius Jnr

When it is all done and the histories are written, it will be remembered as the World Cup that was different. 

A tournament in which the unexpected became routine and so-called big teams tip-toed their way into games, trying to feel out the opposition before committing to adventure.

What Saudi Arabia did to Argentina, Japan to Germany, hadn’t gone unnoticed in the camp of the favourites, Brazil.

They started tentatively against Serbia in their opening game before realising the Serbs’ lack of pace was an invitation to up their tempo and get the job done. That was easy enough in the end.

Like Serbia, Switzerland play in red but they were a horse of a different colour. Well organised, hard-working and dangerous on the counter. And with Neymar an injured absentee, Brazil looked longingly towards Vinícius Junior, their brilliant Real Madrid winger.

He is skilful, extremely fast, well balanced, well built and though just 22, he is already recognised as a world-class scorer and maker of goals.

After Neymar, he is Brazil’s biggest star. When they’re both in the team, they work together on the left, weaving clever patterns and often creating danger. Occasionally it can seem like Neymar’s presence reduces his team-mate’s space, like two big men sharing one small office.

Against the Swiss, Vinícius had the chance to move to the centre of the stage, away from the shadow of his more illustrious team-mate. His problem was that Switzerland didn’t come to the 974 Stadium with the intention of standing to one side and letting him through.

The right back Silvan Widmer and right-sided midfielder Fabian Rieder were a two-man act, determined that Vinícius wouldn’t have much of an evening. If he got past one of them, the other was waiting. For 20 minutes, he played to their tune and so nothing much was heard from him.

Midway through the half, Widmer easily dispossessed him and that touched a nerve because Vinícius instinctively got ultra-competitive, made a strong but fair tackle and regained possession. From there the ball was played out to the right where Raphinha stood unmarked.

The pass for Raphinha was obvious as Vinícius had sprinted forward, leaving his two minders far behind. Yann Sommer reacted well to parry Vinícius’s shot around the post. That was his only opportunity during a first half where neither team was prepared to push too many forward for fear of being countered. Unlike Serbia, the Swiss were quick on the counter-attack.

Feeling that not much was happening for him wide on the left, Vinícius moved infield, closer to Richarlison, but that just made things worse. At least when he was wide on the left, the midfielders knew where he could be found. More central, he drifted out of the game. Soon he was back to his original post and that restored the team’s shape.

There are parts of his game that are not so good. There were two occasions either side of half-time when he was caught lazily offside. And when it comes to tracking back, well he just doesn’t do much of that. This is a Rolls-Royce, which no one thought to put in reverse gear.

Widmer cottoned on to this pretty quickly and overlapped, safe in the certainty that he was getting a free ride. The problem for the Swiss was a consequence of those very attacks. They came early in the second half and they encouraged the underdog to move to the centre of the ring and trade punches with the top dog. That was dangerous.

Suddenly the game opened up and Brazil were always likely to be the beneficiaries. The changed tempo certainly suited Vinícius. In the 64th minute, which was about the same time that Lionel Messi had done his thing against Mexico on Saturday night, Vinícius showed what a special player he is.

There seemed no real danger as Manuel Akanji and Richarlison challenged for a ball in the centre circle. The ball broke to Casemiro who played an intelligent first-time pass to Vinícius, flying towards goal, Nico Elvedi sprinting across to close him down.

As Elvedi neared his prey, you hoped he wouldn’t dare to go sliding in because Vinícius would see that coming and be too quick. Elvedi couldn’t resist. He slid and his opponent flew past, now alone with only Sommer between him and the goal. And in this moment, there was a look on Vinícius’s face that spoke of greatness, if not now then soon.

He nudged the ball forward, checked to see where the goalkeeper was, nudged it again, and then a third time before sliding it home with his instep. All the while his expression was lucid, calm, controlled. He could have been in an empty stadium, without opponents, without fans, running towards an empty goal and he would not have been any more comfortable in the moment.



After the celebration came the check. Richarlison had come from an offside position before challenging Akanji and that meant the goal was struck out. The memory of Vinícius’s brilliance, though, can never be banished. He would still play his part in Casemiro’s winning goal five minutes from the end.

It was a decent evening at the office for Brazil’s rising star.