LATE LATE GOAL! FULL REACTION: Brazil vs. Japan [Round of 32] | ESPN FC
Tune into ESPN FC's Mark Donaldson and Don Hutchison LIVE following Brazil vs. Japan in the Round of 32 at the 2026 World Cup. ✔️ Subscribe to ESPN Unlimited: https://plus.espn.com/ ESPN
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[music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] >> Hello and welcome to ESPN FC live presented by Mobile. My name is Mark Donaldson alongside Don Hutchison, the former Scotland international. The full-time whistle has just gone in Houston and Brazil left it late. Bruno Guimarães to Gabriel Martinelli. After Japan had taken the lead, Brazil pulled it back to 1-1 and then the Seleção with just 30 seconds of the added time officially remaining got the job done. To reflect, Don, where do you want to start with this one because it was probably a a game of two halves and we saw the real Brazil in the second half, but I thought Japan in the first half were outstanding. Well, it was complete roles reversed because Brazil have started games well and Japan have ended games well and it was a role reversal. I thought Brazil were better when they made the subs. Um I've seen a lot of Lucas Paquetá now to think that he's the weak link in this side. Um, I don't think he gets around the pitch enough. Casemiro was on a yellow card, so therefore he couldn't make a tackle for the goal that they gave away, but they recovered well. Ancelotti made good changes. I thought Bruno Guimaraes was outstanding and they had pace when Endrick come on. Obviously with Vini Jr. as well. So, listen, Ancelotti when the full-time whistle, he was cool as you like, but they were so much better Brazil in the second half. >> What did Japan do well in the first half in addition to the way that they pressed? >> Well, Maedas probably the quickest player in the tournament, I think. So, they they they tried to exploit Brazil's weakness and that's in their midfield because they can't get around the pitch apart from Bruno. And Bruno Guimaraes is not the quickest. He needs, you know, quick players around him. He he's got that when he plays at Newcastle with Joelinton or Sandro Tonali. You know, he's got players that can do the leg work, but he can control the tempo of the game. And with Casemiro and Paqueta, they just look short of getting box-to-box. They look short. They've got quality, don't get me wrong. But you can attack them through the middle and it was an absolute example on how you're going to score against this Brazil side when Japan broke through early on in the second half, uh, sorry, in the first half. Um, they went straight through the middle of Brazil's midfield and that's I think their weakness. >> Well, they've got older fullbacks and one of them, Danilo, went looking for a pass to Bruno. It was a pass that was never really on. Now, Casemiro at this stage had already been booked. He was booked in the 14th minute. We're heading towards the half-hour mark. This is the Japanese goal. And even if Casemiro was quick enough to get there, he probably would have had to have fouled, which would have meant another yellow card. And it's really good play. It's a super finish by Kaishu Sano to give Japan the lead after 29 minutes. But we'll get on to the Brazil winner in a second because that was a Japanese possession that led to Brazil scoring. This was a Brazilian possession that led to Japan scoring. >> Yeah, and and Danilo is is is a solid defender. He's He's still got a role to play because he's a good man-for-man marker. He's still going to you know, he's got a good understanding of the game. It was just a poor ball into midfield. You know, you're always taught from your coaches when you've got the ball in wide areas if you're a winger or a fullback, you never play a square pass because if you do and it gets intercepted, you put your whole team in your put your whole midfield bang in trouble. So, he'll learn from that. He's an experienced pro. He'll shrug it off. There's no drama. He made a mistake. We we we all make them in games. I think it's more how they recovered in the tactics from Brazil because they played it more like a European side. He must They must have had instructions from Ancelotti in the in the half-time team talk because the second half they put so many more balls in the box from wide areas. And then especially the first 10-15 minutes of the second half, Japan couldn't live with it. The intensity from Brazil was good because they weren't just slow and pedestrian and playing side yard passes or backwards passes just to keep your possession stats. They actually got it wide and put loads of crosses in and that's where their first goal come from. >> As a commentator, we have our opinions on games. I would have had Casemiro off at half-time as well as Paquetá. Paquetá was the one that was subbed and on came Endrick, which gave them more of a foothold in the game in a better area of the field. But how ironic the player that I and I'm sure quite a few others might have taken off Casemiro. Not only did he get the equalizing goal after 56, he nearly scored after 54 when it was cut back to him. There was a goalmouth scramble. Zion Suzuki, the goalkeeper, did well. But ultimately with Casemiro now becoming the second oldest goalscorer for Brazil at the World Cup, this kid Ancelotti, the manager, seems to know what he's doing cuz a lot of us maybe would have taken him off at half-time on a yellow card. >> Yeah, I I I I think we look at it from a football in perspective and think, "Right, he's on a yellow card. He's struggling in the game." But what you can't buy is the ability to score goals and Casemiro will never lose that. He's shown that all of his career. He showed it in England. He comes up with big goals, headed goals. And listen, he's fantastic when he breaks into the box. Now he's getting older, of course, so that's going to be a a limited time that he can do it. But when you're Ancelotti, you've got a decision to make and you think, "Right, he's on a yellow card. Do I take him off?" Then you put your footballing head on and go, "Well, actually, he's probably the only one from midfield that's going to get us a goal." Bruno had a chance with a header and it was a good save from Suzuki. But Casemiro's got that ability, whether it's wide free kicks to get in the box or corners to get in the box. And he proved it with a fantastic header at the far post. >> How good was the ball in from Gabriel? >> Great ball. Great ball in. You You know, when wingers put crosses in, they normally get to the byline and they whip them across and they stand them up or they or they drive them hard and low. It was a really good ball because it was a difficult area that Gabriel was in. Yes, it was on his favored left foot. And it just shows you the guy can play because if that was a midfield player or wide player put If that was putting it in with his left foot or right foot on the other side, you'd say, "Amazing cross." And it was because Casemiro was there, but he still had to be found. And the way he stood it up, he put a little bit of curl on it with his left foot and then he takes it away from the goalkeeper so the goalkeeper is then stranded. And then you rely on Casemiro's heading ability and of course he finished it. >> You spoke about the the number of crosses into the box. And that was evident prior to the goal because it wasn't just getting to the byline. A lot of them were coming from from deeper areas. So in addition to that, what else did Brazil do well against the Japanese side that dropped at least a good 10 yards deep? >> Well, a couple of things. The first thing is they upped the intensity. So they obviously had a half-time team talk from Ancelotti. He's obviously, you know, told them to sit down, relax for a couple of minutes, take a deep breath, and then he's probably got into them and said, "Look, we're going out of the World Cup as it stands. So are you going to you know, what we're going to do here? We're just going to go out and and limp out the competition? No, so you put fire in their belly, the intensity was there. The crossing was so much better. And what you have to do as a as a footballer, as an individual, or a coach and a team, you have to problem solve. You have to identify the opposition's weakness. And it looked like watching Japan today, their weakness was defending set plays or defending crosses into the box. Cuz when they went forward and they pressed and they broke well, they had so much speed, Japan. They If they had have went through, they would have caused a lot of teams problems. But Brazil had the ability to problem solve. And that that that's an under underrated skill. >> The intensity level. I'm glad you spoke about that because they upped it hugely Brazil in the first 15 minutes. And we've all seen wonderful goals over the years at the World Cup. We nearly saw another one. I mean, what a run. 58th minute, Vini hitting the post. It's a brilliant save by Zion Suzuki, the Japanese goalkeeper. But when he's in that mood, Don, he is just so much fun to watch. >> And And that's what they were lacking a little bit in the first half. They couldn't get him the ball. Now, if you're playing for Brazil and you look at wide areas, you think like, can I go right side? Well, I can every now and again. But you'd be tempted just to find Vini Jr. every single time because he's so good. And what you have to do with Vini Jr. and players like him, you have to get him the ball. So, your main job as a midfield player is to wrap it into Vini Jr. and then just say to him, go on, mate, just take players on. Casemiro will cover, Bruno will cover. Midfield players are full back behind him. They've got to give him the license to say, go on, mate, you just do what you do. Because the run that he made, he was chopped inside on his right foot, you think he's going to pull the trigger. Right at the last last second, he chopped again onto his left foot and then took the shot on the right. It was a fantastic save. But he's a player that whether he's playing on the left-hand side or as a false nine, he's a difference maker. He's a world-class player. So, get him the ball as much as possible. >> Then there was a It wasn't quite stalemate. It was it was Brazil with a lot of possession. Japan then got a little bit more advanced. They weren't as deep because they knew that they probably had to do something as well. I wasn't sure if I knew that there was going to be a winner coming. Um but when it came we spoke earlier about this, didn't we? About the the opening Japan goal came from Danilo, the Brazilian in possession. It was Ao Tanaka who had possession and I don't know what he's trying to do. He's he's he's rushed. He's trying to play out of trouble. He's dispossessed. It's it ends up at Bruno Guimarães. He finds Martinelli. It's a brilliant finish, but Tanaka's going to be sick tonight. >> Yeah, he thought he was Andy Robertson there for a while, didn't he? Giving the ball away just before half time and cost him Scotland making them go two nil down. Um what is he thinking? I mean, honestly, top-level players, you you've got to Football's not a manual mark. You can't say, "Look at the manual. Right, 44 minutes, where should I be? 56 minutes, where should I be? An hour, where should I be?" You got to You got to do the right thing. And if that means smashing a ball 60 yards up the pitch, then so be it. It's like everyone feels as though feels as though they're too cultured or they feel as though they're a dinosaur if they get rid. Who cares? Who cares? Because that one mistake has cost Japan. You've got to do the right thing. And then what When when you give the ball away to a team like Brazil and I and I've got to say, Bruno Guimarães is a lesson to any boy girl watching a game of football. Not It Listen, he's the best player at playing with emotion, don't get me wrong. So, I'm going to contradict myself slightly here because what what what when you watch Bruno Guimarães play, which I'm a Newcastle fan and I've and I've watched a million games that he's played, he plays with emotion. He plays with heart. But what he done with the pass to Martinelli, every young kid in the world would have thought, "The seconds left on the clock. I'm on the edge of the box. I've got it on my left foot. I've got a yard of space. I'm going to try my luck." And what he done was he done the right thing and put his cool head on and he thought, "No, Martinelli's in a better position. Slide one into him." So, it was a brilliant ball. Not Not because of the technique, not because it was the hard pass. It was a simple 10-yard pass, but he needed the brains to make it and he done that. >> Get your questions into us. Just drop them below and Rob, our producer, will go through them and we'll read out the best ones. Before we get to some of your questions, I wrote an article a couple of weeks ago, Don, for espn.com about Brazil 1982. They were widely regarded as the best team never to have won a World Cup. How does this Brazil team compare with others? >> No, well, if if you if you if you're trying to amalgamate these Brazil players into the '82 team or or or '86, there's probably only Vini Jr. that gets a game. Maybe you can you can have a conversation about Gabriel, but I mean, what was it back then? It was Socrates, it was Eder, Falcão, Jairzinho. >> Frightening. >> It's frightening team. Absolutely frightening team. Before you even you move on to the Rivaldo's, Ronaldinho's, Ronaldo's, you know, that that was an exceptional side as well. I think when you I I I I I had the conversation with the lads at ESPN the other day and and and I took it I I I said what I said and then when you come off there, you second-guess yourself a little bit and I go, "Oh, did I go a bit far there?" And what I said was, "Of all time, I think Vini Jr. would be in the conversation to play on the left-hand side for Brazil." Because when you look at Brazil's amazing players, they were like number nines or number 10s in the likes of Zico and Ronaldinho, etc., or number eights or or or fullbacks going forward and defenders. And left-hand side, I said, "I think he can get a game." And then when I got back to my hotel, I sort of had a little look and I thought, "Well, who played in the '80s?" It was Eder who played on the left-hand side. >> Yep. >> Sort of naughties, it was sort of Rivaldo but Rivaldo was sort of stroke left hand side front man. So I think there's a good argument to to say if you're picking a Brazil all time 11, I think it's fair to say Vinicius Junior might play on that left hand side. >> So one of the early questions that came in from from the viewers, this Brazil team doesn't win the World Cup, do they? >> Of course they can. Absolutely they can. There's no reason why not. I think I think they're in a bracket with Argentina. I think they're in a bracket with France and Spain. England I think have got a chance but I think they'll I think they'll go they've not impressed me. They didn't impress me at the Euros when they got to the final. So I think they'll go at some time. But there's no reason why they can't. When when you've got Ancelotti as your head coach and when you've got that trump card if you need Neymar off the bench to produce magic and when you've got that starting 11 that I think he might go with in the next game with Endrick and I think Vinicius Junior, it's just the midfield you think might just let them down but listen, you seen the atmosphere in the stadium and the fan those fans can drive them on. >> They will have Raphinha back if they continue in the tournament. To which game we're not quite sure. Next, it's Ivory Coast or Norway before we get into the intricacies of that, what's a better opponent for Brazil? The Africans or Holland and co? >> That's a hell of a question. That's a hell of a question. I think it might be Norway. I think that I think if they're choosing they might be Norway cuz I think the African sides have done amazing and I don't think they're far off winning a World Cup. I mean what have they got? I think nine of 10 went through. >> Nine of 10, yeah. >> Incredible. So it shows you the growth in >> They were the only one that didn't go through. >> Yeah, it shows you the growth in African football, how well they've done. You know, we were chatting at the 80s there and in the Italian 90, you look at the the African teams now, they've all got top I mean I mean top top players all playing at the very highest level and they're getting stronger with every tournament so I know it's Holland, I know it's Ødegaard. Um Brazil will respect both, absolutely. You've got to say and do the right things. Or sitting here, I don't know if you agree, I think it might be Norway. >> Loads of questions coming in now. Would you have brought on Neymar? He came on against Scotland, probably more as a token. We've won the game. The Honestly, the atmosphere in that stadium when he came on. It went from crazy to just lift the roof off. Um they didn't, they brought on Martinelli for Cunha after 66, who went on to score. Um and they brought on Endrick at half-time for for Paquetá. Would you have brought on Neymar at any stage in this game to try and unlock that defense? >> No, I I don't think Ancelotti could because it was the time. You know, it was 1-1 going into what, 94, 95 minutes? And it was like, right, you you can't just stick him on for 2 minutes knowing the chances are he's going to have to play all of extra time. No, I I think Neymar and I and I and I hate to say it because Father Time's never been beaten. But, you know, you can't afford to carry any passengers. So, I I think Neymar's the guy you turn to when you're comfortable in the game and you're right, mate. I mean, I I watched the Brazil game and and Neymar came on, I was watching it on TV. And the noise the Yeah, the noise coming through the TV when he came on was off the charts. He He's a guy you bring on with 10 minutes to go if you're losing the game. Always the guy you bring on with 20 minutes to go if you're two or three nil up. And I And I hate saying that because there's no disrespect there, but it just means Father Time's caught up to him. >> So, the early game tomorrow is Ivory Coast against Norway. We've already spoken about who you think might be the best for Brazil to face. Let's take the winners there, whoever they are. You've done your homework, you've looked at Brazil, you've seen two older full-backs that don't really bomb forward as much as Brazilian full-backs used to. You've seen Casemiro who doesn't have the legs that he used to. You've seen a a very potent front three. We don't know what's going to happen and when Raphinha is coming back. Ivory Coast uh or Norway, the winners of that are looking at Brazil and they're seeing the weaknesses where? >> Midfield. Right through the heart of their midfield because they can't get around the pitch. The the the the you know, what what you can't afford to do if you're Ivory Coast or Norway is play the color of the shirt. Because this team has not got aura like the past, you know, this this team doesn't frighten you in the tunnel. So, you if you're Norway or Ivory Coast, you've got to attack them and you've got to do it your way. And if you if you're going to go out, you go out if you're Norway and you do it the Scandinavian way. If you if you're Ivory Coast and and you do it your way and you've got tactically good players and you've got fit players, why not try and exploit Brazil's weakness, which is the middle of the park. At the same time, when you're trying to do that, you've got to have an eye on Vini Jr. You've got to have an eye on Raphinha if he's fit. You've got to have an eye on Bruno Guimarães. And you've got to think of the two center the back four is absolutely top drawer as well. So, you've got to Whatever happens with those two sides, you've got to do it your way. >> What about the Brazil lineup? Ancelotti will will analyze the opponent. We obviously don't know who it is yet. We'll find out um 24 hours from now. Santos at left back um played all right. Uh Gabriel and Marquinhos will keep their spot. Danilo wasn't great and a