Spain fell once more at the final hurdle in the Under-17 World Cup. There is an easy way, though, to show the limitations of results at this age level.
In the 2003 version of the tournament, held in Finland, Spain went down 1-0 to Brazil in the final. To the winners, however, the spoils were tiny. The point of all age-limit football - and especially the Under-17s - is player development. Results come a poor second. And that Brazil team were a mediocre bunch, solid and physically strong, who scrambled home the only goal of the match from a set-piece. Not a single one of them went on to play a serious competitive game for the senior Brazil side.
Spain, meanwhile, unleashed David Silva and Cesc Fabregas. They also began to consolidate a possession-based idea of play that many at the time thought was no longer viable. So much of the focus of Brazil's game was on the physical development of football, how there was less time on the ball and space on the field, and that therefore possession-based football and small central midfielders were no longer relevant in the modern game. There was a genuine fear at the time that football was turning into a sport for bulked-up robocops. Thankfully, Spain took a different route. And after they had lost to Brazil in that 2003 Under-17 final, Spain coach Juan Santisteban said “we were the Brazilians today.”
With the benefit of hindsight it seems obvious that Spain were the genuine victors of that 2003 competition. Brazil’s triumph was short-lived – a lap of honour and then into the history books. Spain, meanwhile, with faith in their ideas, went on to conquer the world – and see those ideas take root elsewhere. The remarkably successful re-boot of the German national team has massive Spanish influence. And that debt jumps off the pitch watching newly-crowned Under-17 champions England and their magnificent midfielder Phil Foden, a David Silva made in Manchester.
There are, of course, dangers in achieving such success so early. Many Under-17 stars have failed to make the transition to senior greatness. There are all sorts of obstacles to be overcome, some of them physical, others emotional. Most long-term success stories have their roots in defeat.
If Brazil’s 2003 Under-17 side is a perfect example of short-term success followed by long-term failure, then its exact opposite is the 2009 team. Neymar was already an established first-team star at Santos when he travelled to Nigeria to spearhead the Brazilian challenge. Alongside him was Philippe Coutinho of Vasco da Gama, already acquired by Inter and the subject of massive hype.
On the field, though, it all went wrong. Brazil opened up with a win over Japan – the rival goalkeeper making a catastrophic blunder in the last minute of stoppage time. And then they lost 1-0 to both Mexico and Switzerland, and failed to make it to the knockout rounds. Of 24 teams, Brazil were one of just eight eliminated after the group phase, because an attack of Neymar and Coutinho was incapable of scoring a goal when it mattered. And there was no ill luck involved. So ineffective was Neymar that he was taken off in the second half of both defeats because he was unable to make an impression on the game.
And now, operating behind Gabriel Jesus, Neymar and Coutinho form the most attractive and effective attacking force that Brazil have fielded for years. A little bit of failure was therefore good for them – especially, perhaps, for Neymar. He received a painful lesson – global football was of a higher standard than the contemporary Brazilian game.
For a while, this experience appeared to inhibit his displays against international opponents, be they clubs or countries, and it probably helped ensure that he stayed with Santos for longer than he would have done otherwise. But the step-by-step approach appears to have paid off. When the Lionel Messi/Cristiano Ronaldo World Player of the Year award is finally challenged, Neymar would seem to be the one most likely to break it. And a couple of unhappy weeks in Nigeria will form part of the story.
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