MOSCOW: At the last World Cup Germany registered the most perplexing result in football history, battering the spiritual owners of the game, Brazil. Joachim Low’s team thrashed the hosts 7-1 in the semifinal to leave a nation 
in tears. 

“It was sour, it was really a strong blow that Brazil and Brazilian football in general suffered, but one that has been digested and that unfortunately can’t be erased,” Claudio Taffarel, Brazil’s goalkeeping coach and 1994 World Cup winner told Arab News. “The 7-1 that Brazil suffered at the hands of Germany is very much part of the statistics. You live with this trauma. The past was negative, but today it is positive. We have to think positively.” 
Brazil’s new coach Tite has rejuvenated Brazil after the years lost under the Carlos Dunga regime. Tite, appointed in 2016, modified his predecessor’s defensive and counterattacking style to play a more expansive game. Real Madrid’s Casemiro, shielding the defense, and Gabriel Jesus, with his daring pace in the 
final third, have become key figures in Brazil’s 4-1-4-1 system.
“They began playing with Tite’s ideas and from there the results followed,” said Taffarel, who has been a part of Brazil’s backroom staff since 2014. “It was the manner in which he approximated himself to the players, you know, how he talks with the players, how he transmits his ideas to the players. That coach-player, player-coach language is very important, there has to be an understanding. The players understand what Tite does.” 
Brazil’s passage to Russia came about thanks to topping the South American World Cup qualifying table, but Tite’s merits transcends results. He restored Brazil’s ball-playing tradition, valuing process and performance over the scoreline.
“To win you need to be prepared. Afterwards, on the field, it’s logic that you have to deserve it, in the sense of playing with the ideas that he transmits during the week and on the eve of the game and in line with the opponent. If you get all that and play good football, the merit comes, and that means so will the victory,” Taffarel explained.
In March, Brazil defeated their 2014 nemesis, Germany, in Berlin courtesy of a first-half header from Jesus. The Germans did not field the injured Manuel Neuer, Samuel Khedira, Mesut Ozil and Thomas Muller, but Brazil looked accomplished. The five-time world champions are among the favorites in Russia.
“Whenever Brazil go to the World Cup we’re considered a favorite, like Germany, Argentina, Spain and teams who have won in the past,” Taffarel acknowledged. “It is dangerous if Brazil doesn’t prepare well, it is dangerous when we think it is going to be easy. That way it becomes dangerous. But that favoritism doesn’t affect us. The favoritism has to be created during the World Cup, in the group stages by playing well, with determination.”
Neymar is Brazil’s marquee player, but the squad is strong across the board. In the goalkeeping department there are Roma’s Alisson and Manchester City’s Ederson; both men are considered world-class.
“When Brazilian football was looked at, everyone was looking at the No. 10, the man who scored, the striker,” Taffarel said.
“Football has begun to change a little. Football is valuing the goalkeeper more. Today, when you look at (Pep) Guardiola’s team, they always have a goalkeeper who plays well with his feet. The Brazilian school has all this, it is technical with the feet, with the arms. Now, this is being valued.”
Alisson is Brazil’s undisputed No. 1. In October 2015, he made his international debut against Venezuela, on the recommendation of Taffarel.
“Alisson, you know, from the moment he started playing at Roma, he has enjoyed a natural growth and that we all expected, because in Brazil he had already shown his potential,” Taffarel said.
“He always showed that in the Brazilian team as well. For us, it is very important, for the Brazilian goalkeepers it opens a lot of doors in Europe, when they are spoken of well. Ederson has an impressive potential.”
Together they are dealing a knee-high tackle to the perception that Brazil do not produce top-class keepers, something that has always annoyed Taffarel.
“It is a myth,” he said. “When I began playing for the Seleção in Italy in 1990 they were saying ‘Ah, now Brazil has a goalkeeper.’ I moved on. Then Dida came and they went ‘Ah, now Brazil has a goalkeeper.’ Now it is Alisson and now they will say ‘Ah, now Brazil has a goalkeeper.’”