Raphinha’s got no time for wasting time - The Square Ball 2/2/22

 

ON WITH IT THEN

Written by: Rob Conlon

Playing for Brazil against Paraguay on Tuesday, it took Raphinha ninety seconds to have more fun than he managed in an hour against Ecuador last week. Rapha has had to do a lot of waiting recently. Waiting for Newcastle players to get on with the game. Waiting on the fringes, sensibly leaving VAR to sort out the madness of Brazil’s draw with Ecuador. After a minute-and-a-half of playing Paraguay, he was already hugging Dani Alves after dancing past the defence and finding the bottom corner.

Then it was back to waiting. After ninety seconds of excitement, there was a five minute break for VAR. While referee Facundo Tello was trying to listen to the guidance in his earpiece, he was also trying to tell Miguel Almiron to leave him alone. Almiron was on Newcastle’s bench at Elland Road two weeks ago, and judging him here he clearly enjoyed the aeons passing by when the ball was out of play. I often wonder why officials have to put up with players swearing in their faces and trying to deliberately cheat at any opportunity, yet they’re not allowed to tell them to fuck off in return. If Almiron wasn’t chirping in Tello’s ear, he might have been able to rule out Raphinha’s goal for an unavoidable handball much quicker, letting us get back to the good bit of football. You know, the actual game.

After a comfortingly low key performance against Ecuador, there was intensity all evening from Rapha in Belo Horizonte. During the national anthem, Dani Alves stood eyes shut tightly, belting out the words while tearing at the badge on his chest. Raphinha barely moved, staring straight into the souls of the Brazil fans with vehemence not seen since Pablo Hernandez returned from ‘Nam. When a Paraguay defender offered a handshake after they bumped each other in an innocent challenge, Rapha looked straight through him before accepting an awkward low five.

The momentum from such a positive start from Brazil was threatening to subside as the first half went on, but Raphinha was playing with the verve of someone thinking, ‘Fine, if you’re going to rule that out, I’ll just score an even better goal.’ He should have scored when he scuffed a shot from his left foot onto his right and over the bar from inside the six yard box. That would have been too easy, much like he didn’t bother scoring when presented with an open goal against Burnley. Instead, he waited for Marquinhos’ long pass, watching it all the way from the skies to the safety of his first touch. A Cruyff turn dismissed the covering defender, leaving Rapha in an almost identical position to his earlier ‘goal’. After shooting across the goalkeeper then, this time he shot hard and low into the other corner, and went back for a second dance in the same part of the ground where he’d started celebrating before. Try your best ruling that one out! The officials obliged, delaying the restart just to check, double check, and triple check whether Raphinha was, yes, five yards onside.

Raphinha’s brilliance matched the build up from his teammates, who shelved poor touches and disjointed passes for a minute of slick keep ball, like a needle finding the groove of a seven inch single. Shortly before, Lucas Paqueta lost the ball in Brazil’s own half attempting a series of kick-ups while surrounded by defenders, but Raphinha’s goal was a much better example of stereotypical Samba splendour.

If we apply my logic of assists from Raphinha’s debut — officially there were two, but I counted five — then he finished this game with a hat-trick. Adding to his goal that didn’t stand and the one that did was a slap of a half-volley that cracked against the post in the second half, before he was substituted with ten minutes to go due to cramp. Even then he was forced to wait, the substitution taking over two minutes as the officials tried to work out who was going off and who was coming on. Waiting by the touchline, Rapha was eventually given a telling off by the fourth official, forced to leave the pitch before Brazil could bring a player on because of the confusion.

Raphinha’s status in Brazil’s squad is now such that he was taken off after fellow attackers Vinicius Jr and Matheus Cunha. Real Madrid spent €46m on signing Vinicius, convinced he was the future of Brazilian football. After a summer of tenuous links to Leeds, Cunha joined Atletico Madrid for £22m. Neither seem to have convinced manager Tite quite like Raphinha. Fellow wingers Antony and Rodrygo (another €45m Real Madrid megabuy) both scored late goals to make the score 4-0 after Philippe Coutinho scored a belter of his own on the hour mark, but the reaction in Brazil suggests Rapha is getting closer and closer to nailing his place on the right wing ahead of the World Cup. He’s now got a week to get back to Leeds, and help us nail a place in next season’s Premier League, starting against Coutinho’s Aston Villa. Raphinha doesn’t want to waste time, and neither do we.