Unless you have spent the past four days in the middle of the Amazon rainforest avoiding all conversation with local tribespeople by perhaps wearing a pair of oversized headphones, you will know Brazil face Germany on Tuesday in a World Cup semi-final without their most indispensable player.
Such is the hyperbolic importance placed on the comically over-marketed Neymar and his less-comically fractured frame, it has been almost entirely overlooked that Brazil stands to benefit this afternoon from the return of a key figure in midfield.
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Luiz Gustavo’s antithetical approach to fame and football means that while coach Luiz Felipe Scolari calls him “one of the most important players in my team”, many of his own compatriots could not pick the tough-tackling 26 year old out of a police line-up (as evidenced when a local TV programme recently showed Rio residents unable to recognise his photo).
“I’m very quiet,” Gustavo said this week. “I do not care to be known at all. I just want to keep winning.”
The reason for the mustachioed midfielder’s anonymity at home is that he hardly played here. A year-long spell that yielded 35 appearances for two small-time Brazilian sides ended when he was plucked from relative obscurity by Germany’s Hoffenheim.
From there, he joined Bayern Munich and won the Bundesliga and Uefa Champions League in 2013 before being sold to Wolfsburg last summer by Pep Guardiola.
Real Madrid have been recently linked with a move for Gustavo as a replacement for Germany’s Sami Khedira and the two players could face off this afternoon when the Brazilian, who missed the dust-up against Colombia through suspension, returns to the heart of his country’s midfield at Estadio Mineirao.
It is a match against a team whose personnel he is familiar with. As many as seven of Germany's expected line-up are Gustavo's former teammates at Bayern, while the promotion of Dante, the Brazilian defender who plays for Bayern and will cover for the suspended Thiago Silva on Tuesday, brings further insider knowledge.
Whether such knowledge will affect proceedings is unknown, but Gustavo’s presence will.
An unsung hero, he is a crucial cog in Scolari’s tactical plan, reading the game from deep, breaking up opposition attacks and allowing his central partner to push forward.
In his 390 minutes on the pitch, he has covered 46.1 kilometres, a distance exceeded only by Marcelo, Neymar and Oscar, who have all played significantly more minutes. He has recovered the ball 34 times in four games, more than any other Brazilian including Silva, despite having played 90 minutes fewer.
Gustavo’s dominant presence crucially frees up either Paulinho or Fernandinho to advance further up the field, which will be key as Brazil arrive in Belo Horizonte needing to attack but without their most attacking force in Neymar.
With Brazil’s boy wonder likely to be replaced by Willian or Bernard – at least in stature, if not spirit – Gustavo will be charged with ensuring balance is maintained.
Scolari’s side will need to drive forward offensively but avoid being overrun by the opposition’s swarming counter-attacks. Their dominant defensive midfielder will be pivotal in this regard, slowing and stifling the German forward line through harrying, hassling and tactical fouling.
Such a role is resultantly not always pretty, but it is undoubtedly effective. Over the course of Brazil’s first four matches, Gustavo committed 10 fouls but also drew 12 against him. If he can succeed in stopping Toni Kroos and Mesut Ozil from affecting the game, his job will be done. Not that he is likely to be given – or demand – too much credit.
gmeenaghan@thenational.ae
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