Brazil should recognize when a team like Morocco won’t allow them to play through the center, on the diagonal, and drag their opponents over by making the pitch smaller to open up the central space for Vinicius Junior to invert into.

Look at the space. Look at the distance between players. Look at the pentagon Morocco create, blocking off the pass in the second layer of their defense.

Brazil and other South American teams only think forward. They go, they lose the ball, they fight and tackle, and then they go again.

How do we break this down? We make the pitch smaller.

Brazil’s best moments, like Mexico’s best moments when Julian Quinones inverted into the central space, came when Vinicius Junior received the ball centrally in space.

When you make the pitch smaller, dragging the midfield over, dragging that pentagon over, Morocco are an aggressive team defensively. They are eventually going to try to force a mistake.

Bait them, drag them over. Then the space opens up for Vinicius Junior central.

It’s not one diagonal forward, it’s two diagonals forward and backward, but not backward to the right center-back. It’s a backward pass to the center of the pitch which you can use to switch the ball.

This will be Brazil’s hardest match of the tournament. Like Argentina in 2022, they should only get better as the tournament goes on. They are one of the few teams that you expect to score multiple goals every game. Their squad and bench are filled with mature goal scorers.

It is hot and humid. It is easier to spread out in the heat because defensively, a left center midfielder doesn’t need to cover as much space if they are stuck on the left side of the pitch in and out of possession, rather than if they move to the right side of the pitch to make the pitch smaller and combine in the smaller spaces.

But when teams try to play compact, they have to make the pitch smaller to open the space central. They aren’t a team with blistering pace. They know how to quickly win the ball, collapsing on the ball, if they lose it, but they need that central space open.