SAO PAULO (AP) — Amid a possible player revolt, Brazil beat Ecuador 2-0 on Friday to win its fifth consecutive match in South American World Cup qualifying.
It now leads the round-robin tournament with 15 points, four ahead of second-place Argentina. It appears all but certain that Brazil will qualify for one of the four direct South American spots for Qatar 2022.
Richarlison opened the scoring in the 65th minute and Neymar added the second from the spot in added time. Both goals were celebrated with the entire team around the coach. All players escorted Tite to the dressing room after the match was over.
A crisis looms over the team since Brazil agreed to host Copa America. Team captain Casemiro suggested Friday that the players don’t want to be at the tournament at home as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to kill thousands of Brazilians per day. More than 470,000 have died so far.
Copa America was originally scheduled to be co-hosted by Colombia and Argentina. Two weeks ago, Colombia was forced to withdraw because of social unrest. And this past week, Argentina declined to host it because of a similar worsening of the pandemic.
Tite’s post-match press conference was one of the team’s most anticipated in years after he spent the day hearing rumors he could resign before Copa America begins.
The coach admitted on Thursday his players had discussed with the president of the Brazilian soccer confederation (CBF), Rogerio Caboclo, whether they should play the continental tournament. A final answer on the issue is expected for after the match against Paraguay on Tuesday.
Casemiro, who was prevented from speaking to media on Thursday, said after Friday’s win against Ecuador that “the players’ position is very clear. More clear than this is impossible for now.”
“We want to speak after the match against Paraguay because we don’t want to lose our focus,” the team captain said. “This is the World Cup for us.”
The midfielder added any decision “will come from all” Brazil players. Local media said earlier that footballers of European clubs were leading the charge to not play in Copa America.
Ecuador defender Robert Arboleda added that team captains were discussing their participation in the South American championship, which is scheduled to be played between June 13 and July 10.
“There’s a lot of people dying and something must be done. For us players it is hard to go to a hotel because people with the virus could give it to us and then we can infect the whole squad,” he said, without answering whether he and his team will play in the tournament.
All matches in the next round will be played on Tuesday: Paraguay is up against Brazil and Colombia takes on Argentina. Also, it’s Ecuador vs. Peru, Venezuela vs. Uruguay and Chile vs Bolivia.
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