The captain of the Brazilian soccer team, Casemiro, affirmed this Sunday that the players who beat Venezuela in the opening match of the Copa América 3-0 were the children who had the dream of defending Canarinha and ruled out, again, any possibility of boycott the tournament.
“There are men here, but there are also the children who had the dream of honoring this shirt, regardless of whether we are or not. This shirt forces us to do our best,” Casemiro said after the victory over the Venezuelans at the Mané Garrincha stadium in Brasilia. .
Casemiro was one of the spokespersons for the team who expressed, in a joint statement, their dissatisfaction with the celebration of the tournament, at the last minute, in Brazil, a country hit by the coronavirus pandemic with more than 17.4 million confirmed cases and 487,000 deaths.
The spread of covid-19 decimated Venezuela upon arrival in Brazil.
“Regardless of the embezzlement of the rival (for eight positive cases), it is our objective to win the game,” commented the Spanish Real Madrid midfielder about the last minute casualties of Venezuela, who had to call fifteen players to an emergency one day before the game versus the Brazilians.
The defender Marquinhos, in charge of opening the scoring, said in turn: “the team managed to play the good role we wanted to do and we knew that we were going to find a closed Venezuelan team and that it was going to make our game quite difficult.”
“We know how important it is to score goals, regardless of whether he is a defender or a forward,” he added.
For his part, Éverton Ribeiro, a Flamengo figure who is looking for more space in the national team, considered that the America’s Cup “is a unique opportunity for a place that is always contested.”
“I am prepared for when I give my best for the team,” added the midfielder.
Marquinhos, in the 22nd minute, Neymar, in the 63rd and Gabriel Barbosa Gabigol, in the 88th, sentenced the easy Brazilian victory against a timid Venezuelan team that felt the changes forced at the last minute by a coronavirus outbreak that separated eight players a day before the game and had another fifteen summoned at the last minute.
In the second hour, in Cuiabá (west), the Colombian and Ecuadorian teams completed the first day of Group B, in which Peru rested.
On the next date, which will be played on Thursday, Brazil and Peru will meet in Rio de Janeiro (southeast) and Venezuela will face Colombia in Goiania (center).
