Everything was missing for Brazil, until Raphinha set up five goals in 45 minutes

The Olympic Stadium in Venezuela’s capital city, Caracas, is not an obvious place to look for lessons from Leeds United’s recent history. But there was Raphinha, making his Brazil debut as a half-time substitute, while Venezuela were bringing on John Chancellor, a defender from Massimo Cellino’s Brescia.

Cellino brought plenty of internationals to Leeds, but none were as good as he promised. Casper Sloth won his final cap for Denmark a couple of months before Leeds condemned him to obscurity, Adryan was meant to play for Brazil but never did, and if Edgar Cani can play for Albania then so can I. But after one season in the Premier League, we’re watching one of our players change a game for Brazil less than a year after his Leeds debut.

The ghosts of Leeds United’s past were trying to haunt Raphinha on the pitch when Venezuela striker Sergio Cordova paid tribute to Steve Morison by shanking a shot from the edge of Brazil’s penalty area out for a throw-in. But Rapha is operating at too high a level to get frightened by the kind of drudgery that can still give Leeds fans unsettling flashbacks. Seconds after that, he was controlling a pass in his own half and dribbling from one end of the pitch to the other, his serenity on the ball acting as a forcefield, causing a Venezuela defender to fall over in front of him. His run and pass eventually led to the penalty that put Brazil 2-1 in front late on, banishing fears they were going to fail to win in Venezuela for the first time in qualifying history.

According to Brazilian outlet Globo Esporte, ‘The first half of Venezuela 1-3 Brazil was one of the worst in [coach] Tite’s trajectory in the Brazilian team. Everything was missing.’ But then Raphinha came on, and by the end of the second half the only problem was working out how many assists he should have had. There was the cross for the first goal, a thumping corner headed in by Marquinhos; and a nonchalant pass for the third, tricking a defender into giving him space without even touching the ball, before laying on a tap in that fellow debutant Antony tried his best to miss. Both go down in the black and white of official stats. But what about the penalty, won and scored by Gabriel Barbosa following a shot from Vinicius Jr? That was only possible because of Raphinha’s run, so really that’s three. There was another wicked cross from a set-piece, headed in by Thiago Silva. It wasn’t Raphinha’s fault a stupid Chelsea player couldn’t stay onside, so that’s four. I’ve not even mentioned his best pass of the night, when he delicately chipped the ball over the defence for Gabriel to volley narrowly over, another offside flag sparing the striker’s blushes. Five assists in one half? Joga bonito!

“Tite asked me to do what I did with Leeds and I don’t think I let him, my teammates, or the Brazil fans down,” Raphinha said after. If anything, his teammates let him down by failing to match the performance of Leeds United’s number 10. “I think assists are worth the same as goals,” he added. “As a wide player I like goals, of course, but when I set up chances for teammates to score goals I am happy. It’s like scoring a goal for me. I am happy not just to set up goals, but for the way I played.”

It’s difficult to know how to compute this as Leeds fans. Grimacing at Morison and Cani feels like a vague memory of a different club but it was troublingly recent. Now we’ve got Brazil’s most dangerous attacker and we’re meant to be taking it in our stride as perfectly normal. We’ve gone from worrying about how we’ll ever get rid of Steve Morison to panicking about how much longer we’ll be able to keep a footballer as good as Raphinha. Bagging assists for Brazil is all well and good, Rapha, but five in 45 minutes is more than enough for now. ⬢