The great Brazil teams of yesteryear reached their iconic levels because of the quality shown throughout their team.
In the 1970 World Cup, Pele was assisted by the performances of other legendary names, such as Jairzinho, Gerson and Rivellino.
Their World Cup win in 2002 was from a team that included Ronaldo, Rivaldo, Ronaldinho, Roberto Carlos and more.
And that is precisely why Brazil, in their first-ever home Olympic Games, needed more than just Neymar to step up to the plate – they needed the whole team to do so.
The Salvador crowd finally got to see the best of Brazil as their hotshots finally made their mark on the competition.
Gabriel Jesus, Gabriel Barbosa and Luan should all become household names in the coming years.
Here’s hoping that it was just nerves at the start for Brazil, but they certainly were not demonstrating ‘samba football’ in the early stages.
Quite frankly, it was flat.
But when they did find their mojo, it was truly mesmerising to watch.
You get the sense that it was the sort of result that Brazilian football has been craving for over the past two years.
