Question fuh de massive....
Say we had qualified instead of Haiti and ended up in the same group....do you think we woulda colleck 7 from Brazil?
IMO....unless we showed up with the same squad that went China, I would be shocked if we conceded more than 3 goals.
I wouldn't be surprised if we even pulled off a result. Brazil....especially without Neymar is not that formidable these days
Our biggest problem is in the goal keeping department. With Jan Michael gone fuh de season and an erratic Marvin Phillip, we vulnerable in that area.
Haiti under the previous coach (Marc Collat), would have had a more enterprising posture than that adopted by Neveu. And in being disappointed with Haiti, I swept aside the reality that the team is under a new regimen.
Neveu seemed at odd with his own tactics and/or his players' execution of them. In his post-match comments he said he thought the team played too low, but I did not see him actively attempt to rectify the concern (to be fair, I abandoned ship around the 4th goal and before Haiti scored).
Iz hard to predict player mentality even after sound preparation, so who knows how our players would have responded.
What I do know is that you erase "awe-struck" with "respect" by early and continuous immersion and exposure. Although this Brazil is not star-studded, Haitian players were still in awe.
If I meet Willan at U15 and then at 17, 19, 21 ...even frequently at each level ... I am going to be invested in figuring out how to deal with the challenge Willan presents and less invested in his celebrity.
Nice to walk into a job and get arguably the biggest platform of his career (Neveu) via a playoff spot.