Neymar: London 2012 Performance Shows Brazil Star Not Ready for Europe

By
at Internationaled.org

Published: August 11, 2012

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Brazilian 20-year-old superstar Neymar has long been courted by the European elite, and for the past year, he has been widely tipped to make the move up and across the Atlantic. 

The latest reports suggest Real Madrid, FC Barcelona and Chelsea will battle in a three-way tussle for his signature (h/t ibtimes.com).

However, it seems a move to football's Holy Grail isn't something Neymar can cope with just yet—as proved most recently by his Olympic showing.

A common criticism of the forward is his inability to perform his best against bigger teams and tougher defences.

For Santos, Neymar has no trouble scoring hat tricks against the likes of Bolivar, but put him in tougher Copa Libertadores matches against teams like Velez Sarsfield and Corinthians, and he's nowhere to be seen.

The tighter marking often forces the Brazilian out onto the wing, and he hasn't yet worked out a way to emulate the likes of Pele and Lionel Messi and evade close man-markers.

And at the 2012 Olympics, Neymar translated his club form onto the international stage.

He scored three goals in the six games of the tournament, against Egypt, Belarus and Honduras. But when the moneymaker match came along, the supposedly prodigious talent was nowhere to be seen.



He was good in the semifinal against South Korea, but with the pressure on in the gold-medal match against Mexico at Wembley—with 86,162 people in attendance and tens of millions watching back home in Brazil—Neymar simply couldn't make a difference.

The Brazilian superstar failed to cope with the close attention of the Mexican back line and often found himself crowded out with nowhere to go.

He failed to release the ball at the right times, and his mazy dribbles into pointless areas signified a lack of ideas and a real struggle to assert any authority on the match.

Besides the close marking, N...
Article Source: Bleacher Report - International Football

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