Vini Is Becoming Exactly What The World Cup Was Afraid Of

Vinny Junior, wow! I have been very critical of Vinny in the past, have made multiple videos on him. In particular, one of my biggest criticisms around him was that he was never able to replicate his Real Madrid form to the national team. But if we are going to criticize him when he was ass, we have to give him his flowers when he's doing well. I know that's a difficult concept for some of you to grasp, there's a lot of new people that have come to this channel from the World Cup, so let me simplify it for you. When players do bad, we make videos on what they've done bad and why they are struggling. When they are doing good, we make videos praising them and seeing what they're doing well. It's not that difficult. And Vinny has been playing well. Vinny Junior, this is the Vinny Junior you want to see after a very difficult two years at Real Madrid. I talked about it in my Brazil video. I knew as soon as Ancelotti became the manager that he was going to get the best out of Vinny. On the face of it, you have to say it's the Ancelotti factor. It's not that hard to see it coming considering all of Vinny's best individual seasons have been under Eyebrow Man. The two just work together really well. Looks lively, started with confidence and again, Carlo Ancelotti getting the best out of him. Certainly when you compare what he was like before Ancelotti and now with him. Carlo has allowed Vinny to play with freedom, to trust his instincts and just enjoy his football instead of trying to carry the pressure of trying to replace Neymar. And now for the first time in his international career, Vinny is Brazil's true leader. But this is Vinny's team. This is Vinny's team now and that's what he's showing everybody. But he's the talisman now, isn't he? He is the focal point. He's the guy back in Brazil that when it goes, if it goes wrong, he's going to get the most. 100%. Their World Cup began with a really tough test, facing a strong Morocco side. Morocco's high press caused Brazil all sorts of problems early on. They deservedly took the lead in the 21st minute when Saibari finished a brilliant move after being played through by Brahim Diaz. With Brazil under pressure, Vinny really stepped up. Have an isolation like he did for his goal. It was a great goal. It was a great finish. The way that he beat the defender, just taking a little touch to almost unsteady the defender as well. That's fantastic. Brazil never really found the rhythm in this game, but thanks to Vinny, they rescued a valuable point in what was a very difficult 1-1 draw. The second match against Haiti in Philadelphia was a chance to respond and Brazil did exactly that. Carlo gave Vinny the freedom to drift inside and attack the space behind Haiti's defense and he was involved in almost everything. His dangerous low shot created the opening goal in the 23rd minute. He then slipped a perfectly weighted pass through from Mateus Cunha to double Brazil's lead. Before scoring himself just before halftime, Brazil cruised to a comfortable 3-0 win with Vinny delivering a goal and assist in another outstanding display. Some people are going to say, well, he only played Haiti, but I disagree. You can only play what's in front of you and if he failed to score against a country like Haiti, we would all call him an international fraud, so it's only fair to give him credit when he spanked that team. He saved his best performance for the final group match against Scotland in Miami. Only 7 minutes had been played when Vinny pounced on a defensive mistake, rounded Anga's gun with one touch, and gave Brazil an early lead. Just before halftime, Vinny struck again. Timing is run perfectly to head home Bruno Guimarães' cross at the back post. His brace helped Brazil secure another 3-0 win, finish at the top of Group C, and head into the knockout rounds looking every bit like one of the tournament favorites. By scoring in all three group stage matches, Vinny also joined an exclusive club in Brazilian football history. Before him, only Jairzinho in 1970, Romário in 1994, and Ronaldo, Nazário, and Rivaldo in 2002 had managed to score in every group game of a World Cup. Every previous time a Brazilian player achieved that feat, Brazil went on to lift the World Cup trophy. So it's a bit of a good omen. Vinny also threw himself right into the Golden Boot race. For years, Vinny struggled to match his Real Madrid form in a Brazil shirt. Under previous managers, he had scored just 6 goals in 39 appearances. And this criticism wasn't just coming from Barca fans or Real Madrid haters. The majority of it was coming from Brazilian people themselves who were disappointed by Vinny. They couldn't understand why there was such a huge gap between what he was doing for Real Madrid and what he was doing for the national team. In the 2021-2022 season, Vinny scored 22 goals in all competitions, including the winner in the Champions League final against Liverpool. He had announced himself as one of the best wingers in the world. He somehow got even better the following season, finishing with 23 goals and 21 assists while becoming the biggest attacking threat in Madrid's front line. But when he put on his famous yellow shirt of Brazil, that version of Vinny just disappeared. He turned into Brazilian Garnacho. At the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, he was a part of a star-studded squad. But he never became the team's main man. He scored just once, against South Korea in the round of 16. But he did add two assists. Despite the good moments, though, he struggled to make a real impact in the biggest games, including Brazil's heartbreaking quarterfinal defeat to Croatia on pence. The same story continued at the 2024 Copa America. While Vinny was dominating European football with Real Madrid, winning another La Liga and Champions League double, scoring in another Champions League final, and being named FIFA's best men's player, for Brazil he looked lost. He was quiet in the opening draw against Costa Rica. He did bounce back with two goals against Paraguay, a really good performance from him. But just as he was building momentum, he let his emotions get the better of him. An unnecessary yellow against Colombia earned him a suspension for the quarterfinal against Uruguay from the stands you could only watch as Brazil, despite playing against 10 men, crashed out on pence. Like I said, heading into the 2026 World Cup, Vinny had just scored 9 goals in 49 appearances for Brazil, with only 3 of those coming in actual competitive matches. For Brazil, a nation that has produced so many legends, these numbers were disgraceful. That's why the 2026 World Cup felt so important. It was Vinny's opportunity to prove once again that he was a star. Because remember, in the last two seasons, he has not been playing well for Real Madrid. I know there's a tendency to just disregard the past as soon as a player does well in the present, but just cause he's performing for Brazil, does not mean that we just ignore that in 2025 and 2026, he played well below his standards. He seemed to only play well without Mbappe, his form in general was inconsistent. Some games he would look like the old Vinny, then other times he would play awful. Under Xabi Alonso, he was getting benched and subbed out early, he didn't like that so he got Xabi sacked. Under Arboloa, he looked good again but in bursts. For example, he got a brace against Manchester City in the Champions League, but he also got locked up on the wing against a second division Spanish side. It's funny, imagine trying to explain to a new football fan who's watching football for the first time at the World Cup, that two of the best performing players in the tournament, Mbappe and Vinny, are actually teammates at the club level, yet the two of them together, can't seem to win trophies. Now what would happen if Vinny actually led Brazil to a World Cup? What would happen to his legacy? Well one player he's always compared to is Neymar. Now for me, Neymar will always be a better player. At the same age, Neymar had already played 75 games for Brazil, scoring 51 goals and providing 30 assists. He was the face of Brazilian football, and carried the weight of an entire nation on his shoulders. But football is dominated by recency bias, and more importantly, trophies. If Vinny leads Brazil to a 6th World Cup, many people will place him ahead of Neymar, simply because winning the World Cup is the ultimate achievement for any Brazilian player. Add in the fact that Vinny has a much more impressive Champions League legacy, and there's a very easy argument that Vinny has had a much better career than Neymar. Winning the World Cup would also change how Vinny is remembered alongside legends like Ronaldinho, Kaká, and Rivaldo. Ronaldinho is still one of the most entertaining players football has ever seen. He won the World Cup, the Champions League, and the Ballon d'Or. But his time at the top didn't last that long. He also didn't dominate the Champions League the way Vinny has. Then you have Kaká, who reached incredible heights with AC Milan and won the Ballon d'Or in 2007. But he was never the main man in a World Cup winning team, and he couldn't lead Brazil to another title during his prime. Rivaldo is often overlooked despite being one of Brazil's greatest ever players. He won the Ballon d'Or, starred alongside Ronaldo in the famous 2002 World Cup winning team, and consistently delivered in the biggest moments. However, he never enjoyed the same long period of dominance in European football that Vinny has already built. He's won multiple Champions League titles, scoring in both the 2022 and 2024 finals. He's lifted several La Liga trophies, become one of the world's best players, and for a while had established himself as Real Madrid's biggest star, until Mbappé came. So now there's only two things left, the World Cup and the Ballon d'Or. If he wins one, the other will follow. Now to see just how good the rest of the Brazil team around him has been, and how Ancelotti has transformed this national team, you have to watch this video right here.