Brazil’s famous 1970 World Cup-winning captain, Carlos Alberto Torres, has severely criticised his country’s captain, Thiago Silva, following his unusual behavior during the recent penalty shootout against Chile.
Instead of standing next to his team mates during this emotional time, the defender was spotted sitting alone on a ball which has annoyed Torres and the rest of the nation.
“In Brazil, we expect our captains to illustrate strong postures,” he told SporTV.
“I’m not against him. Maybe in Europe and Argentina they would accept the captain sitting on the ball but not in Brazil.
“He should have at least stood on his feet to show the others ‘we’re together lets win the shootout.’ That’s the correct attitude which all Brazilians were expecting from Silva and I was worried.
“It wasn’t only Silva, who was spotted crying during the penalty shootout, but others as well, so he should have shown strength in an effort to incentivise them during that tense moment.”
Silva has also received similar criticism from another former hero, Zico, who believes he should have at least offered to take one of the penalties.
“You can’t have a player who wears the captain’s armband saying he’s in no condition to take a penalty,” Zico told Radio Globo.
Silva explained he was sitting alone to focus on his praying and also revealed why he didn’t want to take a penalty.
“Hitting a penalty is a big responsibility at home and I asked God not to be selected. I missed two of my last three and Scolari asked me to be the sixth. I said no, I asked to be last on the list, behind Julio Cesar,” he told reporters.
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