Analysis: Ancelotti gamble leaves Brazil mired in World Cup quicksand

EAST RUTHERFORD: Brazil spent three years chasing Carlo Ancelotti as if the Italian carried a golden key to their sixth World Cup. On Sunday, after a 2-1 defeat by Norway in the New Jersey heat, the record five-times champions discovered that even one of club football's great managers cannot perform miracles with a team built on hope, nostalgia and tired legs.

Italy's decline has long stood as a warning that if a country fails to look after its football, it can fall behind with alarming speed. Brazil now have their own uncomfortable case study.

The long pursuit of Ancelotti while he was at Real Madrid left the national team drifting under three caretaker managers, and by the time he arrived there was no easy escape from the quicksand. One year was never likely enough time to repair three years of neglect.

Ancelotti may be among the most decorated managers the game has known, but this World Cup showed he is only human.

Several of his biggest squad decisions came back to bite him, and none more painfully than the decision to trust ageing players who looked past their best.

Casemiro, Danilo and Neymar all carried grand names and heavy mileage. Against Norway, that showed.

Both Norwegian goals came down their left flank, where Andreas Schjelderup stepped off the bench with the sort of energy Brazil badly lacked. Danilo, 34, was asked to play at right back, a role he had not occupied regularly for years, having recently been used more as a reserve centre back for Flamengo.

It proved a brutal mismatch. Schjelderup ran at him with purpose; Danilo looked stranded.

HEAVY-LEGGED TOURNAMENT

Casemiro endured a similarly heavy-legged tournament. He struggled with opponents' pace, misplaced passes and, on Sunday, in the oppressive New Jersey