Does the cascade of injuries, especially that of Wendie Renard, affect your morale? Amel Majri: The cascade of injuries is part of the continuity of the preparation. The other teams also have injuries. We are in good hands, we have a staff that takes good care of us, that manages well. We were able to recover Selma (Bacha), Elisa (De Almeida) will come back too. This bodes well for the future. We don’t worry. It’s a situation that we are used to living (…) The motivations and the objectives are the same. On a World Cup path there will always be ups and downs, it’s part of our journey. We had glitches, we may have some in the future. Name me a team that lifted a Cup without a physical glitch. Today, that’s what happens to us and we use it. We deal with it and we are confident. Now, we are not going to talk about lifting the trophy, we are already going to talk about qualifying. We do it step by step.
What is your view on the 0-0 draw against Jamaica? We pushed at the end, we knew we had to score. They defended well, it gave them confidence. Even if it’s not the result we hoped for, we take the positive. We didn’t lose either, because we could have been had in the end on that match. We know what to improve for next time. It will help us (…) If you look at the World Cup, not all nations have started in the best way. This is the beginning, we have in our group young players who were experiencing their first World Cup. Even if you have experience, it can happen to be taken by the stakes. Now, we know that we don’t have time to start the match every 15-20 minutes, we have to start from the start of the match, we know that we have no choice. For the next matches, from the start we know that we have to let go of the horses, so we will take shelter from the start.
How is the Brazil of 2023 different from the one beaten in the round of 16 of the 2019 World Cup (2-1 after extra time)? They still have the same identity, it’s a very technical team. There are also many young people who are discovering the selection. They are unpredictable players who have this grinta, (this desire) to always hurt. They have progressed tactically too. With the coach they have (Pia Sundhage, editor’s note), there is more defensive rigor. It is a team that has progressed. Even if Marta is no longer the Marta of before, the fifteen minutes when she returned (against Panama on Monday, 4-0), she still does her team good. It’s still a very, very good team (…) It’s a team that looks like us, which is focused on the front. Compared to Jamaica, who relied on their striker and stayed behind to manage, the Brazilians all want to participate in the attacking game so there will be plenty of space.
