The 2026 FIFA World Cup has gotten off to a flying start on the pitch. With so much happening every day, ESPN India attempts to pick out the one magical moment that defined the day's action.
For Day 14, we pick Matheus Cunha's goal for Brazil against Scotland.
*****
The clock's ticking into the hour mark when Marquinhos brings the ball out of play inside his own half. He's calm, in control: just like his side have been all game. As he strides up to just behind the centre circle, there's nothing on... and yet, there's a quiet menace that's developing.
That sense is heightened when he passes it sideways to Gabriel, who urgently pings it forward to Douglas Santos, who's stationed just inside the Scotland half. He in turn passes it to Matheus Cunha, nominally Brazil's centre-forward but currently in central midfield. Cunha immediately passes it right back to Gabriel. And then back to Marquinhos, and sideways to Danilo.
The passing is rhythmic, that sense of menace ebbing and flowing but always present, lurking beneath the surface of the calm passing. Pass-pass-pass: sideways goes the ball, sideways goes Scotland as they chase it.
And then, Danilo cranks it up. The menace bursts through, hissing and spitting. A quick line-breaking pass down the middle and Lucas Pacqueta races onto it, before cushioning it for Casemiro right next to him. With a first-time pass, the 'destroyer' of this Brazil midfield splits open Scotland and sends Bruno Guimarães sprinting down the inside right.
A powerful shoulder-to-shoulder barge and Kenny McLean is on the floor. A quick shuffle of his feet and Jack Hendry is done for, turned inside-out. As he races further into the box, everyone's attracted to him: the covering Nathan Patterson, the recovering Hendry and the advancing Angus Gunn. So, he drops a shoulder without touching the ball, shaping to go further in and drawing all three Scotsmen to him, before poking the ball the other way, to the outside... where Cunha has appeared from diagonally behind him. Racing onto it, with everyone on the box to his left, he calmly slots it straight and into the near post.
Pass-pass-pass, ping, dribble-fake-draw attention, shoot. Brazil 3, Scotland 0. Game done and dusted.
*****
For 18 seconds in that move, Brazil had stroked it around the back. By the end of the next seven, Cunha was tapping it into an empty net. That 25 second move encapsulated everything that was right with Brazil at that moment - and it hadn't even involved their best player on the night, by far, VinÃcius Júnior.
The underlying menace at the start, the snap-of-your-fingers shift of gears, the skill and flamboyance and unselfishness of the assist, the awareness and on-your-toes-ness that made the finish... this was O jogo bonito, the Beautiful Game, played at a speed and with a thrust that simply blew Scotland of their feet.
Brazil had come into this World Cup on the back of plenty of doubts, and those had merely been accelerated by their opening day performance. Three goals against Haiti somewhat softened it up, but it was this performance that drove home the thought that maybe, just maybe, Brazil were back to being Brazil.
For too long now that has remained a myth. Brazil being Brazil? What does that even mean? In 2006 they had been bundled home by Zinedine Zidane, in 2010 by Wesley Sneijder in the form of his life. In 2014, they'd been handed the mother of all beatdowns by Germany, in 2018 Thibault Courtois stood in their way and in 2022 Croatia one-upped them right at the end.
They'd been good in fits and spurts across all those tournaments, but there had been little special about them apart from Neymar Jr's struggle to hoist them on his back and carry them over the line. You could almost hear the murmurs, especially amongst those for whom 2002 is ancient history: 'what is so special about this 'Seleção'? why do you old ones speak about them in hushed whispers and awed tones? what's all the fuss about?'
Well, play that 25 second clip again, and perhaps, you'll see why. Joga bonita when done right is unmatched in international football, and that's also why it was important, in a way, that Vinicius Junior wasn't involved in this play. As superstar heavy as Brazil have always been when they're winning, they always seem to be at their best when the ball flows from feet to feet without a second thought of the name on the back of the shirt. Just as it did before Cunha swept home Brazil's third on Wednesday night. As the ball slammed into the net, the message it sent was clear: the five-time champions are here to play.
Maybe, just maybe, Brazil really are back.
