Fred Tops Brasileirao Scoring Charts to Defy World Cup Critics

Cast your eye back to July 8. Quite possibly the darkest day in the history of Brazilian football.

The World Cup semi-final between the tournament hosts and eventual champions Germany was dead and buried despite there being an hour of play left.

In the stands, surprise turned to anguish, which soon afterwards became anger. The players in yellow became the targets of venom, no more so than No. 9 Fred.

The Fluminense front man became the scapegoat, the poster boy for Brazil's spectacular failure at the FIFA tournament. Admittedly, when considered in bare numbers, his contribution looks minimal.

A single goal in the final group game against Cameroon, and even that from an offside position.

Hassan Ammar/Associated Press

Across six matches and 471 minutes on the pitch, the forward did not make a single run into the penalty area or provide an assist, per FIFA stats, suggesting his overall movement on the pitch was less than adventurous.

Far too often Brazil looked to be playing with 10 men. Coach Luiz Felipe Scolari’s 4-2-3-1 formation, which had looked so fruitful 12 months previously at the Confederations Cup, suddenly looked static and immobile.

The end result: a supposed spearhead looked disconsolate, isolated and an unwilling and beleaguered spectator as his team were ripped apart in Belo Horizonte amid boos raining down upon his head with every touch of the ball. On 69 minutes he was withdrawn, presumably having pulled on that famous brightly coloured shirt for the final time.

His blow was the kind of crushing disappointment that could have seen the forward slip into oblivion. Thirty years old at the end of the tournament, the very competition which had been his long-term target when joining Rio de Janeiro club Fluminense in 2009, it would have been, not easy, but perhaps understandable, if Fred had lost the desire or the hunger to make a fist of the remainder of the domestic season.

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But it is testament to his strength of character that he came back, showing true, as Iain Dowie might put it, bouncebackability. Last week, Fred was crowned top scorer in the Campeonato Brasileiro, with 18 goals, including four strikes in the final three games of the season.

Stats, provided by Whoscored.com, also showed he provided six assists and completed 90 minutes in eight of the last 10 games. Neither the stamina, nor the desire to play, was missing.

Getting knocked down is not a sign of failure. It is how you react to that adversity which defines whether you will eventually sink or swim.

And Fred answered in the best way he knows, with goals by the bagful.

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Not only is it a sign of the inner force of the player but proof that he is a damn useful player to have around. As Sam Wallace pointed out in The Independent, the target man centre-forward, what you might term “The traditional English No. 9,” has not been replaced and still is capable of having a prominent part to play in the modern game.

If that is true of Andy Carroll, it is certainly true of the Brazilian who has, unfairly, been described as “lumbering” by certain members of the press, including Ian Ladyman of The Daily Mail.

No, he is not Ronaldo Fenomeno, and, if Adriano had lived up to his potential it his highly unlikely Fred would have had as many opportunities at international level as he has enjoyed, but too often he is judged to that astronomical standard rather than his own talents.

But he has made the most of the ability his possesses and has substantially adapted his game in his five-and-a-half years at Laranjeiras. During his time in Rio, Fred has shown his appetite for scoring some sensational strikes—few who saw his winner in the Fla-Flu classico in 2012 will forget it.

Far from the figure of isolation at the World Cup, he is capable of scoring in a variety of ways rather than simply sniffing out opportunities inside the penalty area. His last-minute equalizer against Sport Recife two weeks back was also a contender for goal of the season.

Initially it had been reported the striker had retired from international football, with suggestions now that is not the case, as reported by Fox Sports Brasil (link in Portuguese). Unfortunately, it looks as though, under Dunga, his retirement is as good as enforced.

But the player should not be marked by six games. His contribution and goal threat remain very much intact, and sitting atop the Brasileirao scoring charts following such a harrowing World Cup experience is evidence of that.