They huddled in the corner and danced. Then they did it again, and again, and once even roped the manager, Tite, in. It was hard to miss the messaging, both explicit and implicit, that this Brazil are united.
United on the pitch, yes, but also off it, with the nation coalescing around its hero as Pele lies in a hospital bed in Sao Paulo. The 4-1 win here, their biggest statement yet, delivered in the most Brazilian way possible, would have cheered the great man as he watched on.
There was a huge banner in the stand for O Rei before the game and another on the pitch, displayed by the team, afterwards. This was for him. Brazil march on to face Croatia on Saturday (2am AEDT) and, on this evidence, look set to go much further than that.
Ronaldo, Rivaldo, Roberto Carlos and Cafu were in the stands, as they were on the pitch in 2002, and they must be getting the same feeling that they had back then.
This was a dismantling of South Korea. Indeed, comparisons to the 2002 team are a little unfair, because they were often functional and illuminated by supreme individual talent, whereas this iteration of the selecao are a proper unit, creating goals through collective action allied to their own skills.
Three of their first half goals – a Neymar penalty excluded – were evidence of that. Vinicius Junior opened the scoring after Raphinha had scurried to the byline and found his winger at the back post.
The finish was superbly composed, using all the time he had to pick his spot, but he had that time because of the running of his teammates, who drew multiple Korean defenders away.
The third was even better. Marquinhos found himself up the park, rattled a pass into Casemiro and he found Richarlison in motion on the perfect third man run.
The fourth saw Vini Jnr spot the late runner, with Lucas Paqueta on the charge into the box. The pass itself was an exquisite dink over a raft of Koreans – again manipulated by off-ball movement – and the final touch a deft, controlled strike.
In between, there had been a penalty for Neymar, won by high pressing from Richarlison and dispatched with rare calm.
South Korea, for their part, had no answer. There are, as they say, levels to this game. They never stopped going and got their goal thanks to a rasper from range from Seung-Ho Paik.
Alisson, in the Brazil goal, was forced into several excellent saves – before being withdrawn to give Weverton, the last of the 26-man squad, a chance to play at the tournament.
If there was a black spot on the performance, it was the success that South Korea had on the break, which might give Tite pause for thought. Though it always looked like Brazil could have scored more, there were presentable chances for Song Heung-Min and Hwang Hee-Chan.
Perhaps they don’t happen in a tighter game. Perhaps, if they do, then Brazil just go up the other end and score two more. At times, it felt that easy. Everyone else will be worried.
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