Rodrygo hails display against Korea, treats friendly as a Copa final

Rodrygo left the field grinning from ear to ear after the Brazilian National Team’s 5-0 thrashing of South Korea this Friday in Seoul. The Real Madrid player was one of the highlights of the match, scoring two goals, and left very satisfied with both his individual performance and the team’s collective display.

Absent from coach Carlo Ancelotti’s recent call-ups due to a poor spell on the field and also because of physical problems, Rodrygo was given a vote of confidence by the Italian coach, with whom he made history at Real Madrid , and this time he did not disappoint.

“I’m very happy to be back, I missed it a lot and had in my mind to treat these two friendlies as if they were World Cup finals. Thank God, everything went well, I’m happy with the goals, with my performance, and even more so with the team’s progress. I think we’re on a great path to the World Cup ,” Rodrygo told SporTV.

As soon as he took charge of the Brazilian National Team, Ancelotti made it clear that his priority was to solve the problems in the defensive system. This led the Seleção to concede only one goal in five matches under his command. In these October friendlies, however, the focus shifted to the attack, and at least against South Korea, the forwards delivered.

“That’s what he [Ancelotti] told us before the match, and we knew it too. It’s always important to have a solid defense, everyone defends, helps out, and little by little the attack starts to work. That’s what happened today. Very happy with the win and with my personal performance as well. Now we have to keep it up,” he concluded.

Brazil will take the field again next Tuesday at 7:30 a.m. (Brasília time), at Ajinomoto Stadium in Tokyo, in their last fixture of this October FIFA window.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇧🇷 here.