Lost legacies: One year on from the World Cup, Brazil's stadiums are not being put to proper use

August issue of @WSC_magazine, featuring my piece about Brazil's World Cup legacy, out now. All good newsagents etc pic.twitter.com/pUEAfImGre

— Jack Lang (@jacklang) July 27, 2015

Alexandre Pato starting to shine for São Paulo after stating desire to play out wide

Like so many other ill-fated schemes, it began with Silvio Berlusconi.

Alexandre Pato had begun his Milan career in stunning style, scoring 24 Serie A goals in goals in his first two seasons and cementing his reputation as one of the best prospects in the game. World domination - both at club level and for Brazil - had seemed inevitable.

Then along came Silvio. A master tactician in his own mind, the three-time Italian prime minister thought Pato – by that point fast becoming the Rossoneri's most marketable asset – was drifting wide too much, wasting energy that could be used in the box. So Berlusconi called on the youngster to play through the middle.

Or at least that is how Pato himself recalls it. In an enlightening interview last week, the forward claimed that the tweak to his role was partly to blame for his subsequent travails at the San Siro and the premature end to his time in Europe.

Read my latest article for WhoScored here.

Porto (Mais) Alegre: Roger Machado brings the joy back to Grêmio after the drudgery of Luiz Felipe Scolari's reign

There was a moment during Sunday's game against Santos that, more than any other, underlined Grêmio's impressive recent progress. Deep into the second half, striker Yuri Mamute – a substitute, as he has been for much of the season so far – found a bit of space inside the area and slid a finish between the legs of Vanderlei to put his side into a 3-1 lead. To celebrate, he eschewed the now-default group-prayer routine to sprint over to the Grêmio dugout to enjoy the moment - not with his teammates but with his coach.

Roger Machado has been a breath of fresh air at the Porto Alegre club since taking over at the end of May. Under his guidance, the Tricolor players have grown in belief, clawing their way up the Brasileirão table courtesy of a series of impressive results.

It is all a far cry from what went before. Luiz Felipe Scolari's reign had begin in promising fashion after the World Cup, with Grêmio staggeringly frugal in defence and capable of nicking matches with a single goal. But progress slowed in the latter stages of 2014 and ground to a halt earlier this year during an underwhelming Campeonato Gaúcho campaign.

Read my latest article for WhoScored here.

First the tragedy, then the farce: Brazil in crisis again after listless Copa América campaign in Chile

This time, there was no rout, no scoreline to ring through the ages. There were no tears, no eulogies.

In many ways, that is the most damning thing about the quiet death of Brazil’s Copa América hopes: there was none of the shock and awe of the game known simply as “The 7-1”. On this occasion there was barely a whimper of defiance as the Seleção muddled their way to a draw with Paraguay and – for the second time in four years – came up short in a penalty shootout.

The quarter-final performance was entirely of a piece with the rest of Brazil’s campaign. There was no fluency, no pattern to their play. Roberto Firmino and Philippe Coutinho toiled away but produced nothing. In midfield, Elias and Fernandinho seemed content to play sideways passes and let the full-backs provide what little attacking thrust there was. With Neymar absent, there was simply no spark.

Read my Copa América post-mortem on the Rabona website.