Taylor Twellman on World Cup: Brazil has ‘lost their edge, mojo and aura’
Yahoo Sports Daily hosts Caroline Fenton and Jason Fitz are joined by former USA men’s soccer player and World Cup contributor Taylor Twellman to discuss what went wrong for Brazil in their opening acth of the 2026 FIFA World Cup. Watch the full episode of Yahoo Sports Daily on YouTube or YahooSports.TV.
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Video Transcript
Give me your bad and give me your ugly from the opening weekend of the World Cup.
The bad was Brazil.
Really bad.
A- and I was in the building when they lost in the World Cup semifinal in 2014 against Germany 7-1, and since that moment, the five-time world champions have lost their edge.
They’ve lost their mojo.
They lost the aura of that yellow kit when they walk onto the field, with the blue shorts and the white socks, that traditionally scared the living you-know-what out of everybody.
They’ve lost that.
They were completely outplayed by Morocco.
They don’t look like they’re a contender.
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They’ve lost the ingenuity that makes Brazil the country that produces the most professional soccer players, football players, in the world.
They’ve lost that.
They are easily the bad, and there’s gonna be real pressure on them in game two.
The ugly is this, and I hate being the wet blanket, but Curacao losing 7-1 now makes that group and the tournament very different.
Awesome.
First ever World Cup match.
First ever goal at the World Cup.
Nothing better.
But you lost 7-1, and the number one tiebreaker for third place teams going through, guys, is points and then goal differential.
So now Ivory Coast, now Ecuador know that if they play Curacao at the same rate that Germany did, they’re going through.
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You’ve kind of changed the integrity of the competition by going to 48 teams.
The ugly isn’t Curacao, the ugly is the fact that at 48 teams, we may have a few minnows that are swimming upstream, and they shouldn’t be in the water.