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Brazil national team manager Tite has opened up about why his players surrounded him to mask his pigeon dance during their 4-1 victory over South Korea at the FIFA World Cup.
Brazil ran riot at Stadium 974 in Qatar as they put on a dominant display against South Korea. The Selecao scored all four goals within the first 36 minutes as Vinicius Jr., Neymar Jr., Richarlison, and Lucas Paqueta added their names to the scoresheet.
Emotions were understandably high and Brazil were jubilant with their celebrations. Following Richarlison's scintillating goal, the Tottenham Hotspur forward rushed to his manager to celebrate with him. Tite performed a dance with his players as they huddled around their coach to cover his actions.
The Brazilian boss has now explained that such displays of joy can often be misconstrued as disrespect, something Tite wants to avoid. Following the encounter, he said (via UOL Esporte):
"I'm very careful, because there are always those who are mean who will understand it as disrespect. I asked them to hide me a little bit and I didn't want it to have any other interpretation than the sense of joy for the goal, for the team, for the performance.
"Joy for that and not disrespect for the opponent or for Paulo Bento, who I've known and admired since Cruzeiro . But then I couldn't hide [the dance] (laughs)."
Tite added:
"We try to adapt to the characteristics of the group and the athletes, I adapt to their language, which has a dance language, as a joke. One day there was dancing in the locker room, I tried to join and they removed me from the "Molejo group" if I learned the dance. Except that the dance is hard as hell!
"Then it passed, they were fooling around. But this dance there [do Pombo] I can do similar, but very bad. And I said to him (Richarlison): 'if you score [goal], come and I'm going to dance'."
Roy Keane criticizes Brazil boss' actions in FIFA World Cup encounter against South Korea
Tite's reservations seem to have been confirmed as Manchester United legend Roy Keane has slammed the Brazil boss for his extravagant celebrations. The Englishman believes Tite's actions were disrespectful towards the opposition.
Speaking as a pundit on ITV, Keane said (via The Mirror):
"I don't like this. I think it's disrespecting the opposition. It's four [goals] and they're doing it every time. I don't mind the first kind of little jig - whatever they're doing - but they're still doing it after that and then the manager getting involved with it. I'm not happy with it, I don't think it's very good at all."
Brazil's commanding performance saw Son Heung-min's South Korea get knocked out of the FIFA World Cup. The Selecao will move on to the Quarter-Finals and lock horns with Croatia on 9 December.
