For all the intensity of their footballing rivalry, there was little Brazilian pleasure to be taken from the problems of Argentina's San Lorenzo in the semifinal of the Club World Cup -- where the unimpressive Libertadores champions needed extra time to squeeze past semi-professional Auckland City of New Zealand.

There are two reasons for the lack of Brazilian schadenfreude. The first is that in the 10 year history of this competition, every club from Brazil has struggled with the semifinal. Two have even lost at this stage.

The other is that San Lorenzo eliminated a string of Brazilian clubs on the way to winning the Libertadores. So, naturally enough, there is a feeling of "if they are this bad, what does it say about us?"

2014 has certainly not been a vintage year for the Brazilian game. That 7-1 thrashing at the hands of Germany in the World Cup semifinal has left a stain on the reputation which will take many years to wash away. It is the most headline-grabbing negative news of the year. But it is probably true that, in the cold light of several months' reflection, the displays of Brazilian clubs in the Copa Libertadores were even more disastrous.

The 7-1 was a banana skin that Brazil slipped on without the services of the team's two most important players -- striker Neymar, who was injured, and centre-back Thiago Silva, who was suspended.

San Lorenzo stunned the South American continent by claiming their first Copa Libertadores in August.
San Lorenzo players hold the trophy after their Copa Libertadores win.
There was also the intensely strong emotional component of the collapse. As results both before and since the World Cup would seem to indicate, this is by no means a vintage Brazil side, but they can usually be relied upon to be competitive. If the same Brazil and Germany teams were to take each other on outside the pressures of the World Cup then it would seem highly likely that the Germans would come out on top -- but they could face each other many times without a repeat of the 7-1 scoreline.

Events in the Libertadores are just as astonishing as the World Cup semifinal -- and harder to explain. These days Brazilian clubs have a massive financial advantage over their opponents elsewhere in the continent. Average salaries in the Brazilian first division are three times higher than those in Argentina, five times higher than those in Colombia, 10 times higher than those in Chile. The difference in club income follows more or less the same proportions. By any normal footballing logic, the combination of tradition and financial muscle should mean that the Brazilian clubs are not just winning the Libertadores, but that they are totally dominating the competition and slaying their opponents Real Madrid style.

David Luiz's post-game apologies couldn't soften the blow of an epic defeat.
David Luiz's post-game apologies couldn't soften the blow of an epic defeat.
And yet this year there was not a single Brazilian representative in the semifinals. The same nearly happened last year, but Atletico Mineiro's goalkeeper saved a stoppage time penalty and took his side into the last four -- from which point they needed a shootout to win both the semi and the final. Theirs was the fourth consecutive Brazilian triumph, but there was no sign of domination. In 2011 Santos were the only Brazilian side to make the quarterfinals -- and rode their luck to get there in a second round tie against Club America of Mexico.

The clear conclusion is that money, while clearly important in professional football, is not everything. Money brings quality, which makes it easier to put bold ideas into practice. But what if there is a dearth of ideas?

Argentina's 1978 World Cup winning coach Cesar Luis Menotti is one of football's most respected thinkers. A former Santos player, he is also a great fan of old-style Brazilian football. He is rare among his compatriots in rating Pele over Diego Maradona, for example. But Menotti is disgusted with the route the Brazilian game has taken.

"I've been insisting for some time," said Menotti after the World Cup, "that Brazil was changing its characteristics. When their great teams of 1982 and 1986 did not achieve the results they deserved, Brazil started playing in a different style."

More recently he commented on the beneficial effect that Pep Guardiola's Barcelona had on the global game. "It was a devastating hurricane," he said, "which swept away all the lies in such a way that now even the Italians want to play a possession-based game. The only (squad) which is playing worse and worse is Brazil."


Mauro Matos and San Lorenzo snuck by second-tier Auckland City in the Club World Cup.
It is a comment that lands a glancing blow on Brazil's isolation. Curiosity was a key component in the rise of the Brazilian game. There were coaches from Uruguay and ideas from Hungary. But having so much success has its own pitfalls. So often there is the temptation to see it as a birthright, rather than the outcome of a process. And Brazilian football these days seems to be walking in the opposite direction to most of the world.

In a recent column, Tostao, the great 1970 striker and probably the wisest man to have pulled on the Brazil shirt, put his finger on the problem. He wrote of the importance of the central midfielder with a good range of passing, the man who can open up space from centre field and dictate the rhythm of the game -- such as Andrea Pirlo of Italy or Toni Kroos of Germany. It is a type of player Brazil used to produce in spades, but not any more.

"I dream of a world class centre-midfielder in Brazilian football," he wrote, "but we have not had one for more than 20 years. This is not just one of those things and it's not that we are between generations. This is a symbol of our decline."

It is a decline, more than anything else, in the field of ideas. Brazilian football became obsessed with the counter attack -- in breaking up the play, breaking at pace and either scoring from the counter or from a set piece. Midfield elaboration went out of the window, which is very sad for those old enough to remember what it used to be like.

More recent generations have no such memories. The current Santos team have a young striker called Geuvanio. He told it as he sees it.

"European football," he said, "has more exchanges of passes. Brazilian football is more long balls and running."

That's a depressing commentary on the times for Brazilian football fans.