Brazil’s poor performance in their Copa America opening against Costa Rica on Monday has tempered expectations for their new manager and a remade squad led by Vinicius Jr.Fans were hoping that Brazil had turned a corner under Dorival Jr after a gritty 1-0 win against England at Wembley and a hard-fought 3-3 draw with Spain at the Bernabeu earlier this year, but his team had no answers for Costa Rica’s five-man defense in California.

As the clock crept down and the five-time world champions became increasingly frustrated, Dorival opted to make his first two substitutes in the 70th minute.

His decision to remove Vinicius from the game caught everyone off guard.

Even Brazil’s talisman Neymar, who is recovering from a catastrophic knee injury but was in attendance as a fan, couldn’t hide his disappointment.

The footage showed his reaction in the grandstand when the stadium speaker announced the change, yelling “Vini?” again, arms open, and looking at his pals in disbelief.

Vinicius arrived at the Copa America as a strong contender for the Ballon d’Or following a spectacular season with LaLiga champions Real Madrid.

The 23-year-old scored Real’s second goal against Borussia Dortmund in the Champions League final, helping the club win a record-extending 15th European title.

The jet-heeled attacker torments opponents and always appears to step up when the pressure is on, netting 24 goals for his team last season.

Real boss Carlo Ancelotti rarely substituted him, citing Vinicius’s dangerousness late in games and allowing the forward to roam across the front line.

Things are different in Brazil.

Vinicius is used as a more traditional forward wide on the left and has only three goals in 31 games for Brazil.

Dorival’s decision to take him off on Monday brought back memories of the 2022 World Cup quarter-finals, when then-manager Tite also removed Vinicius early in the second half against Croatia, which Brazil lost on penalties.

Vinicius struggled to create an impression from the left wing on Monday, finishing the game with no shots on goal.

Dorival stated that he attempted moving Vinicius around before replacing him with 17-year-old forward Endrick.

“We tried with him on the wing but were unsuccessful. Then we put him inside and couldn’t go through… he was really highly marked,” Dorival explained.

“We needed to find a solution, and I was attempting to make a shift. We explored different solutions and created several situations, but we were ultimately unsuccessful in completing the task.”

The problem for Dorival in Brazil’s upcoming games will be to find a method to balance their offense without losing their finest player.