Brazil will head off to their World Cup headquarters in New Jersey this week with a spring in their step after a commanding victory against Panama on Sunday night.It took Carlo Ancelotti’s side just 58 seconds to open the scoring, Vinicius Junior slamming home to delight a packed Maracana.Panama, one of England’s opponents in World Cup Group L, played their way back into the game admirably, only to have the stuffing knocked out of them by a VAR-assisted Casemiro goal just before the interval.Brazil rang the changes in the second half and the cavalry ran riot, adding some gloss to the scoreline and giving Ancelotti plenty to ponder in the days ahead.Here are three of the big talking points from the game.Vinicius leads the wayOne of Ancelotti’s first acts when he took the Brazil job last May was to tweak Vinicius’ positioning.The Real Madrid forward had spent the vast majority of his Brazil career to that point hugging the left touchline, double-marked and miles from goal. He very often looked frustrated and his scoring record told its own story: he managed just six goals in his first 40 Brazil appearances, a mediocre return for a player who has netted over 20 times in each of the last five seasons for his club.Ancelotti knew he needed to release Vinicius. His ploy was to play him centrally, as a roving freelancer, with someone on the left (Rodrygo or Gabriel Martinelli) to do conventional wing work. It worked well: Vinicius scored against Paraguay and South Korea in his new position, and generally looked like a man enjoying his football.The same was true against Panama. Vinicius started off through the middle, flitted over to the left, went roaming. The other members of Ancelotti’s fluid front four — Raphinha, Matheus Cunha, Luiz Henrique — all had their moments, but there was no doubt who the star of the piece was.Vinicius Junior celebrates scoring his team’s early first goal against Panama at the Maracana (Buda Mendes/Getty Images)Vinicus followed up his stunning early strike with a series of nagging runs, tugging the Panamanians’ back line into awkward shapes. It was his cross-shot that led to Casemiro’s goal. Above all, he just looked energised and motivated, much more like Madrid-issue Vinicius than the version that struggled for his country before Ancelotti showed up.