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June 13, 2006
World Cup Blogging
Very smooth, but low-scoring, victory by Brazil. That's one of the weird quirks of soccer -- a total demolition can have the same final score as the barest win. Ah well. The Brazilians' traditionally exquisite footwork was on full display, their counterattacks were lethal, and Kaka positively embedded the ball in the net. Good signs. A couple close calls in the second quarter, but they made victory look easy -- probably because it was. On the downside, Ronaldo was disappointing; he's obviously out of shape and overshadowed. Best exchange from the announcers, when one of the Brazilians was looking to pass to Ronaldo:
"He's searching for Ronaldo..."
"Aren't we all."
Heh.
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Comments
Kaka scored the goal, I thought?
Posted by: pantomimeHorse | Jun 13, 2006 5:09:33 PM
it was Kaka's goal, and you are selling Croatia short I think. They were very effective against Brazil for the most part. JMHO.
Posted by: Kathleen | Jun 13, 2006 5:20:28 PM
My bad -- thanks for the catch.
Posted by: Ezra | Jun 13, 2006 5:24:49 PM
Ezra,
Surely you jest? The traditional free flowing, "joga bonita" style of the Brazilians was nowhere to be found. No real energy until Robinho replaced Ronaldo. The Brazilians had some great chances, but so did the Croatians, and the game could have gone either way. The Croatians played Brazil very tough. My sister in law is Brazilian and she was very upset with the team and how they played.
After the game, she called her parents in Brazil and they said that all the press is upset with Ronaldo adn the team in general.
I know Brazil is traditionally a slow starter, but they need to kick it up a notch or they might get surprised by Australia!
Posted by: xerixes | Jun 13, 2006 6:33:27 PM
I have to agree with Xerixes. Brazil looked sloppy, even lackadaisical. Croatia had some good scoring opportunities. IMO, Brazil is rather lucky Croatia didn't score.
Posted by: shargash | Jun 13, 2006 7:33:06 PM
Without Dida as GK this match, Croatia would have walked away with the win. They had some pretty good offense.
Posted by: Gozer | Jun 13, 2006 9:01:16 PM
Yeah, not so much of a demolition. Great strike by Kaka but other than that is was only so so. I was actually pretty impressed by Croatia, but not so much Brazil. Oh and Ronaldo has no business starting in that team in this form.
Posted by: Gabe | Jun 13, 2006 10:45:14 PM
You guys are selling Brazil short.
There was a three minute spell when Brazil absolutely pummeled Croatia in the first half (and that's half, BTW, Ezra, not quarter) in which I counted five shots, two on target and they earned two corners.
Croatia played very well in the second half, but Brazil for all intents and purposes owned the midfield in the first half, Ronaldo's uselessness notwithstanding. Cafu was very impressive and Emerson and Zé Roberto were excellent midfield masters.
Shots on Goal: Brazil 6; Croatia 3
Shots: Brazil: 13; Croatia 9
Corner kicks were the only stat that Croatia had an edge on: 7 to 5.
Possession was 50/50
Don't know about you guys, but when a team has twice as many shots on goal as their opponent and wins the game, I would have a hard time saying that they were outplayed.
Posted by: Randy Paul | Jun 13, 2006 11:07:45 PM
All said and done, I think Brazil is in for a rude awakening from one of the less fancied teams. Ronaldo's lack of form and poor fitness is just one of the reasons. There are a lot of other good teams. Ghana, for example, played really well against Italy and the 2-0 score doesn't accurately represent their talent. The Czech Republic is another team to watch out for. In the end, Brazil : don't believe the hype!
Posted by: Masale.Wallah | Jun 13, 2006 11:29:19 PM
The hype? Five World Cup Championships, 7 times in the final, the only nation to appear in every WC and currently the holder of the Confederations Cup, Copa America and World Cup titles.
That's not hype. That's tradition.
Parreira is a smart coach. In 1994, he took Raí out and replaced him with Dunga as his holding midfielder. They went on to play solidly and win the Cup. Count on Robinho to start on Sunday. Ronaldo will be riding the pine.
Posted by: Randy Paul | Jun 13, 2006 11:44:32 PM
I agree with Randy Paul about Robinho: I think he will start against Australia. As soon as he came in the energy level went up a notch.
Dont get me wrong I am a big Brazil fan, its just that they did not look like the defending champions and there was nothing that made you sit back and say "Dang! How did they do that?" which they usually do.
Croatia's set pieces/crosses were all very dangerous and the game could have gone either way. They kept playing hard until the end and had some dangerous looks at goal right before time...
Anyway, tomorrow's Spain-Ukraine will be very interesting. Spain is one of my favorite teams, but Ukraine is looking very strong....
Posted by: xerixes | Jun 14, 2006 12:02:54 AM
ugh, americans talking about football.
Posted by: david | Jun 14, 2006 6:32:34 AM
Let's look at recent history: 2002 beat Turkey with a questionable penalty call. 1998 - Beat Scotland with an own goal. They'll be a force to contend with. Underestimating Brazil is a fool's errand.
Posted by: Randy Paul | Jun 14, 2006 9:37:24 AM
David,
I played the game in school in the 1970's, lived in a famous football town (Kaiserslautern) for three years, am married to a Brazilian (who says I know more about the sport than many of her countrymen) and have followed the game avidly since 1970.
Keep stereotyping. We'll see who looks stupind in the end. It won't be me.
Posted by: Randy Paul | Jun 14, 2006 9:43:12 AM
Just to be clear, I don't think the Brazilians were outplayed. Brazil won the match, and they deserved to.
I just expected a lot more out of them. Croatia had a couple scoring chances that could have tied the game. In particular there was a flubbed header in the (I think) the second half from very close in that had the Brazilian GT moving in the wrong direction. It looked like the Croatian just missed the ball (I was watching on Univision...not sure if that was the same feed as whatever Anglo station was carrying the game).
As good as Brazil is, they shouldn't have put themselves in a position such that Croatia could have come away with a tie if they had executed better any one of several plays.
Posted by: shargash | Jun 14, 2006 10:23:37 AM
But Brazil *always* plays like that. They're about the laziest team in the league, continually playing with half a percentage point of effort above what's required. That said, I'm with Randy here. I missed the last 15 or so minutes, so maybe they collapsed, but Brazil owned the first half, Croatia could barely get off a shot (and those they did take were useless). And, as others have noted, brazil was basically playing with 10 men on the field, Ronaldo's uselessness actually making the game harder.
Posted by: Ezra | Jun 14, 2006 10:41:39 AM
Oh, I think Brazil was marginally better,and on balance deserved to win, but when you are gauging teams you have to grade on a curve. Brazil wasn't looking to be marginally better than Croatia.
Posted by: Gabe | Jun 14, 2006 10:59:50 AM
It's all relevant now! Is not it?
Elza
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