Not So Great After All?
14/06/06 02:08 PM
I watched the Brazil-Croatia game last night and, Kaka’s great strike aside, I’ve gotta say that the Brazilians didn’t exactly look as good as their reputation suggests. People have talked them up so much that I think they have teams beaten before they’ve even played them when in fact if you look closely at them, they aint that special.
A silly thing to say perhaps; clearly Ronaldinho is one of those ‘once-a-generation’ players and we should all be glad we’re around now to see him in his prime (my Dad still smugly remembers the Peles, Eusebios, Bests and Cruyffs), but he didn’t do much last night. Their two main strikers, Ronaldo and Adriano looked completely uninterested and didn’t track back at all, and their full-backs aren’t exactly spring chickens. I can’t say I was overly impressed by Emerson in midfield, either. In fact for much of the game Croatia were the better side (the possession stats did confirm this).
However, like England, they won and didn’t play well so you can’t ask for much more than that. Ronaldo barely touched the ball but almost scored with a great strike so still remains dangerous. There is no doubt they will improve and are going through the motions in the group stages, but I really think if you go at them and believe it, they aren’t that scary.
Dida, their ‘keeper, doesn’t seem fantastic and I think, like in a lot of other games so far, that if you shoot from distance (come on – we’ve got Beckham, Lampard and Gerrard who are all pretty handy at blasting ‘em), with these swervy balls, there’s definite possibilities of more wonder goals!
Hopefully we’ll get to find out as that’ll mean a semi-final for us at least (I think!).
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