To worsen the situation Parreira said he would do it all again. He won’t admit he was wrong. Neither will Roberto Carlos who should be there to avoid the French goal. General feeling is that our nation was betrayed by those called to defend our flag, our history and tradition.

Besides the Brazilian pathetic football, I got some good things out of this German World Cup. To write for Brazil in this blog was a major experience. For that I thank Bob Kellett and the whole World Cup Blog team for allowing me to take part on this amazing worldwide experience. Here I got the chance to translate some Brazilian feelings into words for football fans from all over the world.

I got the chance to interact with great people from many different backgrounds. Bloggers like Soze, Stacy-Marie, Afshin Afshar, Zé, Luiz, Bob and readers like Dan, Gustavo, Chackan, John, Miguelinho, Arjuno, Sourav, Pedro, among many others, were of ultimate importance for my participation here. They were all fuel to my daily writing. Thank you guys!

Another good thing is that I was never so involved and committed to a World Cup like this before. I was so glued to the event that most of my friends were constantly asking me about everything. My World Cup experience was enhanced in many ways. Of course having such a bitter end my hatred for our players and coach was also enhanced. I practiced my English and my writing too.

Now towards the closing moments of the World Cup I already feel nostalgic of these times, this fever, the madness that took over the world. I must wait another 4 years to have more heart attacks. I know that the next coach will endure heavy criticism and constant watch from us, and the players will have to prove themselves more than ever. For the Brazilian fans the fall was too hard. Not only because of high expectations but for the lack of dedication of the players who doesn’t seem to understand what does that canary shirt means to our country.

I envy the German fans that could applaud their players, the Portuguese fans that could show their appreciation for their team’s effort. I wish I can have at least that in 2010. In my heart I still carry the memories of 1994 and 2002 when the country paused their daily problems just to celebrate together as one proud nation. I must also thank the golden generations for the other 3 stars we carry above our crest and inside our souls.

Have a nice final France and Italy. I think Italy will win, but I surely hope the graceful Zidane get this title again.

Um grande abraço (a big hug) to you all. See you in 2010.

After the failure on the quarter finals, the name calling and press whining has begun. Everybody’s sad, everybody wants to find the culprit for the defeat, and there is no shortage of scapegoats. Watching TV yesterday after the game was physically painful, as everybody had their own theory for the defeat and none of them were exactly light.

Courtesy of Today’s Front Pages, here comes the printed press coverage of Brazil’s defeat. It’s a bit long, so bare with me.

A team to forget (O Estado de São Paulo, São Paulo)
The Seleção leaves the World Cup with a lamentable display against France, where the star Zidane shined

–

It was their show. Did you like it, Parreira? (Extra, Rio de Janeiro)
Brazil plays pathetically again, loses to France and Zidane has the last laugh again
Below, above Scolari’s head: How we miss your guts, Felipão…

–

France, again, knocks Brazil out (Folha de São Paulo, São Paulo)
Left of Parreira: Parreira changed the squad that, apathetic, watched Zidane’s show
Right of Parreira: Coach says he didn’t prepare himself for the defeat

–

All that was missing was to wear the shirt (Lance, São Paulo)
This title is a little play with words. “Wearing the shirt” mean getting into the team spirit.
The funny thing is that this newspaper has a detachable mustache you can cut from it and wear during the Portugal matches – mustaches are a symbol of the Portuguese around here.
Above, left of the mustache: Cut here to continue following the World Cup

–

France gets rid of Brazil (O Globo, Rio de Janeiro)
With a pathetic performance, the Seleção is knocked out of the cup; all that’s left is Felipão (Scolari, Portugal’s coach)

Brazil played anti-Brazilian style once more. I could not be angrier. Brazil is out!!! We deserved it!!! We asked for it! Parreira can go train Saudi Arabia again!!! Or something like that. Brazil is not this!

Sorry if I sound too angry, but I am. Our team had Samba in the bus ONLY! In this World Cup we had no samba on the pitch. I’m a little drunk but these are my feelings now. Completely pissed off!!!

I won’t blame the referees. I will not be a bad loser. We deserved!!! Read all I wrote again!!! Hate this team with me!!! Aaaarrrrggghhhh!!!! (check my pulse)

C’est fini.

Brazil started the match pretty well, but lowered the tempo shortly thereafter and allowed France to literally dance on the field. Zidane was the maestro of the match – clearly unmarked, his passes and dribbles were as if he had 26 years old. It’s strange to think he’ll be quitting his career after this World Cup, because he still has a lot of magic to show; our friends in defeat seem to agree.

Brazil’s changes in the starting lineup turned out to be inoquous – didn’t do any bad, but didn’t do any good either. Apparently, the biggest problem with Brazil was on the wings, where Roberto Carlos and Cafu weren’t up to the task. I usually don’t agree that they’re just “old” – they clearly did a lot of running – but most of the time it felt as they gave up on some plays so I think the age was at fault this time. Parreira’s changes near the end did make the team better, but it was too little, too late.

It still doesn’t take France’s merit on defeating Brazil though. The team had clearly done they homework and were better tactically and technically. They have improved a lot on this World Cup considering their first results during the qualifiers, and I think they’ll be strong contenders for the title. Watch out, Portugal.

By the way, this World Cup now has an all-european semifinals, with 4 teams from Europe (Germany, Italy, Portugal, France).

Thanks for the players for their effort – hopefully, in another 4 years, with the hype on the shoulders of other team, the young players of today like Robinho and Cicinho will be able to do their thing without the pressure of being the favorites. Better luck to them; we are just another team.

With this additional defeat, France becomes a biger taboo for Brazil – like Italy was a few years ago, before 1994’s finals – but it will only make things more exciting next time.

Also thanks for all the readers that provided insightful comments. It was pretty interesting seeing other points of view about something we Brazilians like so much.

Enjoy the rest of the World Cup!

He will also replace Emérson with Gilberto Silva. The final lineup is: Dida; Cafu, Lúcio, Juan and Roberto Carlos; Gilberto Silva, Zé Roberto, Juninho Pernambucano and Kaká; Ronaldinho Gaúcho and Ronaldo.

I, for one, am pretty delighted with these news: it sounds like a dream team to me, even though Robinho is missing. However, it’s also important to notice that changes on the way the main squad plays at this point in time can be quite dangerous since they didn’t much have the time to practice together.

The antecipation is growing ever stronger.

Brazil started a bit slowly on the World Cup – winning all matches, but facing hard criticism because it failed to reach the level of performance expected by the media and the general public. It still isn’t into high gear. France, on the other hand, had a below average qualification round – winning only one match – but has improved through the tournament, specially after a convincing victory over Spain.

Today will be the day that either Zidane will play his last match as a professional player, or the day that Zidane will assert its place as Brazil’s slayer; the day Ronaldo will show the world he’s back from the shadows, or the day Zidane will show the world he hasn’t left the light yet; the day Parreira’s stubborness will prove genious, or the day his ignorance will become apparent; the day Brazil will break another record, or the day they will be sent home with just a collection of numbers on the bag.

What day will this be?

As a brazilian, I’m confident on their ability to get past France. On the other hand, I also know they’ll face their toughest opponent so far. Brazil is known to get into the right gear during the last matches of the World Cup – here’s to hope we will see that today… and that I don’t have a heart attack in the process — the anxiety, my friend, is excruciating.

Well, despite the general “revenge for 1998!” feeling going on right now among Brazilians (denied by the players themselves), the biggest pre-game talk, as usual, is about the team’s lineup; people are still heavily skeptical with the current team (while Roberto Carlos, on the other hand, is pretty satisfied with it).

Robinho has already trained normally and it’s 100% back from his injury. Will he be back to the main starting lineup, as against Japan? If I know Parreira, I’d say “hardly” – he will probably come in after 70 minutes again. I can also say that 11 out of each 10 Brazilians want to see him there.

The same question can be asked for Kaká and Emérson, both who contracted slight injuries after the last match against Ghana. They are already training with the other players, but the team’s medic hasn’t confirmed their availability. Both are from the main lineup though and are likely to start in the match if they’re fit.

I’ve seen people saying that Ghana played better than Brazil, which is absolutely not true. We saw the defending champions playing against a newcomer with nothing to lose. They shot 18 times against 11 Brazilian attempts, but only 7 were on goal against 10 of ours. Heart against heart, Ghana was obviously more motivated, but Brazil is looking for the title and did what it had to be done to advance.

Our team is among the top scorer teams (10 goals with Germany and Argentina) and only conceded 1 goal (same as Portugal and Italy). We had the largest score in the round of sixteen and yet people are still bashing our chances. The truth is that Brazil is not playing well. You read it right. I agree that Brazil is flying under their true capability. If Ghana had some killer instincts they would have scored some goals, same goes to Brazil. We clearly had some obvious chances in front of the goalkeeper, but also missed those chances.

What about the dilemma? Play beautifully or win? I can’t expect anything less than BOTH from this team. Not only the Brazilian people want to see this team rocking, but everyone else too. We have a big problem called Parreira. Now is the time when non-Brazilians say ‘you expect too much from your team’. No, no, I don’t agree. We started the second half with a 2 goal advantage. Brazil should grow even more and attack with full force, but Parreira doesn’t like too many goals. Against Japan Ricardinho’s mission was to avoid any more Brazilian goals, but this time he decided to rebel against Parreira’s instructions and added the mobility Ronaldinho have failed to provide. Zé Roberto, man of the match, was served by Ricardinho.

The beautiful Brazil will only happen if we keep attacking even after the score is positive. The twin towers cannot play together. Ronaldo and Adriano are holding down our team’s capability, clearly imposing a distance that Ronaldinho and Kaká are unable to cover. Parreira is not the only one to be blamed, of course. Some players must wake up as soon as possible. Ronaldinho specially. He is the main candidate for the World Cup’s greatest disappointment by far. Robinho, who is getting ready to play against France, will be his tool for waking his skills up. Our defense is fine, by the way. Lucio is dominating and didn’t commit any faults until now, believe it or not. He is our Gamarra!

Now we’ll see Zidane against a healthy Ronaldo. The Brazilian team is avoiding saying anything about paying back the 1998 final, but they are alone. Brazil must win this, not only to advance, but to celebrate the end of a great footballer’s career. Goodbye Zidane! Of course I don’t know if Brazil will overcome a rising France, but I surely believe it can be done.

1st Goal, by Ronaldo
In english, from several angles.

FIFA Highlights of the match
Includes all three goals. Shows Adriano’s offside goal, but doesn’t show the wrongfully marked offside though.

São Paulo during the World Cup
Most people won’t understand this very well, but this is downtown on my city, São Paulo. It’s usually one of the most crowded, chaotic corners on the city… but it’s nearly empty because everybody’s too busy watching the game.

Brazil vs Ghana, Instituto vs Sway
And now something slightly unrelated: some beatboxing + rap + samba mixture duel with Brazil and Ghana rappers. They’re actually talking about the pre-match. In portuguese and english.

First, and more importantly, Ronaldo broke Gerd Mueller’s 14-goal record to be the all-time leading scorer on World Cups, as mentioned before. He has scored 15 goals so far.

Cafu is now the brazilian player with most appearances on World Cup matches – 19. He was previously tied to Dunga and Taffarel with 18 matches each. The overall record holder is Lothar Matthaeus (Germany), with 25 appearances from 1982 to 1998. Cafu also has an additional record – most victories on World Cup matches: 16. Lothar Matthaeus and Wolfgang Overath (also from Germany) follow with 15 victories each.

The same number of matches (19) is now held by Parreira, which moved to 4th place on the list of matches as a coach.

Brazil is also the team with the highest goal count on World Cups – it scored its 199th, 200th and 201st goals on this match. It is followed closely by Germany, with 186 goals.

Brazil now keeps a winning streak of 11 matches on the tournament, followed by Italy, with 7 consecutive victories.

Not bad for a team that’s not doing so well. Records don’t win World Cups, but they sure say something about the country’s love for football – and, I guess, the same applies to Germany.

Sources: Brazil breaks records against Ghana, Brazil looking to break records vs. Ghana, Brasileiro que mais jogou, Cafu também se torna maior vitorioso