Here Come the Roos

Brazil fights the green-and-yellow battle against Australia’s footballeroos socceroos today, in their second match on group F. A victory would secure their spot on the next round, given Japan and Croatia’s earlier 0-0 draw. The same can be said for Australia. See more on the match preview, and follow the match on the liveblog. My dog is already reeking with anticipation: he’s afraid of the sound of fireworks and this is sure to be a thrilling day for him.

Back here in Brazil, press appears to have settled down quite a bit. Much was speculated after Ronaldo’s disappointing performance against Croatia, but I think they’re realizing that putting such a pressure on Ronaldo and other players doesn’t help the matter, and Ronaldo himself is keeping some distance from the press. Anyway, apparently Parreira had a talk with Ronaldo a couple of days ago, and have gave him a warning: if he doesn’t do well against Australia, he’ll have no other chance than replacing him. Other players from the team were quick to give support to him on the following days, and Ronaldo himself said he’d ask to be replaced if he wasn’t well at the match, and wouldn’t be angered to have to sit on the bench. Apparently, he was a bit more motivated when training, so I think we have good chances of seeing much of the old Ronaldo in the field today.

In the end, Brazil will play with no changes on the main squad. Unless

On the other side, Australia has a tough decision to make - having four players with yellow cards, they’ll have to decide whether to save these players or to put them in the game and risk getting a second yellow card (something that would prevent them from playing against Japan, on Australia’s final match on the group stages). Australia’s coach Guus Hiddink already said he will still play with the main squad, so whether or not they’ll try to keep away from tougher disputes is the big question.

See Brazil’s blog predictions - both my and Euler’s ones - on the comments of this post. In a nutshell, I think it’ll be Brazil 3-1 Australia, and Euler thinks it’ll be Brazil 2-1 Australia. What are yours?