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Just Another Team

June 14th, 2006 | By: Euler Costa | 34 Comments »

Euler with the ESPN international See? Brazil is just another team. The big teams are (mostly) winning. Zidane deserved a better Henry, who looked lazy all the time. Croatia scared the hell out of me and Dida did a great job. Here in Brazil we get the media opinion from all over the world and it is not a good scenario from what I have been reading. The Brazilian media is tearing down the team, especially Ronaldo, who was absolutely ‘out’ during most of the game.

The good thing is that the world now knows Brazil isn’t that mystic/divine squad every one was compelled to believe. My expectation from now on is that the other teams stop playing against us as it was already a final match. The favoritism factor is fading, I hope. Let’s say that Argentina is the favorite from now on. Let them take the heat a little. The pauper outcome of the match was reflected in the major newspapers from all over the world. Many pointed out the ‘lack of magic’ from our team.

Even so, our team still brings some sort of ‘awe’ to the football fans. I was reading the ‘real fans’ point of view here at this blog of ours and I was glad to see that even without scoring the ‘jogo bonito’ was still there. Of course it didn’t translate into goals but our style is still there. We must understand that the hype developed about our team generated unrealistic expectations.

This sport is about 11 men against 11 men. Everyone is there to win. They are playing for their countries, for their families and for their personal honor. Notice that Croatia is the stronger team in our first stage and Brazil didn’t play against strong teams during the practice period. It is the first ‘real’ match for us in a long time and our defense managed to keep Croatia from scoring so I feel fine about the Seleção by now.

After all the pessimist (or should I say ‘optimist’) opinions about our team I would like to highlight some opinions expressed during the game by our own readers.

“Please have them show Croatia some mercy. And none of the playing around with the ball so that we look like complete idiots chasing your around!” (Darkose – Croatian)

“No matter what the result, with Brazil playing we are gonna get one thing we havent got this tournemant yet: The beautiful game! These guys play fast EXCITING football, with great passing and amazing skills.” (Dave from ?)

“We’re seeing Brazil playing the break-away, with terrific, instinctive passing all the way to a shot on goal that sailed high. Great pace! Beautiful two out of two touches for Ronaldinho.” (Total Football – USA)

“I’m getting scared…” (Mike – Argentina)

“Sheer joy to watch Brazil plot a move.” (Mohan – India)

“Even when Ronaldinho makes an error it’s still fun to watch.” (Roland – USA)

“I don’t like cheering for Brazil because they’ve won so many times — but I can’t help it! I hope Brazil takes this one - we need them to keep these games exciting after that irrelevant french/swiss match” (Amina – USA)

“WAD A GOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAALLLLLLL BY KAKA!!!!!” (Sandeep – Arab Emirates)

“Only a matter of time. And now the celebration begins.” (Roland – USA)

“Now all I smell is caipirinha and feijoada.” (Honeyman – USA)

“How about some more pics of the Brazilian fans?” (Dave – USA) Only natural.

“Why isn’t the “invader” naked??? I want my money back!” (Sam – USA) (he he he)

“I personally thought it was a GREAT GAME, a challenge for Brazil. This is a wake up call Brazil; you guys were not giving it all out there and it’s about time you do.” (Annesa)

“Brazil-Croatia was one of the 4 best matches so far. On my opinion, the best games came from Argentina, Brazil, Germany, Cote’dIvore, Portugal, Angola, Czech Republic and Croatia.” (Tonci – Croatia)

“Brasil…..you can play better…… I expect you are keeping the best for the last.” (Ales – Kuwait)

Kaka was the man of the match I know that there are 30 teams happy about this result. Even the Croatian team may be a little happy about it. In interviews before the game the Croatian players were talking about the match score, many of them saying that a tie against Brazil would be great. For your information, I was not happy at all with this result. Of course I won a dinner at my favorite restaurant (Soze, my Croatian blogger will pay the next time he comes to Rio) but I must agree that Croatia was dangerous and that Brazil let the world down.

I’ve seen some magic going on at Ronaldinho’s feet and I still believe that the Seleção will grow into the competition. Kaka was the best man of the match to me. Always very well positioned, great movement and he scored. What else can you expect from him? Anyway, Brazil broke one more record: the first team to win eight successive matches in the World Cup finals. Not bad, right?

I watched the game at the Sugar Loaf hill here at Rio. What an amazing atmosphere!!! I was dazed half of the time because of the beautiful sight of the landscape and of the babes cruising up and down the big screen perimeter. I got so many kisses from my girl friends that the slim victory was not such a big deal after all. I can’t wait to watch the Australian game next Sunday.

Tags: Brazil, Croatia, ESPN, quotes, Rio, Sugar Loaf

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Comments

Displaying the most recent 25 comments from a total of 34 comments.

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By sandy | June 14th, 2006 at 9:36 pm

Futahaguro

You are of Brazilian blood and you would rather have Spain win over Portugal???

What is wrong with you?

Posted from Canada

By zé | June 14th, 2006 at 10:37 pm

Sandy, despite being a country of Portuguese origin, believe me when I say out culture is much more similar to Spain than Portugal by a wide margin.

Posted from Brazil

By rodni | June 14th, 2006 at 11:40 pm

Brazil game was so weak . Come to think of it most teams not playing world class football , Brazillians you better pray you don’t meet Czech Republic anytime soon

Posted from United States

By roberto p | June 15th, 2006 at 12:58 am

I think Ronaldo is a world class player is still has so much more to demonstrate in the world cup

Posted from Nicaragua

By roberto pellas | June 15th, 2006 at 1:00 am

Brazil needs to believe like Landon Donovan said

Posted from Nicaragua

By Falcao | June 15th, 2006 at 1:16 am

Euler and Ze > It’s amazing to me how you guys and I are alwasy on the same page. All the opinions you expressed on the blog are things I wanted to express but didn’t quite know how to express it. Keep up the great blogging.

Posted from United States

By Euler | June 15th, 2006 at 1:16 am

Valentina is so cute!

Anyway, I don’t believe in the ‘deserve’ factor. I understand when people say that one team played better, but if that team lose than it probably deserved it.

Croatia was brave and strong, but was unable to translate that into a positive result. Brazil was the one with more attempts to score and that reflected the outcome.

The Croatian players were talking about ‘trying to tie’ while Brazil was expected to score many goals, in that perspective I can understand why Valentina feels that way.

Keep your faith Val! Croatia will win over Australia and Japan!

By Euler | June 15th, 2006 at 1:20 am

Oh, Soze, my gig was a disaster. The technical sound team of the event was a huge joke. I’m trying to avoid my band to play there again, but I don’t know if I will succeed. Anyway, the game part was worth it.

By Nelson Estrada | June 15th, 2006 at 1:50 am

What is happening to the Swiss? Roger Federer lost the final and now Switzerland tied (althought the French are pretty good)? Yeah, i’m not going with them anymore. I am back to my original team, Brazil!! Roberto Carlos with his canon, Ronadiño with his moves, and finally Dida(Nelson) with his unbelievable stops…Joga Bonito

Posted from Nicaragua

By Roger Arcia | June 15th, 2006 at 4:27 am

Now, i dont know, what is happenin lately in sports, first, nadal beats ljubicic easily, and now croatia is defeated by brazil, in what kind of world is that possible, definitely, pollution is affecting everything around here, im sick of this, now ill have to play volleyball and see if my teams have a chance in this.

Posted from Nicaragua

By conceicao | June 15th, 2006 at 4:48 am

Valentina, I watched the game with 150 Brasilians
and 3 Croats - This is about the same proportion
that Brasil has you outnumbered population-
wise. All glory to Croatia - I think that you still have the second-highest percentage in terms of
outright wins compared to games played
in World Cup history.

Posted from United States

By Marcellus Wallace | June 15th, 2006 at 5:44 am

Nelson Estrada, what are you talking about man?

Dude, you should go play the piano and learn about how to be classy like the Swiss.

SWISS ALL THE WAY!!!!

Posted from Nicaragua

By CarlosT | June 15th, 2006 at 9:50 am

Brazil’s performance did worry me. They hardly made any runs into the area, and were only taking long shots from outside the area. I thought that when Robinho came on for Ronaldo we might see some of those, but they just kept jogging around and taking the occasional potshot.

I wondered if it was a deliberate decision by Parreira to save their energy for Australia, since they showed some real threat in their comeback against Japan.

If this is the case, then I think Parreira’s nuts. Croatia could have scored at any time and I don’t know if Brazil would have been able to respond.

Posted from United States

By LiverpoolFC | June 15th, 2006 at 10:21 am

I think on the opening game performances its got to be Spain who are the favorites, not Brazil.I dont think Brazil were lazy, I think they were genuinely tired and seemed dis-interested. Probably from too much club football.

Posted from Australia

By AUSSIE | June 15th, 2006 at 10:52 am

AUSSIE AUSSIE AUSSIE
OI OI OI
AUSSIE AUSSIE AUSSIE
OI OI OI

I’LL LOVE AUSTRALIA TILL I DIE AND WE ARE CAPABLE OF SHOWING BRAZIL CAUSE BRAZIL ARE VERY OVERATED AND WE ARE UNDERATED. KEEP AN EYE OUT FOR US “HOPEFULLY” WE WILL IMPRESS. TAKE CARE MATE. JAPAN 3-0.. WHO IS NEXT?

AUSSIE AUSSIE AUSSIE!!!

Posted from Australia

By - | June 15th, 2006 at 10:59 am

CROATIA U SUCK…To all you croatians out there if u live in australia and u go for croatia piss off to your own country we are here together 2 support our boys for the first time in 32years. im actually italian and will die for this flag. you disgrace’s. Australia will have no problem against croatia and 3 of croatias best players were born here thats weird! lets wait and see!

Posted from Australia

By Nat | June 15th, 2006 at 11:37 am

May be, many pundits in the world started writing off Ronaldo, i still beleive he is purposefully underplaying now as I beleive, he is a Big-match palyer and waiting to see him play in the knockout stages and hopefully in the final!!!

Posted from United Kingdom

By zeedan | June 15th, 2006 at 11:42 am

get your free Brazil team theme for nokia at http://www.thecellcity.com/world-cup/index-worldcup.shtml or key http://www.thecellcity.com into your mobile phone and download direct over te phone

Posted from Singapore

By VJ | June 15th, 2006 at 1:04 pm

I thought Brazil played well, given they pretty much played with ten men in difficult conditions. The full backs were full of running, the central pairings of lucio and Juan at the back and Emerson and Ze Roberto in midfield looked solid and sharp. Ronaldinho and Kaka worked hard and are always capable of those moments of brilliance to win a game.

Parreira did say that Brazil were only going to be at 70%, given that they had not had any serious opposition before the start of the World Cup. That was a bit of a risky gamble, but it worked out in the end. It is only the first hurdle in a hopefully long campaign for Brazil. The team can only get better. The attacking pair of course, needs sorting out.

The media were quick to hype up the team as unbeatable. But no team is unbeatable. To assert the contrary is simply devoid of common sense. There are very good teams at this World Cup which have a good chance of winning too, especially, in the knock out stages where anything is possible.

Besides, people were very quick to write off a very good Croatian team. If I’m not mistaken, they were unbeaten in the qualification rounds, keeping 6 clean sheets in 10 games. They also beat Argentina 3 - 2 in March this year.

With the amount of talent Brazil has at its disposal, Brazil undeniably has a great chance to win the Hexa.

I stil think we haven’t seen the last of Ronaldo yet. He is a legend and deserves to be up there with the Greats.

Posted from United Kingdom

By LiverpoolFC | June 17th, 2006 at 1:41 am

GO THE SOCCEROOS!!! Brazil wont reach the quarters on that form, they will be knocked out in the 2nd round provided they even make it. Croatia are a pathetic team really and watch Japan kill them. If it was the France 98 squad of Croatia brazil would be looking at a 3-0 loss and a possible early exit from this world cup themselves. They were fortunate but their flaws in defence and the seemed tiredness of the players will be found out against Australia.

Posted from Australia

By LiverpoolFC | June 17th, 2006 at 2:03 am

I expect the great man Ronaldo to make a comeback however and should be a great game of football between the 2 countries. Go the SOCCEROOS!!! If Australia weren’t here I’d go for Brazil but yea really don’t rate the team this year caus their so OVERRATED. This is a far more lethargic squad than in the 2002 worldcup, going along on pure reputation rather than actual performances which have been disappointing for quite a while really other than against weak opposition such as the UAE

Posted from Australia

By croboy | June 17th, 2006 at 2:43 am

to this aussie italian guy:

6 players in australian team are from croatia, and one is half croatian, half italian….so if that is disgrace….

Posted from Croatia

By FIFAworldcup.com - The Un Official Site of Fifa World Cup 2006 | June 17th, 2006 at 9:15 am

Ronaldo Makes Me Sick

I cannot believe how a talent like Ronaldo would show up overweight in the greatest sporting event in the world. The 1996, 1997 and 2002 World Footballer of the Year was a disgrace in the first game against Croatia with Kaka providing the only goal fo…

Posted from United States

By Native Son | June 20th, 2006 at 6:45 am

I’ll make a prediction right here in the Brazilian blog.

Argentina will win this year’s World Cup, without a doubt.

All teams look ordinary but Argentina is simply OUT OF THIS WORLD!

And I am not Argentinean, I AM KENYAN.

While almost everyone is trying to score goals (and this includes Argentina as well), Argentina is playing beautiful football.

THese guys move like a well oiled machine and don’t seem to force it. They have the cohesion, have quick, short, shrewd and crisp passes and they are in sync!

That is what football is.

Brazil had a great team in 2002. Today, they can only yearn for those days. Your game against Croatia was lucklustre. It was lackadaisical and I’ll not talk about your hero Ronaldo.

Game 2 against Australia was quite good. You improved. Let’s hope that like wine, you get better with age.

Personally, I’d love a Brazil/Argentina final and obviously, as a fan since 1986, I’ll be rooting for Argentina as usual.
Theirs is more than a soccer team. It is football clinic. It is byuuutifuuuuul!

Good luck!

Posted from United States

By Sheesh, Get Off Our Back - FIFA World Cup 2006 - Brazil World Cup Team Blog | June 20th, 2006 at 5:52 pm

[...] I love my team. None of my love for football has diminished on the past few weeks. However, thankfully, now, it’s clear we are just another team - the guys on the field are doing what they can, and having great means doesn’t automatically mean a great team. If anything, I’m happy they’re not having easy games and are realizing what they have to fix now. I’m happy the press is finally starting to criticize them instead of just boost them up - in all World Cups we won, the press and the general public opinion was strongly against the Coach’s decisions. This didn’t happen this time, but it’s slowly starting now. And I’m happy because the same happened on 2002 - when Brazil started very slowly on the group stages but became quite strong as the matches progressed. [...]

Posted from United States

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