Your Kind Words

That was very nice of you to say Vin. Please note that not all Brazilian fans are annoying lunatics like it can seem. Most people that have the energy to write anything here is because of their passion of the game. Sometimes they are not even Brazilian.

I can understand that you are still bitter about our final in 1994, of course. I still curse that referee from 1982 since he denied my personal idol Zico to become a World Cup champion. The general feeling around here in Rio is that it will be one of the most difficult competitions ever. Of course Brazil can be beaten. Of course you believe in your team and everyone have faith in their own team as well.

I also have faith in my team and I bealieve we can win. Most people say that Brazil’s defense is terrible, and I was surprised that you compared the famous Italian defense with ours. For the first time I believe our defense is compatible to the level of the competition. In 1998 we only got to the final match because of the attack firepower, but today we have a more balanced team, because the defense is better. And if you’re saying that Italy has that kind of attack… what a clash!

Oh, and Cafu is going again! That’s really amazing.

Thanks for your comments Vin!

And just to add about Cafu really quick:
Even though he’s “old” he can still outrun many 19 year old players.
Amazing is the right word to describe it… I don’t know where he gets his stamina from but I hope he keeps getting it throughout the WC this year.

Posted from  United States

I believe he will be fine. As you said Enderson, he is fit as one can be. The BBC site referred him as ‘Cafu, the ageless captain’. Sometimes he seems to be getting younger.

Brazil without Ronaldinho is a lackluster side, admit it. I dont buy the hype and Brazil will not repeat as champions!

Posted from  Canada

Crazy Croat,
What is Ronaldinho’s contribution to the team, not expectional from the others. come on, look at the 98 squad, Copa American squad, 2002 squad. Brazil is not like England where the whole nation look up Rooney, Brazil is about team work. where was Romario in 98 and 2002
Ronaldinho only adds power making them stronger but there are options.
Brazil is not a individual cuz they are all stars.

Posted from  United Kingdom

Crazy Croat,

Ronaldinho is the best player in the world and he’s a very important player on the Brazilian team, BUT he’s not the only good player we have.

As many people have said (and I agree) our B team is much better than many A teams out there.

Posted from  United States

in response to all of your posts, both Brazil and Italy have a kick ass team this year, Italy especially, not to play favorites, but Brazil always have an excellent team and this is the first time in a while where Italy seem perfectly sound in almost all attributes, including coaching, which is a huge relief cause “The Trap” was getting me nervous. anyways im getting of topic, theres a slight chance that Italy and Brazil could face of in the round of 16 which could turn out to be the best and mosy anticipated match of the past 12 years, cause i cant remember the last time they squared of, and if they do, wow, its gonna be football at its best, and i hope that both teams hold nothing back
and obviously i would like Italy to come out on top but we shall see
in the end, what the teams are on paper r only good till the kickoff, after that u might as well us its as toilet paper, cause we all know what happened in euro 2004 with, ughhhh, greece, expect the unexpected and lets have a great WC06!!!

Posted from  Canada

Hey Fabio, you only wish Italy could play Brazil in the second round, cause if they have to face the Vatreni again they’re going home in the second round!

Posted from  Canada

i agree italy is good but brazil is best

Posted from  Australia

Hi guys,

First of all, Forza Football !
Then, I’m Neither an Italy fan or an Brazilian fan, but I like great teams. I’m surprised by your opinion on the italian defence. I think you underrate it a little, to me it’ll be as impermeable than it always has been. On the other hand (you’ll say I’m a old fashion man who refuses revolutions) I think that brazil defence is still weak.
The only diiferent thing for me is that italia’s attack seems the best in the world (to me). Toni is unbelievable, nobody trust him because he’s 29 years old. He would be 23, everybody would say “the best in the world”. This man not only score, he keeps the ball, deliveries passes, his Strength and technic make him a unique player I personnally ever seen.
In a WC, Motivation is very important and Italia’s Motivation will be superior to Brazil’s.
Because Brazil had been luckier in ‘94, in 2002, the world cup did not exist, every Top team was out of form, 2002 was a mistake. The edition was too early in june, the players had not had time enough to adapt to time shift and to recover energy after their long season.
2006 will tell the truth.

Posted from  France

hey Crazy Croat
i only want Italy to face Brazil in the second round because i personally would love to see it, cause we all know its gonna be a sick game, who said anyting about Italy goin out the second round?!?!?
Brazil are very good, but so are Italy, u never know what could happen. and im sure Brazil would not want to face us, just like we do not want to face them.
but u cant negate the fact that it would be the best game in the tournament

Posted from  Canada

i’ve been following this blog 4 quite a long time (being a Brazil fan, what can i do? there are simply no other teams worth supporting).after going through all the anti-selecao comments, i jus wanna ask all the anti-brazil football(!!!) supporters 1 thing-Football, it is called the “beautiful game”, if Brazil were not there would it be called so? NO WAY. others don’t play football, they play a game like any other games where winning matters only. but Brazil plays “Football-the beautiful game”. we live in Bangladesh, an asian country thousands of miles away from Brazil. millions of football lovers (not just crazy fans, “football lovers”) here are just crazy about Brazil. coz they just know how to play this game. others try to play it. though records are in favor of us, i don’t wanna go into the details of records. we don’t need to talk about the records to show how good we are. if anyone has the eyes to see on a football ground, he/she feel it (of course, jealousy and hatred have to be bottled up).

Posted from  Hong Kong

Sorry Ashiq, Brazil hasn’t trademarked “the beautiful game.”

I have definitely seen beautiful football played by other countries. For an example, search for the post called “remember, remember” on this site, and enjoy some beautiful football that’s *gasp!* not Brazilian.

Posted from  United States

Hello,

I was the one who made the comments stating that ‘Brazil without Ronaldinho and Kaka is nothing’ or ‘Brazilians (except for kaka) are all scum bags just like Adriano and Ronaldo’.
I would just like to say that one, i did not mean the second comment towards Brazilians personally, but to players like Adriano and Ronaldo .. If Euler would have posted the rest of the comment you would have seen that i said this because of the fact that Both ronaldo and Adriano get fat pay checks in Italy and do nothing and then go and win it for brazil in the world cup (due to the fact that for brazil they play with heart) which to me is pathetic (same goes for Ronaldo as when he was in hospital and playing for inter, they were paying him his wage still and then when he got better did the bolt to Real Madrid – In addition Brazil do have a good team, but without kaka or Ronaldinho they would seriously not be considered as favourites to win (especially if you look at the other players form this yr). I am sorry if i offended Brazilians but i hope now it’s been cleared up. Also with regard to WC 94 there are no half world cups won – brazil won it, but you have to say the Italian team was much better on paper, i mean they had maldini, baresi, baggio and zola … all four players can be disputed about being in the worlds greatest string 11. Well maybe not so much Zola, but they did give him the award in England as the best ever import into the premiership. Lastly i would like to say that brazil players beautiful football individually, with there awesome skills, but lately (even if your a hater of the Italian team) i must say Italy has once again been able to show the world how the beautiful game is played and even haters may appreciate it!!!

Posted from  Australia

Sorry me again, I would just like to add couple more comments. Firstly Brazilian players have skill that no others have, but skill is not the only thing that wins matches, I mean look at Luca Toni, scored 31 goals in serie a this yr, something no one has done or come close to for nearly 50 yr (and look at all the Brazilian superstars who have played in Italy in that time) I mean he does not have kaka or Rohnaldinho skill, but finds the back of the net regardless. Secondly, Euler stated that ‘At this point every time we say something good about our team and our history we must be prepared to be called arrogants.’ Now when you have people like Pele (sure he was one of the greatest, in the top two, but lets not forget he never won a title single headedly – only in the brazil league which does not compare to the big leagues, unlike Maradona) nay way that’s not the point, the point here is that when you hear Maradona talk he always says how he learnt things for others and that Distefano was really the greatest player ever. Unlike Pee who sates ‘Who’s the best, Pee is the best’ and also ‘God made people like Mozart and Michelangelo and then God made Pele’ I mean who is Pele who compare him self to Mozart who was blind and composed some of the greatest music ever (and apparently composed his first music at the age of 5) Pele was still using trainer wheels a the age of 5 and id like to see him play blind. And who is he to compare himself to Michelangelo, one of the greatest men alive who was not only good at one thing, was an inventor, a poet, a painter a sculptor, etc, etc. A true champion does not need to brag (even Rohnaldinho, is starting to celebrate a little to much and is forgetting about the game) I mean Valentino Rossi is considered as the greatest sportsman in the history of sport – do you hear him say anything – so I think this i why people believe the Brazilian players are arrogant …

Posted from  Australia

Ok one last thing, I think Euler (or some on did on this post or another Brazilian post) mentioned that if Italy can claim the 94 WC as only being half a victory for Brazil then due to the fact that Brazil were robed in 82, does that mean they get that back … well in response to that statement Italy as a nation (and in tournaments such as champions league have been robed countless times) E.G World Cup 2002, where matches were fixed, the Juve Liverpool champions league match in the 04-05 season and the most recent being AC Milan Vs Barca .. Where Shevas goal would have seen Milan progress (as when they seem to score on they seem to keep scoring) and win the tournament … so if you wanna look at it from this point of view Italy should have a couple more stars to their shirt and a few more titles behind their domestic teams such as Juve and AC Milan

Posted from  Australia

For sure, I am disapointed by what Pele said about himself. I didn’t know it, in Fact very few people have seen pele playing, anyway at his time football was less physical, players needed less stamina and in brazil particulary, defenses did not exist, so the 1000 goals are a legend and are not to compare with (for example) Batistuta’s 355 goals in 600 matches against the toughest defences in Serie A. In brazilian league in the sixties, with 1300 games (like pelé) for sure he would have scored as much as pelé(1284). If you compare the average goal per game in the serie A in the 90’s 1.7 and the avg in brazil 60’s : 3.8 , Batigol would have scored 1584 goals…..
Pelé played in his country ONLY, he won world cups near great players. At the time there was much less young men trying to get professional because there was much less money, the level of play was LOW. Don’t lie to yourself, pelé is a fine talker who managed very well his carrer after his player carreer. He’s a politic man, he was good at HIS time. He profits there was very few game to watch on TV at the time, the absence of proof and witness allowed him to build the cleanest appearence, it’s very easy to proclam himself “the king” while nobody had attented (or so few) the games he played.
He seems a manipulator with a way to communicate who make us remember the dictators.
Even Ronaldo does not enjoy pelé.

Posted from  France

Marco #1: You say Brazilian players are mercenary, not performing well in their clubs, only in the NT. Sure, they didn’t win Copa Italia, French championship, Italian Championship, German Championship, Spanish Championship, Champions League and came to the semis in many other occasions. Second, it would be like shooting your own foot performing under your full capacity on purpose. If anybody had a bad season it surely was not on purpose.

#2: World Cup 2002 was fixed? If Italy was robbed in European competitions, tough luck, man. It may seem to you that I have hard feelings against Italy or something, but I don’t. Just don’t be a bad loser claiming half a title for 94. That’s just sad. As Ronaldo (the reader) said “A ball in the post doesn’t count as half goal” right?

#3: Pele is not going to play this year, so I’m just going to quote Romario on this: “Pele with his mouth shut is a poet”. There is are already a campaign going on here to throw mud on the King, good luck with that.

OK Euler … now you think you are all smart and all … I never said every brazilian player was like this .. i said the ones like Adriano or Ronald .. (did I ever say kaka or juhinio or rohnaldhino???) now you talk of a bad season, Adriano scored like 9 or 10 goals this season in serie a, now if he goes and scores 9 at the WC with only 7 games to play, you think that’s acceptable the fact that he nearly plays 40 sere a matches (and i man the serie a season is like 6 weeks apart from world cup ok!!!)… and lest not talk about adriano, because hes the one to blame for inter losing the scudetto and champions league match to Villarreal, as he should had scored 3-4 easy goals! Also i really think its hard to say that the Brazilians won the French championship, Italian Championship, German Championship, Spanish Championship, Champions League single headedly. In actual fact the Italians are the idiots for keeping him there and paying him, they should have sent him to real Madrid so that he would continue to destroy his career. Second i never asked for half the title back in the 94 world cup, in fact i said that after you stated that you were robbed in 82 its only fair to have that back and then i stated how italy has been robbed of titles 100 times more than brazil (I dont know how you got a job on here when you cant even read) Lastly, in regard to pele, there was an internet pole to see who was the real greatest player ever and Maradona won easy, so much for your king – In addition to Pele, it has now been proved that you cant face the facts and admit faults .. all you can do is say the good things, because if you were a real man of justice , as you make your self out to be you would have said something like ‘yea pele is an idiot for saying those thing but was still one of the best’!!!!!

Posted from  Australia

For the record (from Italy page):

Josh | May 22nd, 2006 at 8:41 am

Pingback: You’re the first person on this post to say that “Brasilians (except for Kaka) are all scum bags.” Please point to where you see this. Or if it’s from another post or another country’s site, please state that. Otherwise, please refrain from writing inflammatory comments. Thank you.

Also, Brasil are great. No question about it. But Brasil are lucky to have won the ‘94 cup. EXCEEDINGLY LUCKY. In fact, if Italy had won the ‘94 cup, I would be saying the same thing about Italy. I honestly don’t believe that you could decide a world cup on something as whimsical as penalty kicks. I can’t overemphasize that it’s the WORLD CUP we’re talking about. This is the one instance, IMO, where the players should play until a goal is scored, even if some have to sit on the pitch and rest, or even if it requires the keepers (a bit more energy perhaps) to start making runs at goal.

Look at hockey. Hockey has penalty shots, but you’ll never see a single playoff match decided by penalties at any round. They’ll play 5 or 6 overtimes if they have to. Look at the Philadelphia Flyers vs. the Pittsburgh Penguins in 2000. It went 5 overtimes and it didn’t even decide the series. It made for one hell of a contest though, and most fans were up until 2:30 a.m. until the very end.

That’s the kind of guts and glory that the world cup is about, not about penalty kicks and which player makes the lucky guess in terms of the goal keeper’s direction.

That has no place in determining which is the better team. Keep it on the field of play, under team conditions, not individual happenstance.

Brasil are great, and certainly play the most beautiful football in the world, but ‘94 was a true windfall. It just so happens that they were the lucky ones to benefit by it. 1/2 star, only. Sorry.

You could think what you want, but for those who agree that PKs have no place in a WC final, they’ll understand my point.

Posted from  United States

Hey Josh! I hate PK too. I said the same thing in the early days of my participation with this blog. I would like to see the players fighting to death too, replacing every player would be allowed and the overall best fit team would end up scoring the golden goal.

But while we are all under the same rule, full star is required. What about the English non-goal in 1966? Half for them too? What about Argentina 78? Let’s ripp that completely out, what do you say?

PK sucks, but I will still wear my five stars with pride.

About the scumbag comment, it is there. Refrain myself… that’s rich. It was on a comment under the Italian blog. The writer even answered it just above. But I’m getting used to read unrefrained comments, don’t worry.

Italy and Brazil will rock this year. Good luck!

This has been a great blog and very entertaining. I still think that the biggest threat to Brasil is Argentina. Messi, Tevez, Aimar, Riquelme. How can you say that these players dont play a beautiful game! See you in the finals. Go Argentina!

Posted from  United States

Hello,
Euler : You CANNOT say brazilians won copa italia ! It’s the biggest joke because in inter the only brasilina who plays is Adriano and he played SO BAD ! There are 6 argentinean starting each inter game, in coppa italia final second game Esteban Cambiasso scored one of the most beautiful goal of the world this year: A volley from 25 yards from a cross by… Zanetti.
Juve as cheated, they only have Emerson, Ac MIlan is not only KAKA and Cafu and dida. Ronaldinho won NOTHING with Paris SG in France, He wins in Barça because he has lots of great players near him.
That’s true that brasilians don’t give their all: In Paris, Ronaldinio chose his game, he telled his teammates he would “play” this game or this game, it meant he would sleep enough the night before this match…
For adriano it’s almost the same but in fact he’s been overrated a lot because of his nationlity.
This guy is terrible he never makes the pass. When he gets the ball, his eyes are only watching the ball and the goal, there are always 2, 3 or 4 defenders but he keeps on dribbling, then he loses the ball or shots in defender’s leg.
He’s really strange.
Ronaldo is old, he began to play to much to young, now it’s almost over for him, let’s enjoy Ronaldo for his last representation.
Brasilian stars don’t fight enough on the court.

Posted from  France

Thanks Todd!!! I know your guys play beautifully, especially Tevez and Messi. This will be a great World Cup!!!

Very funny for me to read all this about Brazil’s “beautiful football” after the end of their fourth match in the World Cup. Pure hype… your team this year is very mediocre. Gotta be blind not to see it.

Posted from  United States