During the world cup season, my social network news feeds get infested by the masterfully crafted speeches from the seasonal football critiques. One of them just wrote "I wonder why the Brazilian coach needs to play Fred and Hulk. They play like shit." I think Scolari read this status and did't like it; so for a practical demonstration, he substituted Fred and unleashed Jo and mentioned "Meet Jo Black". What happened subsequently is a totally forgettable show of missed shots, humorous penalty expecting stumbles and an overall clumsy presence.
So, the point I just tried to make is that Scolari is forced to use these players, because there just aren't any better ones. Yesterday, for the first time during this tournament, I managed to gather my friends at home to enjoy the Brazil Vs Chile 2nd round game. During the game, we were lamenting the lack of a proper number 9 in Brazil. In fact, we unanimously agreed that Brazil hasn't seen a proper number 9 since Ronaldo retired. A lot of strikers came and went in between, but no one could do anything significant.
In fact, we failed to recall any other player's name who donned the famous number 9 since Ronaldo's departure. After almost 12 hours, I can now vaguely remember a black skinned player who had a lot of promise, but got lost somehow. After googling, I stumbled across the name "Robinho", and I also remembered Pato. Probably they, along with Kaka or Ronaldinho could actually be better choices for the squad.
Chile played a passionate game of footy. Throughout the game, they changed their strategy and managed to intimidate, if not tame, the young and brave Brazilian squad. The only dent in their stellar performance was the controversial ruling out of what seemed like a legitimate goal from Hulk. And that was not the only time when the referee (who, pointed out by another person) looks a lot like Pitbull.
It seemed that the English referee prefers a lot of Chili in his food, and hates Brazilian dishes with a passion. So he tried to give some advantages to Chile (not Chili, by the way), but at the end of the day, the old Canadian warhorse (if you were wondering, I am talking about Julio Caesar) got the job done. The veteran keeper from Canadian football league's (yes, this is Soccer I am talking about) renowned(!) club FC Toronto saved the day for Brazil.
They got the crossbar's blessing as well.
Which brings me back to my last post. Old veterans and or senior citizens are often insulted and overlooked. However, they do inspire the young ones to do better. Who could forget the awesome dribbles from the Mexican Blanco? I think he played in three consecutive cups. By the team he got included in the last world cup's squad, he was not in the shape for playing a full game. But when he did come in, he scored a goal from a penalty and showed some of his old magic.
Same happened with Didier Drogba, Anton Cassano, Giorgos Karagounis, Helder Postiga, Miroslav Klose and a number of other old veterans that were included in the squads by their respective coaches. Some of them delivered, while some failed, but they had their purpose in the team.
Let's take a look at a wikipedia CV:
Karagounis represented Greece for the first time in 1999, and is currently the most capped player in the history of the national team. He scored the first goal of UEFA Euro 2004, a long range effort that helped his team to win the opening game of the tournament, in which the Greeks emerged as champions
Well, if that didn't impress you, you should see the last couple of games from Greece.
So, Brazil brought in a team which does not have any senior player. No one to inspire, no one to look upon, no one to deliver the late night sparkle from the ustad.
The game was mostly boring, and much heart beat altering for the Brazilian fans. Chile played well, but at the end of the day, broke down under pressure. Julio Caesar kept calm and stopped many penalty kicks, and Brazilian young ones converted theirs.
At around 1:15 AM, the excruciatingly tedious game ended, and my friends left. I thought about skipping the second game. After all, I really don't bother much about a Colombia VS Uruguay game, especially when Uruguay has to play without their main striker.
But surprisingly enough, I dragged myself to the living room at around 2:10, and I almost instantly got treated with an awesome goal from someone who writes his name as James (as in James Bond) but apparently we are supposed to call him Haa Mess (sound of opening the mouth in Bengali followed by Messi without the I).
So this Haames Rodriguez scored an Messilliant goal, and later on, scored another that dwarfed the opposition. It was a sad end to a not so memorable journey for Uruguay, who 'd still have to look back 80 years to recall their last triumph.
So Brazil will face Colombia next in the quarter finals. As both teams have yellow jerseys, my fun prediction is the one who'll wear yellow that day will win.
Going back to seasonal football fans. I am also one of them. I don't follow football for a greater part of the year unless the world cup is there. No, I can't tell you how Chelsea fans are pretenders and Manchester United fans are true fans. I don't know for a fact that xyz player is actually because he scored 30 goals in PQR league whereas some other guy is scoring goals in the world cup but never makes any impact in league games.
Sometimes I read some status updates from some of my friends during some games from (okay enough with the some-thing) English Premier League and Spanish league, and of course, the "Champions League", but in most cases, I manage to stay indifferent. But that doesn't make me "less entitled" to support an "international" team during the world cup.
At the end of the day, most fans are fans because they are blind in some way. Every player, and every team has their flaws, but if we start being too critical, then no one can ever be the fans of any team or player, because the flaws would hold them back.
By the way, during the first game, one of my spur of the moment jokes didn't go too well with my Brazil die hard fan buddies. Soon after Chile scored the equalizer, I said "Brazil is the only team that won't need a plane to go back home". In reply I got the look that can be most convincingly described as "Kotmot kore takay thaklo".
Until the next.
To be continued...
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