World Cup 2010 Blog: “World Cup Favorites Ten Weeks Til: It’s Red & Furious.” plus 1 more |  |
| World Cup Favorites Ten Weeks Til: It’s Red & Furious. Posted: 24 Mar 2010 03:40 AM PDT
Having picked two bookmakers, the unassailable sample of two has drawn a consensus: Andres Iniesta is going to be making a lot more babies. It’s not really worth picking apart nuance down the list, though the Netherlands isn’t getting anywhere near the respect it deserves, so we’re staying right at the top: Brazil, to me, have been, are and will be favorites right up until they’re no longer participants. The Spanish Euro 2008 win was wonderful, but they’d already won it once before (’64), which that didn’t change any fortunes on the global stage – a stage far grander. In fact Spain wouldn’t make the World Cup knockouts until 22 years after their first Euros win. They’re arguably the best collection of individual talent, but that doesn’t always, one could even say often doesn’t, win World Cups. (You’ll have to go all the way back to 2006 to find evidence.) And it’s even rarer that the reigning European champion has repeated with a World Cup – West Germany won in 1974 when it was held in, you guessed it, West Germany. This not to mention the oft unmentioned Brazilian advantage of drawing a difficult group. But I suppose the gripe is less with Spain first and Brazil second and more Brazil as a joint-second. They’re awfully, awfully good and deserving of at least co-favorite status. As for the rest… - There’s great faith in either Messi, Maradona or Messidona in South Africa – faith which I strongly doubt is cut into even thirds. - And I wonder how these odds looked before the 1-0 over Germany in Germany earlier this month. Is that the betting man’s money? - Japanese coach Takeshi Okada believes Japan can make the semifinals; the bookies don’t. It’ll be interesting to see how the odds evolve over the next ten weeks, and then there’s only that pesky bit about playing the games.
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| Brazil World Cup Team History: Part IV (1994 – 2006) Posted: 23 Mar 2010 04:31 PM PDT
1994 World Cup in the USA
Brazil coasted through the group stage, beating Russia 2-0, Cameroon 3-0 and drawing 1-1 with Sweden to top Group B of the 24 team tournament. In the round of 16 they faced hosts USA, and went through 1-0 thanks to a goal from Bebeto. Then came arguably the game of the tournament, as Brazil faced the Netherlands in the quarterfinals: Bebeto set up Romario to make it 1-0, then scored the second himself before leading Brazil in the famous “rock the baby” celebration. Bebeto’s wife had given birth to their third child a few days before the game, and so the celebration was in honour of his newborn. Iconic stuff. The Netherlands came back through Dennis Bergkamp (who was clearly warming up for his 1998 moment of greatness) and Aron Winter to make it 2-2, but left back Branco fired an 81st minute free kick low into the corner to give Brazil a 3-2 win and a place in the semi-finals. The semifinal opponents were Sweden, who were dispatched 1-0 via Romario’s 80th minute winner. So on to the final and a 1970 final rematch vs Italy. Except this time the game wasn’t so exciting. After 120 minutes the score was still 0-0. So spot kicks it was. Italy missed three of their five. The great Franco Baresi fired way way over, Daniele Massaro saw his saved, and Roberto Baggio – who’d absolutely lit up the tournament – followed Baresi in aiming too high. So maybe not the ideal way to win a World Cup. But 24 years after 1970, I doubt too many Brazilians cared. 1998 World Cup in France
In Group A, the World Cup holders beat Scotland 2-1, beat Morocco 3-0 and then somehow lost 2-1 to Norway by conceding two in the last ten minutes. Norway’s winner was controversial at the time as it appeared to be a controversial penalty. But that’s probably a subject for another post. In the Second Round Brazil beat Chile 4-1, beat Denmark 3-2 and then beat the Netherlands on penalties after a 1-1 draw. So on to the final vs host nation France, and the mystery of Ronaldo. The striker had scored four goals and made three assists and been an all round menace to opposition defenders / joy to watch in his six games so far. Drink from this video of Ronaldo’s World Cup 1998 highlights to get an idea: There’s still no official definition of what happened the day of the final. But general consensus is that Ronaldo suffered some sort of seizure the night before, was removed from the Brazil starting lineup for the World Cup final and then reinstated at the last minute. It could have been pressure from sponsors, from the Brazilian football federation or a request from Ronaldo himself. But he played, and played poorly as Brazil lost 3-0. Ronaldo took the golden ball as the tournament’s best player, but – and not for the first time – an excellent Brazil team had failed to deliver the trophy. 2002 World Cup in Japan & South Korea
Brazil tore through Group C, beating Turkey 2-1 (the less said about Rivaldo’s dive in the corner the better), beat China 4-0 and beat Costa Rica 5-2. Bosh. Group C was won and Ronaldo already had four goals to his name, Rivaldo three. In the Second Round they dispatched Belgium 2-0 and then faced England in the quarters. Brazil went one down to a Michael Owen goal, but equalized through Rivaldo and went ahead when Ronaldinho did this with a free kick: Who shoots from there? Only the most confident and talented footballers, that’s who. Ronaldinho was later sent off, but Brazil held on to their lead. Brazil beat Turkey 1-0 in the semifinal thanks to another Ronaldo goal, and went on to beat a Michael Ballack-less (he was suspended) Germany 2-0 in the final thanks to some great work from Rivaldo, Oliver Kahn’s only error of the whole tournament, and two more goals from that man Ronaldo. Really, this was Ronaldo’s tournament. He entered with some asking if he was the same player as in 1998 following those two serious injuries, and with a truly horrible “all shaved except the front tuft” haircut. He left with a World Cup winners medal and the Golden Shoe as World Cup 2002 top scorer with eight goals. 2006 World Cup in GermanyI think of this as the World Cup where fame beat form. Carlos Alberto Parreira was back in charge, and the team entered as many people’s favourites to lift the trophy. But Cafu was 36, Roberto Carlos was 33. Both were probably too old to be effective attacking fullbacks in a World Cup. The forward pairing of Ronaldo and Adriano were both noticeably overweight, and there seemed to be too many creative midfielders competing for too few spots. There was World Player of the Year Ronaldinho, who had been expected to dominate the tournament, but also Kaka of Milan and Juninho of Lyon. None of them really took hold of the tournament. Brazil took maximum points from Group F by beating Croatia and Autralia 1-0 and Japan 4-1, but they were never particularly impressive. Even in the Japan game, they were 1-0 down in the 34th minute. In the Second Round Brazil faced an exciting Ghana team that played an inexplicably high defensive line, which Brazil exploited without mercy for a 3-0 win. Ronaldo scored the first of those goals after just five minutes, a goal which took him clear of Gerd Muller to be top scorer in World Cup tournament history with 15. Here’s that goal: In the quarterfinal, Brazil were taken apart by a magnificent Zinedine Zidane performance and lost 1-0 to France, managing just one shot on goal and making a somewhat feeble exit. More Brazil World Cup History: Part I (1930 to 1954) – Part II (1958 to 1970) – Part III (1974 to 1990) – Part IV (1994 to present) Overall tournament record: 1930 First Round For more on Brazil, read Duvel’s Brazil blog.
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Upon learning that Thierry Henry won’t be participating in the World Cup 
Brazil has appeared in every tournament so far – the only team to do so – and won five World Cups – the only team to do so. Our history of Brazil at the World Cup finally comes to a close with Part IV. In 
This is where we meet Ronaldo. Sort of. The 17 year old future all time World Cup top goalscorer was in the Brazil squad for the 1994 World Cup, but didn’t see a single second of on-field action. Seems odd to say that now, but that’s before you consider the other attacking options at coach Carlos Alberto Parreira’s disposal. The great Romário was 28, playing for Barcelona, and arguably at his peak, and formed a dangerous attacking partnership with Bebeto. The team was anchored by Dunga in defensive midfield, who also took over the captaincy after Rai was benched in the latter stages. Other significant members of the squad include attacking fullback Jorginho, who had no less a player than Cafu as his backup (!) and also a young Leonardo, in his pre-Milan days.
Incredibly, Brazil’s coach in 1998 was the man who coached them at the 1970 World Cup: Mario Zagallo. The talent in his squad takes some believing. Get ready for this list of names. Brazil 1998 had two of the most dangerous attacking fullbacks the world has ever known in Cafu and Roberto Carlos. Dunga was still there in defensive midfield (though not in his 1994 form) and going forward there was the magic of Barcelona playmaker Rivaldo, and the explosive pace and power and all round unbeatableness of a 21 year old Ronaldo. If you’ve never seen early Ronaldo, then you’ve never seen Ronaldo at all. Factor in the experience of a 34 year old Bebeto and the promise of a 20 year old (pre-Betis) Denilson, and that’s quite a team. 
Brazil very nearly failed to qualify for World Cup 2002, but Luiz Felipe (or “Big Phil” if you prefer) Scolari replaced Émerson Leão and righted the ship. Brazil entered 2002 with a strong team on paper: Cafu and Roberto Carlos again, and the attacking trident of The Three Rs: Rivaldo, Ronaldinho and Ronaldo. Rivaldo was still going strong at Barcelona, Ronaldinho was a 22 year old buck-toothed attacking mid at PSG, but once again Ronaldo was the big story. In the four years between the 1998 and World Cup and the 2002 World Cup, Ronaldo suffered two serious knee injuries and two long rehabilitations. But somehow he was back, and ready for another shot at World Cup glory. The now 36 year old Romario was in good form for Fluminense and desperate to play, but Scolari basically decided Romario wasn’t needed. Even though his name began with the letter “R”.| You are subscribed to email updates from World Cup Soccer - South Africa 2010 To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
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Obviously you don’t know the answer to that question. Obviously I don’t know the answer to that question. Not even little Leo Messi himself knows that answer to that question. But now still seems like the perfect time to ask it.
Can you imagine if both YouTube and blogs had existed in sixties? The events of the 1966 World Cup final would have caused internet meltdown. For those unfamiliar, here’s what happened:
We already knew the people at South African budget airline Kulula.com were both cheeky and hilarious. Their World Cup 2010 related 
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