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End of qualifiers story: Brazil 0 – 0 Venezuela

Ana — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 03:57:29 +0000

It wasn’t the prettiest match in football history, nor was it supposed to be. Brazil had already qualified and Venezuela had almost no chances of qualifying (unless they beat Brazil 6-0 and Argentina beat Uruguay 9-0!), so it was what it was. Dunga did some experimenting and some things are definitely clear: Robinho should never come back, neither should Filipe Luiz, who plays anything but good football. Nilmar is becoming a good choice up front – fact. Maicon, Luis Fabiano and Kaká are absolute stars on this team and will make the difference in 2010. Brazil is lucky to have Julio Cesar.

The game started a bit boring with Venezuela closed on the back and trying to counter attack. The hype only came on the 20th minute with Maldonado almost scoring an Olympic goal for Venezuela. After that, Nilmar gave Kaká a good pass which resulted in a free kick very close to the goal. Luis Fabiano took it and showed Brazil has no man, whatsoever, who can properly take a free kick. Maicon created some good chances with Kaká and Luis Fabiano but nothing that made Venezuela’s net shake.

The second half brought new energy into the game and Brazil almost scored with Nilmar. After that it was Luis Fabiano’s turn to almost score: he hit the post on a header and Maicon got the rebound but Venezuela managed to take the ball out. Miranda got a red card on the 55th minute but Brazil was still a better squad even with 10 men on the pitch.

Luis Fabiano, our goal man, had plenty of opportunities to score, but if he didn’t miss it, Vega was always there to prevent the ball from going in. Dunga took Ramires and Filipe Luiz out to put Elano and Alex. Nothing much changed. With few minutes left in the game, Kaká had a brilliant moment and almost scored a beautiful goal. Did not happen.

Brazil finished first with 34 points. It’s all good.

Oh, one last thing: I still think Dunga should consider bringing Ronaldo (the original – now a bit fat – one) to the bench as a surprise element (I promise this is NOT a biased opinion of a Corinthians fan).

Ah… Brazil !!!

Ana — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 23:03:15 +0000

It feels good to see Brazil back. Today’s match against Venezuela for the World Cup Qualifiers brought a squad who gave fans confidence and peace of mind. Brazil easily won 4 x 0 killing all talk that the Venezuelans were changing history (Brazil lost its first match ever to the Venezuela in Boston this past June).

In just 18 minutes, the Brazilians had it with 3 goals. The first, a gorgeous one from Kaká. Second, an amazing kick from Robinho. And the third one came from Adriano, who finally scored for Seleção after 840 days. One the second half, Robinho scored one more after a beautiful pass from Kléber.

Remarks:

Kaká makes such a difference. His presence on the pitch makes the quad more dynamic, and more offensive. Even though he lost a goal that even I would have scored, he played a solid match.

Robinho also did well. Also lost an easy goal on the second half. His first goal was glorious.

Adriano is back! We hope. He will be out of next match against Colombia in Brazil but I believe he has found peace with football once again.

Goalie Julio Cesar did his job very well and stopped the few ball that went his way.

Kléber – against popular opinion (and by popular I mean mine) – played excellent football and deserves his place on the left wing.

Kudos, kudos! I am happy and hoping for the same good football next Wednesday.

Brazil 0 – Venezuela 2. Wake up call?

Ana — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 06:58:19 +0000

Yes, this is the first time Brazil loses a match to South American rival Venezuela. In the Gillete Stadium in Boston, on a game that lacked creativity, passion and good sense, Brazil watched a very much alive and skillful Venezuela dominate the entire 90 minutes. Brazil’s coach, Dunga, started the friendly with an uncommon formation: 4-3-3. The three men on top: Robinho (good), Pato (good) and Adriano (???). The formula proved to be a disaster and gave Brazil a gap in the midfield, which was supposed to be orchestrated by Anderson and Elano. Bad choices, bad results.

And so quick was the magic trio broken, with only 6 minutes into the match. Venezuela scored with Maldonado on a nice counter attack, proving that 3 men up top gave Brazil weakness instead of strength. The men in the back, Henrique and Luisao, were clearly not on the same note.

Later on, on a bad pass by Henrique, Vargas scored a beautiful goal for Venezuela.

Time to weak up Brazil. But apparently the alarm did not go off. Selecao was still asleep.

It was only on the second half that Dunga decided to change things a bit. But instead of taking out the slow and ineffective Adriano, he took away Pato from the pitch. The young AC Milan forward was creating good chances and was definitely a better choice.

With now 2 forwards and a more alive midfield, with Diego and Josue, Brazil started to gain some color. But it was not enough. With a lot of wrong passes and plays that deviated from Brazil’s passing style could have never given way to a Brazilian goal.

After the match, the players seemed not to care that much. After all, this was just a friendly and the real matches were still to come (Paraguay and Argentina for the World Cup 2010 Qualifiers). True at some point. The 50,000 people who went to the stadium, to see these players in action, were surely not having the same thoughts.

Coach Dunga made a good point on the press conference following the match: “now is the time to experiment and try all the players capped. It is not worth bringing these guys back from vacation if we are not going to give them a chance.”

Agreed. Let’s just hope Dunga won’t want to try new formation styles during the next 2 matches.