World Cup Blog

Brazil’s Loss Is Portugal’s Game

By Mike Martin ⋅ July 4, 2006 ⋅  Print This Post ⋅ Post a comment

Mike Martin on what Brazil lacked at World Cup 2006…

There is a lengthy soul-searching in Brazilian football since the national side were dumped out of the World Cup by France in Saturday’s Quarter Final.

There can be no doubt that Brazil have some of the finest forwards in the world - even the unfit Adriano and Ronaldo scored five between them - but, when Croatia and France set out to hold Brazil they found the task surprisingly easy.

Australia, Japan and Ghana set out to beat Brazil. Manna from heaven for their forwards, as the Brazilian game is largely built around counter attacks. But a more organized defense found Brazil to suffer from a lack of craftmanship further back. Ronaldinho is essentially a forward, who is forced to play deeper because of Adriano and Ronaldo’s directness. Only Kaká is what might be termed a ‘playmaker’; a deep-lying creator of chances.

Brazil were like England in reverse. Whilst England created chances and wasted them due to poor finishing, Brazil’s wonderful striking talent just weren’t fed.

Brazil’s best playmaker, ironically, is playing for Portugal. Deco, raised in Brazil, was snapped up by Portugal in 2003 after some impressive displays for Porto as they won the UEFA Cup under José Mourinho. Most of Portugal’s best attacking play comes through Deco - nobody else in either their or Brazil’s side has the same level of guile, vision and craftsmanship. Brazil’s constant failure to pick Deco, whose relatively low goalscoring return put off coaches held to ransom by the domestic media and fans’ demand for constant attacking football, was punished as Deco made his début for Portugal against Brazil and scored the winning goal.

A Deco, a Gerrard, an Alonso or a Riquelme would make Brazil virtually unstoppable. But while their tactics are so skewed towards scoring spectacular goals, they will struggle to break teams down.

(Mike Martin is a freelance writer and sports journalist from Yorkshire. Contact him at mjefm@hotmail.com)

Tags: Brazil, Portugal

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