Guess What? Brazil Are Quite Good.

An article in this Sunday’s Observer Sports section annoyed me a bit. The basic jist of the article is that Brazil aren’t all they’re cracked up to be, and are in some sort of crisis. The full article can be found here. To some extent the Observer may have been trying to reverse The Sun and News Of The World campaign to destroy the England team’s morale via the medium of scandal, which is commendable. Doing this by trying to claim Brazil are shit is a bit over the top though.

To summarise, here are the basic points, followed by my rebuttals, your honour:

1) Roberto Carlos is losing defensive composure at the rate of knots. I saw Roberto Carlos the other week, he is still the second best left back in the world, and has never had much defensive composure anyway. People have been criticising his defensive capability for years.

2) Cafu has just returned from surgery. Oh dear, that means they might have to play Cicinho (right) instead. I also saw Cicinho play the other week, and he was awesome, arguably already better than Cafu anyway.

3) Juan and Roque Junior are dodgy centre backs, and Lucio has dipped in form. Ok, but when was the last time Brazil had good centre backs anyway. This is not how they roll. You score two, they score three. A Kevin Keegan wet dream. The article also failed to mention Edmilson, who does a good job for Barcelona whenever they play him.

4) Emerson was made to look geriatric by Arsenal. Oh dear, they might have to play Gilberto Silva (left) instead. The upping of Gilberto’s responsibility since the departure of Vieira has markedly improved his game, with many Arsenal fan’s claiming his form is the real reason behind their recent resurgence. He sits back, soaking things up so the rest can pile forward. Ideal for a team like Brazil.

5) Kaka has lost a shade of the sparkle that accompanied his emergence to the big stage. Rubbish. Kaka scored a hat-trick yesterday.

6) Ronaldo is fat and out of form, and Ardiano has personal problems. Ronaldo is indeed fat, and was on poor form a few weeks ago. He has since scored four goals in four games, including one corker against Barca, who are arguably the best team in Europe. He was fat and out of form before the 2002 World Cup, then he won the Golden Boot and virtually single-handedly won an average Brazil team the World Cup. Adriano (right) is admittedly on poor form, but has still managed to score 19 goals so far this year. He was also man of the match in the first leg against Villareal the other week. Even so, if Brazil chose to drop either striker, they could play one up front with either Kaka, or the unmentioned Robinho in a slightly deeper role. Then there’s always Juninho at Lyon who could operate as an attacking midfielder. Poor them.

7) Ronaldinho will be tired after a long season. A tired Ronaldinho will still shit all over almost anyone.

In sum, don’t count your chickens. Brazil will be a joy to watch this summer, and a bastard to play against.