The Red Peril vs. The Yellow Seleção

Yes, yellow. In more ways than the obvious one.

Brasil disappointed me last night, even if our first goal was COMPLETELY AND THOROUGHLY BEAUTIFUL GORGEOUS INSPIRING AND DEFIANT OF THE RULES OF PHYSICS.

GOOOAAAAAAAAAALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL!!!! É! É do Brasillllll sil sil sil

But beauty & flair alone won't win anyone a World Cup. Without hard work and a modicum of humility, we are not going to win anything. Just compare last night's match with Die Mannschaft (swoon). They knew exactly what they were doing, we looked like we were playing a friendly or an unimportant match vs. a 2nd division team. Even I know the North Koreans have been showing exceptional skills in the past few months, and I'm not even a connoisseur of Asian teams/players. And they did it all with 50 supporters! The rest of those rooting for NK in the stadium were Chinese. This happened with the Italians, too, vs. Paraguay. The Squadra Azzurra went in all cocky and sure, because yeah, ok, they are better; but we are better than NK too, that's not the problem. Football doesn't work like that, though. Every match is a new chapter and needs to be read separately from the rest of the book.

So, what happened?

For me, the biggest problem is our current FIFA ranking. When you're Number 1, the only way is not up.

Then there is the question of our coach, Dunga. Why in the world has he not included Ronaldinho in the Seleção? We'll never know! Last night I was asking myself if maybe Ronaldinho himself didn't ask to be left out, because really, when you're a 30yo professional footballer who makes several million Euros every year and know your career will probably end at 35 if you're lucky, would you want to risk a serious injury which would bring it to an abrupt end to be paid, MAYBE, if you win, about $90k? If I'm honest, my answer would be no. Playing for the national team gets one recognition and prestige, but he already has that by the bucketful.

Kaka' looked like he had been drugged.

Luis Fabiano - too many unnecessary faults, not fast enough for a centre-forward.

Robinho - good. Very good.

Maicon - the one responsible for the exceptional goal.

Michel Bastos - in my mind, the only player who displayed the kind of passion and commitment necessary for a team to win a Cup.

But there's no leader. No one whose presence makes the team feel they know where they're going. Dunga used to be that man when he was captain. Now he's just asleep at the wheel.

I watched Portugal vs. Ivory Coast too, those are the other two teams we'll face in the group phase. If we don't change our current -- uh whatever it is, because it isn't a plan! - I think we'll have major difficulties against both these teams, esp. Ivory Coast, because they're not as hyped as Portugal or Brasil, so go in with a "we have nothing to lose" mentality, and give everything they've got.