Brazil 3 - 2 Canada: Fire the Grill

By: Bruno Romani | June 1st, 2008

Watching friendly games of the Brazilian national team is like having non-alcoholic beer. It is beer, but without the buzz. When you put on the pitch players at the end of their long and tough season against a squad with zero tradition and arguable quality like Canada, it feels like that the only thing missing is a grill. The Brazilian players were clearly on vacation so any substantial analysis cannot even be attempted.

When Robinho pulled out another of his tricks and passed for Diego to open the score board with just 3 minutes, whatever seriousness the Brazilians might have evaporated. The only problem is that Canada was not in vacation. Those dudes were taking it very seriously. Taking advantage of the fact that Josué, Mineiro and Juan seemed to have forgotten their brains somewhere down the Equator, the Canadians started to create chance after chance. And they tied the match with a header in which Júlio César failed to clear.

With the sword of shame by their necks, Brazil had to put some effort while Canada blew chances away. With this, few chances appeared and Luis Fabiano tied in the last minute of the first-half with a header which I don’t if it was that powerful. All I know is that the goalie let it in.

The second-half started and with it a dilemma for Dunga. Clearly the players were not interested in much action, so why not try the talents that will go to the Olympics? Maybe afraid that the youngster might have lost against such poor national squad, Dunga kept the same line-up. Or maybe Dunga truly believed that this match could be used as a test before the World Cup qualifying matches in July. Too bad that playing against Canada will do nothing for the preparation. In other word, what a waist of time.

Canada missed more chances, and they tied again through a lost member of the Jackson’s 5, who took advantage of the mental diarrhea that took over the Brazilian defense. Brazilians may have thought: “Fuck, we will have to work again.”

But not even that. Jackson’s 5 got excited about his nice goal that he tried a long pass. Well, the pass ended with Robinho who passed the goalie just to gently push the ball against the net. 3-2.

Canada reached its limit and could not do much more. Brazilians were comfortable with the victory. And that was the final result.

Dunga sent to the pitch Pato, Elano and Adriano. The emperor seemed to be excited about his return, and was the only one put any efforts into this match when there were only 15 minutes left. He almost scored from a long-range, but that was it.

On Wednesday, Brazil will take on Venezuela. Hopefully Dunga will use more this match to test players.