Brazil on Prozac 3 – 0 China

Come back later for a full review. With such a boring match, I need to sleep now. The two goals by Thiago Neves are hidding his poor performance as a playmaker. And Diego, who just had a decent performance, might have been the best on the pitch. One good thing: Marcelo is the future on the left side.

Update:

Ok. A draw was going to qualify Brazil in first. That meant, the players did not need to run as much, and Dunga could use the match for a few experiences and save players with yellow cards. But, why being so lazy?

Dunga brought to the pitch Ramirez replacing Hernanes. Thiago Silva replacing Alex Silva (he had a yellow card), Ilsinho replacing Rafinha and Thiago Neves replaced Anderson. Giving how little our midfield created in the first two matches, the one replacement to watch was Thiago Neves. Pato and Ronaldinho were the forwards

In the first minutes, it became obvious that the mix of lack of commitment + lack of playtime was going to make this match difficult to watch. Diego and Thiago Neves were not the playmakers expected, and Ronaldinho left the attack to get the ball in the midfield. Too bad the number 10 established this match as the one he wasn’t going to run at all. This resulted in some booing by the fans still in the first-half. Indeed, very annoying even for those who are happy with whatever Brazilians deliver. With this, the midfield relied on long passes that did not work once. The only three times Brazilians put the arrogance to the side and exchanged a few passes, the opportunities appear. The first one ended on Diego’s feet, and he had no trouble dribbling the goalie and pushing the ball against the net. Pato and Ronaldinho, on the other hand, failed in similar situations for being over confident.

The fact that Diego is aware he never plays well for the national team at least made him to put effort. Pato was replaced by Rafael Sobis for lack of effort. Ronaldinho remained on the pitch in a clear effort to get him in shape. But somebody forgot to tell him, he had to run. In the second-half, little changed. Thiago Neves was a disappointment as a playmaker, even thought his final records suggest the opposite. In fact, many time sat Fluminense the same happens. He fails as a playmaker, but score from free-kicks and long ranges. And this is exactly what happened. Two very beautiful goals. At the end, Jô and Rafinha came in, but very little changed. Again, the player who impressed me the most was Marcelo, despite the general laziness of the team. I think we have a new number 6 for the adult team as well.

On the next stage, we will take on Cameroon. Despite the feeling for revenge for what happened in the 2000 Olympics, I’m a bit worried, given how we love to lose against African nations in this competition. Some things like repeating themselves (Brazil losing against France, Argentina being humiliated by Brazil, and so on…). I hope this time, this curse changes. In order for that to happen, a little less laziness would be great.

Category: CBF, National Team