Monday, July 01, 2013

Brazil is back

The Brazilian team was highly motivated as they entered the pitch for the final of the Confederations Cup against the World Champions of Spain tonight. I must admit that I had doubted that Brazil would be able to pull it off, but they were indeed far superior to the Spanish, who were unable to put pressure on Brazil, and the few chances they created were wasted in part due to bad luck.
It simply was not Spain's day, but I also believe that Spains' offensive weakness only became too obvious when Fred brought Brazil ahead in the first minute, and the Spaniards could no longer rely on their defensive possession, but had to create chances. These chances were bound to go through the midfield, but Brazil never let the Spanish midfielders alone.
With 3-0 Brazil showed that they are serious candidates to win the title at home next year. Still, as fantastic as it was to see Brazilian football back on top, one worries about whether Brazil can host the tournament amid the protests that even continued outside the stadium. Perhaps this tournament has been a prelude to a revolution by fans in a football game that has become big business and big politics, further and further from people that it only seeks to exploit.
Just like society in general.
This very strange Confederations Cup has shown the best of football, excellent games, great players, fantastic fans, but also the worse: greed, corruption and a bunch of rich old men and women who have captured the game for their own desire for power and money.
Brazilians have started asking for justice, and this goes far beyond football.

1 comment:

Randall said...

This is awesome!