July 02, 2010

I warned you about the Dutch...


message sent to another friend which i decided to post...

i told you about the dutch... i guess i had it coming since i slept in my orange sf giants t-shirt i bought the other day.

OK, i know they played easy teams in the 1st round and Slovakia, but so did Brazil (and Italy and France). Of course, losing to Holland is "normal" when compared to losing to or drawing with New Zealand, South Africa, etc...

anyhew, if you remember the other day i wrote you i told you about dunga taking some players the fans didn't agree with. the "main" guy i was talking about was felipe melo. nobody in Brazil understands what the fuck dunga sees in him. maybe he's f'ing him up the ass...(please excuse my french, my foul language hasn't changed much since college).

no really, since the 1st time he was called by dunga, the fans and the press thought: wtf? who is this guy? i never heard of him and i don't even know which club he played for in Brazil, but i know he was playing for below average Italian club fiorentina. in Brazil, the press always raises suspicions on why the national team's coaches call these not-so-popular players. the suspicions are that these players start getting exposure playing for the national team and eventually will get signed by a bigger club and his agent will give the national team coach a "commission". that MAY have happened with felipe melo, but again... these are only suspicions and rumors, i don't have any proof. 

as i said, he played for fiorentina, and after dunga called him a couple of times, he signed for Italian giants, juventus, where he also plays his shitty football and is frequently contested by the local fans and press. and dunga's wallet might possibly be a bit thicker now...

anyhew, he was the character of the day today by giving robinho an awesome pass but he then went back to normal and screwed things up by getting in julio cesar's way and being sent off later. you know what? felipe melo kinda reminds me of dunga as a player. they lack the skills and technique, but make up for it in physical soccer and ability to "destroy" plays. when dunga played, it didn't matter where the ball was facing, he would just kick the hell out of it and clear the ball. the difference between them is that dunga was a serious team-player and leader off the pitch and brazil's captain in the 1994 squad that won the cup.

but we cant blame it all on felipe unfortunately. and unfortunately we cant blame the referee or fifa's stubbornness in refusing to use technology. its not that easy. it wasn't "our" day today and we were unlucky too. unlucky for having dunga as a coach and felipe melo in midfield :P first half was Brazil's, but the second was entirely for the dutch. kaka, playing under pain as he says, practically didn't show up today. maybe a bit more on the 2nd half. but i remember asking myself in the 1st half whether he was playing or not. dani alves is awesome at barcelona, but disappointed me today. and the 2 defenders? they are great! lucio and juan are the best 2 defenders the national team has had in a long time, and juan is a freakin' classy player, great technique. not their day today. luis fabiano is above average (not a romario or ronaldo, but he is a team-player and serious about playing) and it seemed like today his job was to attract the defenders, get beat up, so kaka and robinho could attack more, rather than creating a play that would result in a goal. it didn't work. all in all, i was surprised robinho played better than i expected. not just today, but in all games he played.

BTW, this was a physical match. i saw robinho's face in a close up during the 1st half as he argued with the ref and he looked like he was posessed by an evil spirit, i never saw him that nervous. maybe he knew what was coming. emotions were high on both sides and sometimes the players forgot to play the ball and went for each other. that's football, right? still, no excuse for felipe melo's foul on robben. dirty player. the dutch wanted revenge after 1994's and 1998's losses to Brazil and they deserved this one today.

well, now i will support Uruguay on one end of the bracket (because lugano, the skipper, used to play for sao paulo and he still loves the club!) and on the other side of the bracket, Spain, of course. and before i forget, screw Argentina and Maradona!

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