I am a huge Brazili fan, but let's face it....Brazil were terrible almost all tournament and this game was no different. They knew how to get results, but their play never was going to stand up to a side of real quality. France dominated the game and you could see this coming from a mile away...France is getting stronger each match and are peaking at the right time. When Brazil played their inexperienced and younger hungry players against Japan, they were soo much better. And it is not because Japan was not that great, becasue if the regular starting line up had played against Japan they would have looked just as slow and rigid and stale. Too bad..Brazil played the wrong players and they played a terrible system. Parreira looked like a real stubborn dunce this WC and Brazil's big stars did not live up to their billing....
As for Zidane...wow. I am not that big a fan, but what a performance! He clearly had no intention of retiring today. Well done France...only Germany has a chance of stopping them IMO
U could say the same for France. France had lots of younger players on their team but they went and STUCK with their veterans.....Zidane, Viera, Thuram, Henry etc even when they didn't look good early in the tournament. France looked even worse than Brazil in the preliminary round and only got going in the game against Spain.
The difference was....France's veterans elevated their game when it mattered....Brazil's veterans for the most part didn't.
I think France's veterans (and the entire team) elevated their game since the Korea match...one that S. Korea were extremely fortunate to tie after having no answer for a dominant France for most of the game. People only focus on the scoreline, but it was the start of France realizing they had it in them. They also played well to sweep Togo aside...only the Swiss game was poor play...while the Korea game was a poor result. Once they beat Spain, I knew Brazil would be in trouble if they didn't ship up.
The things that killed Brazil the most were:
1) Having two veterans in wing back positions....positions that required speed, skill and stamina. Roberto Carlos and Cafu are now too old to play their positions with the athletic dynamism they had in the past. They were inferior to Cicinho and Gilberto but were always played anyway...for experience was the reason.
2) The key striker was static and out of shape. The other was out of form. I firmly beleive that despite his finishing prowess, Ronaldo helped to kill Brazil's attacking midfield play due to his lazy static play. Consider the movement of a Henry, Pauleta, Klose or any striker and you will see what I mean. Ronaldinho and Kaka were not in form...but they had nothing to pass to. Ronaldinho looks good if he has an Eto'o buzzing in front of him scaring defenders and making space for him to either run at defenders or make passes into the channels. When they look up Ronaldo gives them very little. Henry on the other hand ran until he could not run any more and had to be substituted...they difference was astounding
3) An unbalanced midfield. Every team Brazil played would slice the midfield with ease because it was basically 5 against Ze Roberto and Emerson. Today when France attacked, Gilberto Silva, Juninho and Ze Roberto never stood a chance against a 5 man midfield of Vieira, Makalele, Ribery, Malouda and Zidane. This gave Zidane tons of room to collect the ball and then school anybody who came in his way. Kaka and Ronaldinho (the latter actually played as a second striker in the 1st half) cannot defend...so it was basically 3 against 5 when France came forward..and they came forward with ease. The much maligned Brazilain defensew as ironically the best aprt of the team...unfortunately the always looked stretched because they constantly overworked.
