A blog about the latest soccer news, best players, transfer talk and anything else about the world game, with a heavy focus on the Selecao and Inter Milan!
Brazil played against Uruguay a few days ago as part of the 2010 world cup qualification campaign. The match was played out at Sao Paulo’s Morumbi stadium and was a chance for several players to return to the grounds of the club that started it all for them (SPFC). Kaka’, Mineiro and Luis Fabiano all left SPFC to move on to other challenges but against Uruguay they were certainly less than spectacular.
Even though Luis Fabiano bagged a brace that won Brazil the match, it was a somewhat unjust result for Uruguay who were moving the ball well and were on the scoreboard after 7 minutes. Brazil’s goals were certainly not outstanding, the first a lucky deflection through the keepers legs and the second, a moment of poor clearing and marking to leave Fabiano mostly unchallenged to slap the ball in from around the penalty spot. Kaka’, Ronaldinho, Robinho and Gilberto Silva were playing well below par but luck favoured Brazil and 3 more points were collected.
Brazil crushed Equador 5-0 in last night’s world cup 2010 qualifier. The festivities began after a characteristic burst down the right flank by Maicon, which left the Equador defense stranded, followed by a cut-back on the line to allow Vagner Love the easiest of tap-ins. Next Kaka’ took an optimistic shot from some distance which allowed Ronaldinho to put an evil deflection on the ball’s path and completely wrong-foot the keeper who, try as he might, just could not reach the ball in time. Seems the Kaka’/Ronaldinho partnership is paying off finally.
The third goal was a perfect strike by Kaka’ on the edge of the area. The ball landed well for him and he curled it precisely into the top-right corner to leave the keeper without a chance again. Four-nil came when Robinho turned on the flare right on the corner-line. He beat his marker with some outrageous moves in the tightest of spaces and eventually Elano blasted home the goal. The final goal to end Equador’s misery was again Kaka’s doing but it was hardly the most spectacular of goals. A simple shot hit directly at the keeper proved too much to hold on to and he let in a howler (or “frango” as the Brazilian’s like to call it). Watch the highlights below.
As I posted earlier, Manchester United were able to seal another 1-0 result at home against Roma. A Wayne Rooney effort made the difference.
Dynamo Kyiv faced off against Sporting Lisbon with a score that ending 2-1 in favour of Lisbon. The Kyiv goal was quite spectacular with a backheal assist. This left Group F with Manchester United comfortably on top, Roma and Sporting equal on points in 2nd and 3rd respectively (goal difference helping Roma). While Kyiv sit on the bottom with no points at all and a very difficult campaign ahead of them.
Rangers played a spectacular match against Lyon and were able to brush them aside 3-0 in France for some valuable points. Very strange indeed to see Lyon so overwhelmed. Puyol scored the first goal for Barca against Stuttgart after the keeper couldn’t hold on to a Ronaldinho header. The match ended 2-0 when the man of the moment, Messi, slammed home a Henry cut-back.
Robin van Persie slotted a nice goal after Adebayor performed a cut-back of his own to show he’s learnt a few things from the departed Henry. The final score was 1-0 to Arsenal over Steaua Bucuresti. Sevilla defeated Slavia Praha 4-2 with Fabiano scoring some nice goals (one leaving the keeper for dead). CSKA Moscow and Fenerbahce had to settle for a 2-2 draw.
Inter were able to carry on their good form from earlier in the week where they destroyed Roma in a 4-1 drubbing. More importantly it was the form of Ibrahimovic which continues to win games for Inter, a brace from him sealed the score at 2-0. Check out the highlights for a truly spectacular finish on the second goal.
Quick post with the highlights of Brazil’s 4-2 win over the United States. Although the scoreline was good, the performance was still less than convincing, with Dunga not at all satisfied. At least Kaka’ and Ronaldinho were playing well (and at the same time too!). Enjoy (Length about 5mins).
So Brazil recently defeated Algeria 2-0 in a friendly match. The first half was not a great display by the Selecao but they did have a few shots on goal. The second half was quite a different affair and it was obvious why, the bringing on of Kaka’ and Ronaldinho. There’s a reason why they’ve been the most important players at their respective clubs for several seasons now, they make the difference.
The first goal came about from a well directed Ronaldinho corner which Maicon of Inter converted. The second involved Ronaldinho setting up Diego who’s deflected shot was calmly placed by Ronaldinho to seal the 2-0 victory. One of Kaka’s characteristic blazing runs almost resulted in a goal as he tore past several defenders, cutting across the face of goal, requiring a simple tap in of Vagner Love that just could not keep up. Which brings me to an important point. Vagner Love is a good striker but certainly should be 6th or 7th on the Selecao list of strikers. He did little during the copa america and it continues to show that he does not deserve that number 9 shirt. Ronaldo needs to return, he may be 30 now but he is still clinical and in good shape now (as opposed to how he was at WC06). If anyone doesn’t agree that R9 should be back then at least Mancini of Roma who has been on fire over the last couple of seasons. There are many better Brazilian strikers but I’ll continue that discussion another time, for now, check out the highlights below. They go for about 9-10 minutes so are quite substantial and well cut-down.
Okay maybe not, I think there’s a bit of hype surrounding Celsinho mostly because of his looks. It may take a few minutes of watching the clip below before you can see that it actually isn’t Ronaldinho! hehe. Celsinho really is the spitting image of Ronaldinho but he definitely has some skill, check it out!
Apparently Sporting have signed him up, taking him off Lokomotiv Moscow’s hands where he only spent a year. Corinthians were in a battle to bring him back to the sunshine of Brazil but may have lost out. He used to play in Brazil for Portuguesa of all clubs, so may already be suited to a Portuguese adventure. Personally I think his face looks more like Andersons…
