Confederations Cup Reflections: Brazil Are Brazil Again - Back To Their Poetic Best

Goal.com's Subhankar Mondal reflects on Brazil's scintillating performance against Italy in their last group game of the Confederations Cup on Sunday.....

22-Jun-2009 6:44:34 PM

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2009 FIFA Confederations Cup: Robinho celebrates Brazil's third goal against Italy (PA)

Last season when this columnist was writing on Spanish football and eventual Liga and European champions FC Barcelona, he would often wonder long and hard into the misty night about what more to add about Pep Guardiola's men to the already filled column inches. Week in week out the Catalans would play galactic football to the point of obsession and towards the end of the season when it was clear that they were indeed the best team anywhere in Europe, they became boringly entertaining and writing on them became almost an obligation. Xavi, Iniesta, Messi and co were doing what they have been doing all season and superlatives ran dry.

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The situation with Brazil is radically becoming the same. If their performance against the USA was ‘cosmotic’, then their display against Italy was ‘mega-cosmotic’. If their slick pass and move football augmented by a healthy dose of pace against the Americans left one searching for words, then their cultured dominating display against the Italians made all the superlatives in the dictionary redundant.

True, Dunga's side just about got out of jail against Egypt in their first match of the Confederations Cup thanks to a late late Kaka penalty, but with their 3-0 demolition of the USA in their second match in the FIFA Confederations Cup Brazil announced their arrival back into the international arena. Copa America triumph couldn't mitigate the pain of a disastrous 2006 World Cup campaign but after a rampaging 3-0 victory over world champions Italy on Sunday night it can be safely said that Brazil are Brazil again, the best in the world. As always.

Since the end of the mega-event in Germany, Italy have been on a slide down the hill while Brazil have been on the way up. On Sunday this point was made starkly clear as Italy were blown away in the last ten or so minutes of the first half in which the South Americans demonstrated the most imperialistic display in the tournament so far as they forced Gianluigi Buffon to pick up the ball from his net thrice. Luis Fabiano scored a brace and Andrea Dossena scored an own goal as Italy fell apart not so much like a pack of cards as a 1000-year old house toppling down under a heavy storm.

This Brazilian side plays football just as Brazilians want football to be played: attacking, entertaining, attractive, incisive, passing, touch-and-move-ing. The full-backs are utilized to the maximum, the centre-backs possess the technique to dribble past opposition defenders inside the opposition penalty area, the midfielders know how to pass the ball and then rush forward to collect the ball and the strikers know how to take the chance when it comes.

Kaka is the fulcrum of Dunga's side and is seemingly back to the best. Against Egypt and the US he was arguably the most imaginative player for Brazil and against Italy he was again employing his pruned intelligence. The new Real Madrid recruit doesn't possess the outrageous skills of Ronaldinho and perhaps isn't even as talented as the audacious Robinho but his subtle cultured pragmatism is what makes this slick Brazilian side tick. Against Italy the 27-year-old was at the right places at the right times, whether it was to dribble past that aging Italian midfielder or pass the ball smartly to his right or thread a through ball.

Brazil's success in the 2010 World Cup qualifiers is built on Kaka's understanding with Robinho on the pitch and on Sunday the Italians got a good understanding of that. Robinho overshadowed his mate whom he so desperately wanted to come to Manchester City in January as the old 'New Pele' hacked the Italian backline. His rampaging runs on the left rendered Gianluca Zambrotta in tatters, his penetrative passes and runs often made Chiellini look average; suddenly talks of moving to Barcelona to play the kind of football Robinho want to but which he cannot in Manchester are not that weird anymore.

And just as Barcelona played throughout last season, Brazil used their wing-backs to full extent. Maicon has been so good for his nation in this competition that Daniel Alves is once again assigned to the bench; the Inter Milan right-back has been as good at attacking as at defending, his rampaging forays on the right a marvel to behold. Against Italy at times Lucio played as an extra striker and could have even added his name to the scoresheet.

The current Brazilian national team is not the best the nation has had in its long and illustrious history but sometimes you don't need 11 world class players on the pitch to win gloriously. Against Italy on Sunday Kaka, Robinho, Lucio, Julio Cesar and Maicon were the only ones who can be truly termed world class; Felipe Melo is still developing, Luis Fabiano has quality but not another Ronaldo, Gilberto Silva is 32 and Ramires is virtually unknown.

Yet this Brazilian side has played perhaps the best football in the Confederations Cup this year. True, Spain have looked like world beaters and their passing has been better than that of Brazil but the cumulative quality and pedigree of New Zealand, Iraq and South Africa falls short of that of Egypt, the USA and Italy. While Spain can keep the ball all night and still sustain their patience, Brazil are always quick to get on with the game and execute their possessive powers, often using their counter-attacking moves to devastating effects.

Which they might need against the European champions in the final of the Confederations Cup. Oh, wait, we are getting ahead of ourselves…..

Subhankar Mondal

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