It may seem strange given that Brazil saw off Uruguay 4-0 but they didn’t particularly look comfortable in the match. Before Dani Alves’ speculative strike somehow beat the Uruguayan goalkeeper Sebastian Viera the Brazilians were definitely not in control and the game could have gone either way.
Chance after chance evaded the Uruguayan attack as Brazil played their get out of jail free card numerous times. It was hardly a display worthy of prospective world champions and I have serious doubts the Brazilians will impress in South Africa after watching them in qualifying.
Sebastian Eguren and Alvaro Pereira both had great chances for Uruguay in the first half but they were wasted and Brazil somehow took a 2-0 lead into the break. It was plain to see that Uruguay had been the better team but the Brazilians still had a fairly healthy lead. There is an argument to suggest that the best teams still win even when playing badly, which does hold some truth. Brazil are, without doubt, a great team but performances like that will not be good enough to better teams stronger than Uruguay.
The Brazilian defence has never been the best in the world, I doubt many would disagree with that, but they just had no idea how to deal with crosses. Teams with a bit more height and experience than the Uruguayan team had at its disposal will take advantage of this.
Now obviously Brazil have a fine array of attacking talent to chose from and will undoubtedly be one of the teams to beat at the World Cup in 2010. With players like Kaka, Robinho and Alves they have some of the finest players in the world and players who can always be dangerous. There are no questions about the attacking talent they posses but their defence was at times shocking against Uruguay and better sides such as Spain and the Netherlands will be better equipped to take advantage of these frailties.
The Brazilian national side is within a whisker of qualifying early for the tournament and a win over Paraguay in their next game will all but seal it. For the good of football I’m hoping they get their act together a bit and pick up their performances by the time the tournament comes around next summer. Maybe I’m being a little harsh, they did win 4-0 after all, but for me the team that saw off Uruguay was not the vintage Brazil and they’re going to have to up their game in South Africa 2010 if they’re to claim the trophy for the sixth time.
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