But that's the quality of football punditry in this country

At every major tournament, Brazil 'play with 11 attackers', 'you can never write off the Germans' (the only side ever referred to in this way: always 'the Germans', but never 'Germany'), the Scots (if they get there) are 'plucky', Argentina 'cynical', Italy 'know how to get a result', the African sides 'just happy to be there' (and hence, incapable of dirty play: try telling that to Claudio Cannigia!), and on, and on...

The reality: that Brazil have focused on developing physical, strong players over the past couple of decades, have always been able to kick with the best of them, and only win the World Cup when properly organised tactically under a clever manager, seems to go totally over their heads; as, indeed, does the fact that an away point in Lima is a perfectly decent result en route to qualification.

Posted By: thebigfeller, Nov 19, 12:01:30