The highly anticipated first appearance of the hyped up Brazilian all-super star team ended in a pretty big disaster even though the team won 1:0.

Likes

Reality is slowly checking in on Ronaldo. Calling him a lame duck would do the duck injustice. Call it overweight, chubby, husky, heavy or fat. The fact is that he is highly out of shape and his performance was most probably one of the most embarrassing of a presumed world class player of all times. The Brazilian press and the fans are apparently catching up on that. Pereira saw that as well and choose to keep him on the pitch for 60 minutes. He also stated that Ronaldo will start again at their next game. Shaq does more running on the basketball court than Ronaldo did yesterday.

Carlos Alberto Pereira’s outfit
A grey sweat suit with the letter Brazil on the back. That’s a very nice contrast to some of those overdressed wanna-be fashion icons at the bench.

Dislikes

They’re too old
This team needs some fresh blood. Look at the young and hungry Argentinean team and then compare it to the Selecao. The whole defense and defensive midfield has over-accomplished written all over their face.

Their overall attitude
I can’t remember a team showing so much laissez faire (and hidden arrogance) during the preparation of the cup. Your hear and read more about their parties then anything else and no efforts are made to counter that image. That is a slap in the face for all the other teams who are trying really hard to be at their very best und sacrifice for that. Brazil treats the World Cup like a vacation. They just need to come and pick up the Cup.

Nike
Nike just focuses to much ion Brazil in my eyes. There are many other very valuable players and teams besides Brazil. Joga (together with Google) and all their other efforts are too much tailored to create super-hero like stars - similar to the American sports world. They guarantee a better return for Nike. I don’t like the overall idea of that concept. They try to feed into the cult following around the Brazilian team.

PS:
Did you notice with how much heart Croatia played yesterday? They were pushing hard and would have deserved an equalizer. Plus they clearly won the battle of the fans in the stadium. Well done Croatia!