by Stoneburg » Tue Jun 13, 2006 3:49 pm
Not a good game. Brazil really failed to impress and frankly I think Croatia was the better team in the second half and would have deserved a tie.
Kovac was man of the match for me, excellent defending. In Brazil I liked Emerson, and Ronaldinho had some good intentions but lack of movement from the strikers made it hard for him to create anything.
This is why I didn't pick any Brazilians for my strikers. Ronaldo was just a joke. He made one run the entire game and spent the rest walking around looking fat and uninterested. Adriano had the first touch of a conference league player and created absolutely nothing but fouls. Kaka was ok and scored a nice goal, I wouldn't call it "super sweet" though, I have already seen a lot of nicer goals in this tournament. Lahm, Rosicky, Frings, Koller etc, all nicer than Kakas.
Obviously Brazil will just stroll through the group, Croatia was the only team with any hope of defeating them, but if they don't pick up their game they won't get far. I'm guessing we won't see Ronaldo starting next game, he was truly disgraceful.
I think Croatia did a decent job. Sure they didn't push much the last 10 minutes but they were absolutely finished by then after running so much in the heat. But their defense looked real solid and frankly they created more chances than Brazil, and with some better precision in their finishes they could have leveled the score.
