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Posted by on Jul 1, 2013 in Matt Cargile, Sports | 1 comment

Instant Coffee: Confederation Cup Final

ConfederationsCup20133AGradingTopStarsinBrazilvsSpainFinal

 

Brazil pummels Spain 3-0

If there was any question of home field advantage for Brazil for the 2014 World Cup, that question just got answered quite resoundingly.  Probably up to the hour prior to this final everyone and anyone trying to make early predictions on the World Cup had Spain pegged to win it.  I have stuck by my guns that Brazil, by my estimation, would win the World Cup.  The numbers speak for themselves, but if you don’t believe stats you can read Bill Simmons’ article about his attendance of the 2010 World Cup qualifying match between the U.S. and Mexico in Azteca stadium about home field advantage in soccer (http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=simmons/090817).  He rescinds his previous notions that soccer will never win over America and concedes that soccer, above even his precious Boston Celtics, Boston Red Sox, and New England Patriots, has the greatest home field advantage there is in sports.

Which brings us to the game played last night. For what seems like forever Spain has dominated the competition.  Teams have almost seemed baffled by the brilliance and patience for which Spain plays with.  Spain hasn’t even been behind in a knock out game of competitive play since the last Confederation Cup when the U.S. took an early 2-0 lead on them.  Spain went on to win, but that game is important because I believe it showed the one way a team can take it to the Spanish side.  You must play with high pressure and borderline frantic aggressiveness.  And from the first whistle of the 2013 Confederation Cup finals Brazil did just that.  Pressing Neymar, Fred, and Hulk high up on the Spanish defense. The first moments of the match established the game’s tempo. And in those first moments Fred scored an extreme hustle goal 2 minutes into the game. Casillas had a chance to save it possibly but Fred on his way to the ground was able to finish the task at hand. From there the Brazilian boys were running downhill. For the rest of the first half Brazil continued to knock on the door of the Spanish side.  But it wasn’t till nearly half time that Neymar put in a brilliant strike near post.  To note, Neymar frustrated the Spanish side most, gaining 3 free kicks and just all around out hustling the other side’s defenders.  The pass back from Oscar to Neymar that led to the second goal was a nifty one, but the one point most people will miss on that play is the hustle of Neymar.  Oscar delayed his original pass a bit too late, and Neymar was about to be offsides.  But unlike so many other superstars I watch who generally give up on plays and don’t continue to work, Neymar hustled back onside to receive the would be pass and finished with a beautiful strike, top shelf near post.  The only thing more impressive than that goal would be imagining what that will look like playing next to Messi.

The second half opened in a bit of a déjà vu.  Again within the first few minutes after a string of quite brilliant and breezy looking passing, Brazil put a third and final goal in off the foot of Fred.  Fred cooly place a great one time pass from Neymar into the far post corner pocket.  Fred is quietly making himself a very sure handed finisher, with 10 goals in the last 11 international matches.  From there the game never got out of Brazil’s control and if anything should’ve been a bigger margin of victory.  Brazil showed as usual, that even with all the second guessing by the media, and at times less than stellar games by this team in the years since the last World Cup, they seemed to always be ready for the big stage.  Brazil will now go on to be the favorite in this World Cup as I thought they rightfully should’ve been the day it was announced it would be in Brazil.  The only thing statistically stopping them now, is that no team that has won the Confederation Cup has gone on to win the World Cup.

Looking forward to the World Cup. 

With the tournament over, we are nearing the home stretch.  I have about 2 and a half months before sports dominate my life.  At that time the NFL season will be upon us, Qualifying will resume and shortly after will be ending.  And just as the NBA season starts to get warming up, so to will International squads be warming up for the greatest sporting event on the planet. by this time next year I’ll be cheering loudly for the red, white, and blue and I’m guessing I’ll be joined by the largest contingency of fans this sport has seen in this country yet.  As I said in a previous article; I got a funny feeling about this U.S. team.  There’s something magical going on.  To recap we are dominating the qualifying stage of the tournament like never before, gained our first victory in Azteca stadium ever (EVER), and have looked more creative than any previous U.S. team.  We will field a team with 3 players who will eventually go down as the best 3 players so far in U.S. history, in Landon Donovan, Clint Dempsey, and Michael Bradley and to boot our best coach ever.  These qualifying matches have received some of the biggest television audiences, even when competing against the NBA Finals. Also to help our cause, European teams notoriously play poorly in South America.  It’s a bit of stars aligning. Like I said there’s something in the air. Everyone’s got 11 months to get ready for it.

Comments

1 Comment

  1. Tab Ramos, Brian Mcbride, Claudio Reyna, Eddie Pope, Brad Friedel. All better than the three currently playing you listed. Don’t tell me you blocked the 3-2 over portugal in ’02 out of your mind.

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