Brazil should feel at home
By STEPHEN BRUNT
From Thursday's Globe and Mail
Wednesday, June 26 – Online Edition, Posted at 8:30 PM EST
Saitama, Japan — When it began, the entire country was wearing blue, and as success followed on success, as Japan advanced unexpectedly to the second round of their home World Cup, anybody hoping to drop a hundred bucks on a Nakata jersey knew they would have to stand in line.
Then, with the loss to Turkey in the round of 16, blue was out and red-and-white was in. The masses jumped on the bandwagon along with all of those teenaged girls already besotted with David Beckham. When England played Brazil in Shizuoka in the quarter-finals, they might just as well have been at Old Trafford or Stamford Bridge or Highbury.
The disappointing result that night forced another rush to the sporting goods stores, where suddenly canary yellow was the chic summer colour. The Japanese certainly love their brand names, and in soccer there's none more sexy than Brazil, but appearances aside, the trend that turned Saitama into little Sao Paulo for the World Cup semi-final yesterday wasn't just a fashion statement. This time, at least the roots were partly organic.
There are unexpected links between the
two countries: Japanese émigrés who moved to Brazil long ago for enhanced
opportunities and wide open spaces; Brazilians who arrived here much later,
during the boom times, willing to take the dirty jobs that in those days the
Japanese could afford to decline. In soccer, there are a whole other set
of connections, beginning with the arrival of Zico two years before the
formation of the professional J-League in 1993. Brazil became the
Promising Japanese teenagers were sent off to play for clubs in Brazil. More Brazilian professionals crossed the Pacific to play, including Leonardo, who now does television commentary (in Portuguese, translated into Japanese), and Edilson, who started in place of the suspended Ronaldinho for the semi-final. Brazilian nationals hastily granted citizenship were part of both this and the previous Japanese World Cup teams. So on Sunday when the crowd in Yokohama Stadium seems to be dressed in a single shade, everyone ought to understand that the locals aren't just front-running, that they're not just looking for a winner.
This time, though, they might finally be backing the right horse. On the evidence of Brazil's 1-0 victory over Turkey, one of the most entertaining matches of the tournament (at least on the Japan side of the draw), it's nearly safe to say they're back: back on top, back playing brilliant, artistic soccer, back acting confident and bordering on cocky, afraid of no one else in the world. Are they airtight at the back? Not even close. Did they surrender chances to the Turks? Plenty of them, right into the final minute of injury time, when it might have been a heck of a lot more prudent to get conservative and protect that one-goal lead.
But there was the sense all along that if Turkey had somehow tied the score, Brazil would have just popped another one. Their legitimate scoring chances on the night ran to double figures, and only a tendency to get a little too spectacular when a simple finish would do prevented them from scoring at least four. The Turkish 'keeper, Rustu Recber, could also take some credit for barring the door. His mates, though, had no answer for Brazil's pace, for their suddenly coherent play through the midfield, and for a collection of individual talents that no one else on the planet can match.
The deciding goal, scored just under four minutes into the second half, was relatively simple, at least compared with some of the wild concoctions that Rivaldo, Roberto Carlos and company cooked up the rest of the night. Turkish defender Fatih Akyel made a huge error in judgment, deciding to run forward and challenge Gilberto Silva, who was breaking toward a ball down the left wing near half.
Silva chipped it by him, stepped around and had acres of open pitch in which to operate. Finally, he laid the ball off to Ronaldo, who held it, moved laterally across the area, and finally fired a shot along the grass that a sprawling Recber tipped, but that just found its way inside the far post. It was Ronaldo's sixth goal of the tournament, putting him alone atop the list of scoring leaders. He seemed to run out of gas later and was substituted, but otherwise there was no evidence of the injury woes that made him an uncertain starter.
Beyond that, the game notes include a long list of Brazilian near misses: Kleberson blasting a ball right at the 'keeper from point-blank range; Cafu waltzing in alone and shooting wide; Roberto Carlos firing a ball just wide of the near post; Rivaldo barely missing chance after chance.
The fans, the Japan/England/Brazil fans, ate it up, including the Emperor and Empress of Japan, caught smiling on the big screen, while FIFA head Sepp Blatter sat beside them, one finger buried deeply in his left nostril (which surely violates some protocol or another). Now comes the classic match-up at the end of a less-than-classic World Cup, about which much will be said and written in the next few days: German organization versus Brazilian flair, defence versus offence, strength versus finesse. All of those previous tournaments, and seven victories between them, yet they've never met for all the marbles.
The Germans already know what it's like to knock off one home team, having beaten South Korea in Seoul. Now they'll have the chance to try it again.