Brazil team faces hostily

The Brazilian team faced some hostility yesterday, when leaving the hotel in Germany; several Brazilians were near the bus, shouting at the players.

Today, a few players arrived in Brazil.
In São Paulo, most of them preferred to leave the aiport through a back door. One of the few who faced the crowd was Cafu (in a quick interview, he said that "experience can win a Cup, as France is showing"), and Brazilians made it very clear how unhappy they were (to Cafu, shouting was "it's time to retire").
In Rio, the most expected was Parreira, but he also preferred to use a back door to escape the crowd and the journalists.

In contrast, in Argentina, the players were warmed welcomed back home.

Interview with Parreira

Brazilian coach Carlos Alberto Parreira gave an interview after the match (it looks like this is a protocol determined by FIFA, rather than an spontaneous attitude of Parreira).

A few of Parreira's declarations:
"I have no regrettings. Over these past four years, everything went very good. In the World Cup, we played five matches, and won four".
"We dealt well with the favoritism. The players were not mercenaries and didn't show apathy. France played better. They scored a goal after a free kick; otherwise, the match would be 0 x 0.".
"These players are pure talent, they play in several positions; working with them is complicated, it takes a lot of time and a lot of patience".
"It was hard to live with this Big Brother (constant scrutinizing by the jornalists). But I and the players had a professional behavior, we are all very experienced, we were not affected by this".
"We did what was possible. We had little time, few matches".
"I was not prepared for this moment. I never prepare to lose, only to win".
"This is not time to hunt witches. Let's look back at what we did, there is plenty of good things".

Is it unbelievable? A blog put the actual interview online; check out the entry of July 2nd 2006 of this blog.

Brazil lost to France

It wasn't a surprise.

A few people were forecasting the defeat before the Cup; read the note of May 24th: Brazil is ready for failure.

Then, in the first two matches, Brazil had to struggle much to beat Croatia and Australia. The team played much better against Japan, when Parreira demoted the stars of old (Cafu, Roberto Carlos, Emerson) and went with the new, motivated, players (Cicinho, Juninho, Robinho); but Parreira said that "experience matters; to play beautiful is to win".
Parreira returned the old team against Gana; the team played very bad, but won by 3 x 0, and Parreira was happy.

Then, came the French. Unlike Croatians, Australians, Japanese and Ghanians, the French didn't flinch. They had won Brazil in 1986 and 1998. They knew that Ronaldo, ex-Phenomenon, is fat, Ronaldinho is constrained from doing the same as in Barcelona, Cafu and Roberto Carlos are aged.

Parreira made two changes. He put Gilberto Silva in place of Emerson, who was recovering from an injury. And he put Juninho instead of Adriano; Juninho, strong, swift, had been claimed by all in Brazil; Adriano had been slow in the other matches, but much because his partner was the even slower Ronaldo.
Parreira said that Brazil played well the first fifteen minutes; what he means is that, starting from the 15th minute of the first half, only France played. Zidane had all freedom he wanted; along with his talent, he commanded the French team to a overwhelming dominance over Brazil.

The first half finished 0 x 0. It was clear that it was a matter of time before France scored. What did Parreira do? Nothing.
At 12' of second half, Henry scored. Brazilian Television showed that, when Zidane prepared to cross the ball into the area, Roberto Carlos was near Henry; when Zidaned kicked and Henry ran towards the ball, Roberto Carlos preferred to stay still outside the area, arranging his socks !!!!

Then, Parreira changed. Fist, he took out Juninho and put Adriano !?!? The team needed speed, and he added slowness.
Fifteen minutes before the end, Parreira did what Brazilians were asking: put Cicinho and Robinho. The team got noticeable better; indeed, only in the final minutes did Brazil manage to shoot against the French goal.
It was too late, though. Actually, Brazilians knew that if the match lasted longer, France would probably score more.