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.

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.

Brazil won Ghana today by 3 x 0.

Still, the team did not convince many Brazilians that they are capable of winning the Cup.
Parreira started the match with the same eleven players that started playing against Croatia and Australia: Dida, Cafu, Lucio, Juan, Roberto Carlos, Emerson, Kaká, Ze Roberto, Ronaldinho, Ronaldo and Adriano.
It looks like Parreira, differently from the vast majority of Brazilians, didn't like the team which started against Japan, which included younger (and more motivated) Cicinho, Gilberto, Gilberto Silva, Juninho and Robinho.

The team was fortunate to score a goal early, at 5', in a quick counter attack with Ronaldo.
Then, during 40 minutes, Ghana dominated the game. They easily controlled the actions, and lost many chances to score. At 45', Adriano scored again.
In the second half, Brazil kept playing Very Slowly. TV Globo replayed the third goal a few times, showing that it took more than 20 passes and longer than one minute for the ball to reach Zé Roberto, who scored; Globo says that this is an evidence of how well the team coordinates passes, but I say this shows how incompetent the team is to reach the adversary's goal quickly.


At the end of the game, Parreira, not surprisingly, was satisfied: "to play beautiful is to win, and we won". Part of the media agrees with him.

Ronaldo was very happy, because now, with 15 goals, he is the player with most goals in a World Cup; he surpasses Gerd Muller, who had 14.
Also, Cafu was very happy, because now he is the Brazilian player with most participations in World Cups.

Brazil will play next against France.
Brazil loose to France in 1986 and in 2002.

Portugal won Holland, in the penalties shoot outs. The match had eight yellow cards and two yellow cards, the highest number ever in the History of World Cups.

The Portuguese team doesn't have many stars. Figo is still the best, but a little older; Cristiano Ronaldo is the best promise; Brazilian Deco is efficient in the midfield.
There seems to be a big difference from the current Portugal team to the others in recent past: the strenght of will. The players give more, dispute each play, run till the end.

Certainly, much of this is due to the coach, Luiz Felipe Scolari, known as Felipão (Big Phil). Felipão was the Brazilian coach in the 2002 Cup. Felipão had seven winnings in a row in 2002, and had four more so far in 2006, setting a new record.

Felipão is doing with Portugal the same that he did in Brazil. Felipão hardly had chances to have an excellent set of players to work with; he was Brazilian champion with Grêmio, Palmeiras and Cruzeiro, always with but a few above average players, but always imposing his philosophy: get the most motivated players, have them to play seriously, give all they can, fight till the end.

To compare: this is NOT the philosophy of Parreira and Zagalo, and has never been. NOt that they encourage players to not fight, but they think that individual talent of players, associated with their ingenuous tactics, are enough to win.
Cafu and Roberto Carlos are known to be old and unmotivated, but, as they were useful in the past, they think they have a secure place in the team. Ronaldo is overweighted and slow, but, as he wants to score more goals to surpass Pelé, there he goes with the team.

It won't surprise me if Portugal and Felipão go farther into the Cup than Brazil and Parreira.

Brazil won Japan yesterday by 4 x 1.
The Japanese team scored first. Ronaldo scored his first goal in the Cup at the last minute of first half; Juninho, Gilberto and Ronaldo again scored in the second half.

The Brazilian team changed five players from the first two matches. Cafu out, Cicinho in; Roberto Carlos out, Gilberto in; Emerson out, Gilberto Silva in; Zé Roberto out, Juninho in; Adriano out, Robinho in.

It is a general consensus that the team played much better.
Cafu, Roberto Carlos and Emerson are the oldest players in the team.
For some time now, Cicinho (who now plays in Real Madrid) has been outperforming Cafu.
Gilberto was still a little unknown, but he performed better than Roberto Carlos (Roberto Carlos has the most powerful shots of Brazil, but it is been long since his last goal; Gilberto entered and scored).
Emerson is known for his physical force.
Zé Roberto had been doing OK, but the problem here is that Juninho has been one of the best players in training, and was also one of the best in the match against Japan. If there is one unanimity about who should enter the team, that's Juninho (just to remember: before Juninho arrived in Lyon, five years ago, the Olympique had never been French champion; since his arrival, Olympique has been the champion for five years in a row now).

Robinho had entered the first two matches, and improved the team performance. It is becoming a growing consensus that Ronaldo and Adriano don't play well together, as they have similar roles.
Thanks to his fundamental participations in past Cups, Brazilian still give much credit to Ronaldo, despite his recent bad performances.

Brazil won Australia yesterday by 2 x 0.
Again, nobody in Brazil was enthusiastic over the victory. Most say that Ronaldo played a bit better than the first match, but the team is still very far from being convincing.

Again, Robinho entered in the second half, replacing Ronaldo, and the team started to play much better. A consensus is forming in Brazil that Ronaldo and Adriano occupy the same areas of the field, and when one leaves, the other has more room to perform.
More and more the influential media talks about Robinho replacing Ronaldo, or even Juninho replacing Ronaldo.

A good suprise was Fred. He entered the game five minutes before the end (replacing Adriano) and scored the second goal; in an interview, he said he feels blessed by God. Fred scored a goal in the first match after transferring to Cruzeiro, then scored in the first match with Olympique, and now scored a goal in the fist match in a World Cup.