"Neutralize Robben and Sneijder and Oranje
are out"
Thursday, 1 July 2010
Even though Brazil
are not swinging like they used to, the team does have
enough quality to beat Holland and easily progress to
the final, because the semifinal against either Ghana
or Uruguay will be a formality for Friday's winners.
Such is the general
opinion in Brazil. "This Brazilian team may not
be playing the beautiful football that we would want
to see. And that will not change this tournament,"
says former PSV-player Romário de Souza Faria.
"But we have enough quality to beat Holland."
Romario thinks Holland
are made up of two important links: Arjen Robben and
Wesley Sneijder. "If you manage to neutralize those
two the rest will be harmless," according to the
World Champion of 1994.
His former colleague,
and also a player of PSV, Ronaldo Luis Nazário
de Lima, is less confident: "Holland will be a
pedreira (literally: a heave stone, df)."
Renato Mauricio Prado,
one of Brazil's most poplar sports writers compared
the game to an exam: "The homework has been done
with some older, not so complicated exercises. Holland
will be tougher, even though the current version of
the Laranja Mécanica (Orange machine,
as Brazilians nicknamed Holland) is light-years away
from the carrousel of Johan Cruyff and can not stand
comparison with the star collection of Marco van Basten,
Ruud Gullit and Frank Rijkaard."
"But they are
efficient and extremely dangerous. This is in fact a
semifinal, because - with all due respect for Ghana
and Uruguay - I believe the team that wins on Friday
will make it to the final."
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