Brazil's First game

I couldn't resist writing about this. I am sure there is bias towards Brazil in this write-up, but the point is not to be unbiased, but to bring in a different perspective!

My prediction for the Brazil - Croatia game was a tough win for Brazil and a score line of 2-1. I did not expect the Croatian goal to come from a Brazilian touch!

I did expect that the Croatian midfield would put up a battle, and that there would be times when the Brazil defence line would be exposed. There were no surprises there.

There was also no surprise that everyone, everywhere (or most everyone, everywhere) has a lot of complaints and "critique" about the game, and more so about how Brazil played. I have constantly heard that the game was messy, Brazil played poorly, the referee made bad decisions, Croatia was great and so on. This obviously from "neutral" observers.

First of all, when Brazil play, there are a very few people who are neutral. Second, because expectations are so high with Brazil, the criticism is worse. Fair enough.

But here is what I saw as well. As much as Croatia did put up a great show, and did have many opportunities (yes and verily, exposed the Brazil defence (ermm why people were surprised or complaining about this, I don't know!) They did not score that first goal! Yes, they scored a second disallowed goal...and the referee has definitely been punched about this; C'est La Vie. It does happen in football. To be fair, while the foul was not intentional, the player did practically fall on the goalie! Remember the disallowed goal for England, that was a goal? That was probably worth more debate and drama than this incident.

Moving on, I also saw that Brazil had more shots on goal, more interesting play up front, some of the footwork and passes were tantalizing! Case in point, the entire play that prompted Neymar's goal! That was phenomenal. So was the last goal of the game - Oscar was fantastic! The set piece that led to the penalty was also well done. How about the time Neymar played in the ball from the line adjacent to the goal, back into play? Trust me, if this was another team - big or small - everyone would have been going gaga over these moves. Well, I am going gaga over it now.

Sure, Brazil need to get better over the course of the tournament. But kudos for battling out a tough match, and showing grit after a mess-up! Facing the crazy pressure from the world, and coming out tops! It is one match won, and one important job done. Come win or loss, this was the start that was needed. It's exciting to see Oscar do what he did and here is wishing him luck for the rest of the tournament! And Neymar - go for it!!!

So, bring on more games! bring on the samba beats, come rain or shine!