More Thoughts on the Quarters
Brazil's debacle has got to be laid at the feet of the coach too. More stupid defensiveness, another loss. Why take out the second striker and replace him with a midfielder? Ronaldinho isn't a striker, so you are left with 1 - Ronaldo. And we all saw that Ronaldo was up and down. So, you take away Ronaldinho and Kaka, and Brazil had no offense. Ronaldinho was never in any of these matches really, and Kaka was taken out brilliantly by the French, so much so that Parreira subbed him out.
So I should apologize to Domenech. The last two matches have been absolutely brilliant. The Franch midfield has been dominant, even more so than their defense. You take Makalele, who is the best holding midfielder around, and put him in with Viera, a good two-way guy, and Zidane and Ribery, who are wonderful attackers, and that makes for a dominant midfield. And I think that's what shut Brazil down - they could never get into their possession game, because their midfield was outplayed by France's.
One interesting note. If you look at Henry's goal, I noticed that it wasborderline offsides. Henry himself was ONsides. However, Viera and (I think) Thuram were offsides when the ball was played. Now, of course, it was not played to them, so it was a passive offsides. But did they affect the play at all? Because it looked like Dida had to worry about them before the ball got to Henry, thus making their offsides not passive.
Also, some has been made of Roberto Carlos sitting on the 16 while Henry came in to score the goal. What was he doing - playing the offisides trap? But note thatat least one other time Henry was left wide open - a cross came in and he had an open header, but Viera came in and took it early before it got to Henry. Else Henry would have scored another goal.
So I should apologize to Domenech. The last two matches have been absolutely brilliant. The Franch midfield has been dominant, even more so than their defense. You take Makalele, who is the best holding midfielder around, and put him in with Viera, a good two-way guy, and Zidane and Ribery, who are wonderful attackers, and that makes for a dominant midfield. And I think that's what shut Brazil down - they could never get into their possession game, because their midfield was outplayed by France's.
One interesting note. If you look at Henry's goal, I noticed that it wasborderline offsides. Henry himself was ONsides. However, Viera and (I think) Thuram were offsides when the ball was played. Now, of course, it was not played to them, so it was a passive offsides. But did they affect the play at all? Because it looked like Dida had to worry about them before the ball got to Henry, thus making their offsides not passive.
Also, some has been made of Roberto Carlos sitting on the 16 while Henry came in to score the goal. What was he doing - playing the offisides trap? But note thatat least one other time Henry was left wide open - a cross came in and he had an open header, but Viera came in and took it early before it got to Henry. Else Henry would have scored another goal.
posted by Al at 8:30 AM
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