Portugal vs Brazil. A glance at that fixture would make any football fans drool in excitement. Fanciful predictions started to fly around. How about a repeat of the 6-2 thrashing of Portugal by Brazil in the friendly match? How about a thrilling, heart stopping 4-4 draw? How about Cristiano Ronaldo rescuing his country in a 3-2 win by scoring a hat-trick? Wow, it must be some sort of a game! Even more so if the match is in the World Cup 2010! How can it get any bigger than that! A huge match on the grandaddy of them all of football. It has to be a cracker! But then again, we as fans tend to be carried away a bit too far to say the least. I consider myself to be an alert football fan. When I looked at this fixture being the third match of Group G, in which Brazil has secure qualification, and the probability of Portugal being knocked out was just merely a mathematical probability, I knew that both teams might not go above the proverbial second gear at most. But nevertheless, I didn't want to miss this game. Too big of a fixture to miss, what a huge mistake!
From the onset all the way to the end of the match, it was such a drab match that I yawned, my first in World Cup 2010. It was arguably the most boring match ever so far in this competition. I had jokingly predicted the score would be a 4-4 thrilling draw, but I came close only in the accumulated yellow cards, 4-3 to Portugal, all accrued in the first half. In the first half, the players seemed to be carried away themselves as throughout the first half, tackles started to fly off wildly and both set of players started to accumulate yellow cards. Temper also flared, between Luis Fabiano and Pepe, as well as Felipe Melo who was clearly so uncomfortable and his temperament boiling, Dunga decided to pull him off to prevent any unnecessary events (read: red card)
However, it seemed that in both dressing rooms of Portugal and Brazil, both Carlos Queiroz and Dunga said the same thing to their respective set of players. Basically, what must have been said in the two dressing rooms was that, “Take it easy guys... Come on, we only need a draw to secure 100% qualification for both of us”
The second half started in a very drab manner. Throughout the second half, both teams were only happy to pass the ball around the field sideways, and hold up the ball so much, and when one team is with the ball and holding it up, the other did not close down the other team at all. When any of the players got somewhere near the penalty area, they just launched blind shots without taking specific aim and/or without trying to breach the opponents' defense further and score from a closer distance. When the fourth official signaled for the 5 minutes of injury time to be played, I really wished the match to end at that point of time. I wanted to switch my TV off in disgust but decided against it as sometimes things go against me and had I switched off the TV, there might have been 2-3 spectacular goals for all I care.
It was such a disappointing end to Group G, but to be expected. Even after the alteration of rules since that 1982 “Anchluss in Gijon” incident such that the third match of the group stages are played simultaneously, it could not be helped that the last matches are always anomolous. However, let's not dwell on the group stage, and start looking forward to the next match of both teams in the last 16. Brazil vs Chile, and also the derby of Iberian Peninsula between Spain and Portugal! Mouth watering matches to come!
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