That is the outcome of a fierce encounter in the Argentine city of Rosario late Saturday. Brazil, the better-organized and better-balanced team, won, 3-1.
It means that Carlos Dunga, Brazil’s coach, for all that he has been denounced in his homeland for preferring steel to the Beautiful Game, could yet become the third man ever to win the World Cup as a player and as coach.
Diego Maradona, attempting to coach as he played, on idolatry and instinct, looks unlikely to follow that path. The Brazilian Mario Zagallo, playing alongside Pelé in the 1958 World Cup and coaching him in 1970, was the first man to achieve the double. Franz Beckenbauer, West Germany’s libero on the field in 1974 and its coach in 1990, is so far the only other man to emulate the feat.
A lot of men have tried, and failed to get even close. And if you know Zagallo and Beckenbauer, it is abundantly clear that to play the game is relatively easy compared to managing and merging 11 others to play it for you.
In a venue chosen by Maradona because he felt the proximity of the crowd would help his men and daunt Brazil, the result was a clear victory for Dunga. Each coach, the Brazilian and the Argentine, played for his country 91 times, but what God gave Maradona — gifts bordering on soccer genius — he did not hand to Dunga.
The Brazilian had to sweat, to think about his game. Maradona did what came from his soul — beautifully.
On Saturday, we saw how far the wheels have turned. Argentina attacked and attacked, but failed to break down the yellow lines of defense, failed to beat the outstanding goalkeeper Julio Cesar. Brazil waited, and then struck twice before half time.
Each goal emanated from a foul on Kaká. Each punished the rough way that Javier Mascherano, especially, tried to stop Kaká. And each capitalized on the woeful defending, inept at this level, of Argentina’s back line.
Is Maradona to blame? Certainly. It is the coach’s responsibility to pick the right players for the right occasion. Maradona played a hunch.
He was denied the defenders Nicolás Burdisso and Martín Demichelis through injury, but he chose not to select Walter Samuel and Daniel Díaz, experienced central defenders with European clubs. Instead, Maradona put in the Vélez Sarsfield pair, Nicolás Otamendi and Sebastián Domínguez.
Domínguez was more than a gamble. He is 29, this was his international debut, and though one man isn’t to blame for a whole defensive collapse, he committed the lunging foul on Kaká and was hopelessly out of position to defend it.
Indeed, when Kaká stroked the free kick toward the penalty spot, nobody stood within three meters, or 10 feet, of Luisão as the tall center back headed the first goal on 24 minutes. Six minutes later, after yet another foul on Kaká, no Argentine was in place to prevent Luís Fabiano poaching the second goal.
The free kick had been saved, but not held, by Argentina’s goalkeeper. An organized defense surely would have known that Fabiano is no man to leave unmarked six meters from the net.
As hard as Lionel Messi and the aging Juan Verón tried to turn the tide, it only looked a possibility for one minute. Argentina came back on 65 minutes when Jesús Dátolo fired a 30-meter shot of ferocious beauty, showing that Maradona’s instincts remain as an attacking thinker.
Dátolo was given his first cap last month. Maradona sees something of himself in the winger, who plays for Naples, Maradona’s former club.
Alas for Argentina, Kaká and Fabiano took less than two minutes to quell any hope. A pass from Kaká, a gliding run of pace and anticipation from Fabiano, and then a delicate chip behind the advancing goalkeeper finished the scoring.
It was 3-1 to Brazil, and 25 goals now in 33 games for Fabiano, who appears to have outgrown the petulant, unreliable firebrand he once was.
Brazil is the seventh nation to qualify for the World Cup, joining South Africa, Australia, Japan, the Netherlands, and North and South Korea.
Maradona, a forlorn, lost figure on the sideline, defeated in three of the four World Cup qualifiers in his nine-month tenure as coach, told reporters, “This won’t break me.” Maybe not. But time is against him. Argentina now desperately needs to learn how to defend. It is running out of games. The next one, in Paraguay on Wednesday, has to be won. Otherwise Maradona, and his national team, will be broken.
There are Brazilians everywhere, particularly in Portugal. The Portuguese team, relying on Cristiano Ronaldo as Argentina relies on Messi, started two Brazilian-born players on Saturday.
Both of them — Deco and Pepe, playmaker and defender — struggled in Copenhagen against a Danish side that was big, strong, athletic and sound. The Danes led through Niklas Bendtner who, two minutes before half time, controlled the ball on his chest, turned, and drove in a high, unstoppable, left-foot shot.
Wave after wave of Portuguese attacks foundered on stout Danish defending until, with the final whistle almost at hand, Liédson da Silva Muniz headed the equalizing goal. Liedson is a Brazilian nobody in Brazil rated; he made his career in Lisbon and, days after qualifying for Portuguese citizenship, the 31-year-old came on as a substitute to score a precious goal.
The Danes remain clear on top of the group, but the draw gave Portugal, a semifinalist at the last World Cup, an outside chance of qualifying by the playoff route. France appears to face the same prospect after it was held 1-1 at home by Romania on Saturday.
With Portugal and France diminishing, Spain is the pride of Europe.
The partnership of David Silva and David Villa, rejuvenated now that their club, Valencia, has been bailed out by the banks and the regional government, routed Belgium, 5-0, in La Coruña. Villa scored two and made the other three, two of them for Silva.
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