If you did not watch the quarter final game yesterday between Brazil and France yesterday, you missed an amazing game of football. The Brazilians came into the game as strong favorites. Having big superstars in their line up assured them of the needed firepower. This was amply proved in earlier games against not so strong opponents. On the other hand, France barely scraped through the qualifying rounds.
But yesterday France turned the tables on what became a classic match of midfield wizadry. Zidane, in his last world cup, showed us once more why he was the greatest player two editions ago, when France won the Cup in 1998.
Brazil lost the match because of their cockiness. There was a slight superiority in their stride and the way their players performed. Their defense was caught totally unawares by some brilliant tandem play between Zidane and Henry.
For a long time the Brazilian defense has been suspect, but with Ronaldo, Ronaldinho, Cafu and others, the defense got by. Yesterday they were caught napping.
An ironical twist to the whole tale, is that the last time Brazil lost a World Cup game was also against France, in the finals of 1998.
Thus we will wait for another 4 years for the Brazilian Samba to flow on the soccer fields of the World Cup.
