Football Dispatch

Summer Football
17 July 2007
The Cordillera Oriental -- one of three, northern branches of the Andes Mountains -- forks around either side of Lake Maracaibo in northwestern Venezuela. One of the two ranges, the Sierra de Perija, serves as a natural boundary with neighboring Columbia to the west. The other, the Cordillera de Merida, rises above the lake's southern shore before running northward to the Caribbean Sea. Between them, the land plunges into a fertile, productive basin.

The picturesque city of Maracaibo is at the centre of this unique peninsula. With the mountains to the west, the lake to the east, and the Sea to the north, early settlers described the place as La Tierra del Sol Armada -- the Land by the Sun Loved. The discovery of vast reserves of crude oil in 1914 only served to enhance the perception.

Appropriately, Maracaibo was the site of Brazil's latest football triumph, Sunday. In spite of having slogged through the Group Phase before narrowly edging Uruguay on penalties in the semi-final, Dunga's Selecao drubbed Argentina 3-0 in front of 40,000-onlookers at Estadio Panchencho Romero. In so doing, Brazil merely reinforced the belief that, in football terms, it is a Land by the Sun Loved.

Indeed, few pundits would have forecasted a Brazilian victory just a fortnight ago. Brazil stuttered out of the gate -- dropping a 2-0 decision to invitee Mexico and narrowly defeating Ecuador in Puerto La Cruz. And although they anihilated Chile on two occasions, they required penalties in order to advance beyond Uruguay and into Sunday's final.

Even more disturbing, perhaps, was the manner in which Brazil were achieving their results. They hardly looked at their flowing best. In Ronaldinho, Kaka, Adriano, and Ronaldo, they were without four of their best, offensive talents. The full weight of expectation, it seemed, fell on the shoulders of Robinho. The 23-year-old Real Madrid forward was his side's only goal-scorer until Juan's tally in the 16th-minute of Brazil's quarter-final match with Chile.

Still, even fewer would have predicted that Brazil would meekly bow out of the competition with nary a whimper -- such is the quality and repute of their magic. And when Argentina strode cautiously and fearfully into the Parchencho Romero, they played right into Brazil's hand.

Argentina played through the various stages of the Copa America as undisputed favorites. Unlike Brazil, all of their marquee players reported for duty and willingly took their place in manager Alfio Basile's set-up. Juan Roman Riquelme, the field-marshal, had a superb tournament -- scoring 4-goals and creating opportunities throughout the attacking third. Lionel Messi's spectacular goal against Mexico in the semi-final was the moment of the competition. For the better part of three weeks, all indicators pointed to an inevitable Argentina triumph -- their first since 1993.

It all came crashing down after just five minutes. Shakhtar Donetsk midfielder Elano fired a lovely pass to the toes of Julio Baptista. The Madrid forward toyed,
momentarily, with Roberto Ayala, and then proceeded to blast the ball past Roberto Abbondanzieri and into the top-right corner of the goal. Argentina were shell-shocked; and they never recovered. From that moment, there was only ever going to be one winner. The Albicelestes were a shadow of their former selves -- tentative and scared to death of losing another final to their arch-rival.

Baptista's opener was made all the more overwhelming by the sheer heat of the afternoon. At 32-degrees Celcius, the match looked destimed to be played at a somewhat plodding pace. And with neither side interested in lightning-quick counter-ttacks and expending unecessary energy, the opening goal was always going to be of monumental importance.

That Brazil stunned Argentina by scoring the first goal of the affair is one thing. That they did it so early in the proceedings is another entirely. Argentina were forced to play attacking, come-from-behind football from the outset -- a reality which, when combined with Brazil's efficiently stifling defensive play, produced an inevitable conclusion.

Perhaps already wilting in the heat, veteran Argentine defender Roberto Ayala deflected Daniel Alves' cross into his own goal after 40-minutes. Alves, fresh off the bench after replacing Elano in the 34th-minute due to injury, persisted in terrorizing Cambiasso, Mascherano, and Heinze throughout the remainder of the match.

Deflated, Argentina looked resigned to playing-out the string in the second half. The match remained a tight affair, however, as the two sides combined for 58-fouls on the night.

It was Alves, again, who struck the final blow. After collecting a pass from Vagner Love, the 24-year-old Sevilla right-back slotted past Abbondanzieri with just over 20-minutes of normal time to play.

At the final whistle, the 3-0 scoreline proved an even greater victory for Brazil than their penalty shoot-out win over Argentina in the 2004 Final. And given the weakened squad against which they lined-up, the defeat will certainly cast a depressing shadow over Argentine football for some time.

If anything, the result demonstrated, once again, that Brazil are never to be counted out. That squads and tactics and previous results mean little when mixed with history, reputation, and magic. Argentina were ever-mindful of these intangibles on Sunday; and it proved their undoing. What, they must have wondered, can stand in the way of La Tierra del Sol Armada.