FIFA World Cup 2010 Chile Make the Mistake of Taking their Game to Brazil
There are only a handful of teams that would even consider taking the game to the mighty Brazilians from the get go. However Chile thought they could catch Brazil off guard by doing just that. Unfortunately for them though, that was not the case, as Brazil showed a fine display on how to contain teams and then hit them on the break.
Chile tried to be bold by using three forwards against a team that had won the World Cup five times. Chile had a good start to the game, creating a few chances here and there with an occasional shot towards the goal. But they were pulled apart by the masters of counter attacking football. The Brazilian coach Dunga, recently complained that many teams play ultra defensive football against his team, this was evident when the Brazilians faced off against North Korea and Portugal. But surely he can’t have any complaints from the way Chile were playing.
The Chilean coach, Marcelo Bielsa, turned a calamity of a team, to one of the best attacking threats from the South American continent, over the course of the last three years. However this attacking style of play fell right into the trap of the Brazilians. Teams such as Colombia and Bolivia parked busses when playing against Brazil and managed to sneak draws against them. But anyone who has dared to attack them has paid the price.
Chile managed to dominate the early stages of the match and looked rather threatening. Some people thought that maybe Chile could actually pull off another upset, but with the final pass and shot in front of goal lacking, those thoughts quickly disappeared. The defensive partnership of Lucio and Juan gave the attacking Chileans no breathing space. Brazil looked dangerous from every set piece they took, since they were physically much bigger than the Chileans. It wasn’t surprising when the first goal for Brazil came of a corner with Juan rising to meet Maicon’s curling pass who leaped over the defenders like they weren’t even there to head home. Before the Chileans could realize what was happening, the Brazilians stringed up a series of passes to score their second goal. By now everyone knew there was no coming back for Chile. It was now a matter of how many more Brazil would score.
In Chile’s defense, they never gave up. The coach even replaced defender, Pablo Contreras with another attacking player, Jorge Valdiva at the half. But on the rare occasions when they looked like they were going to do the unthinkable, they tried to walk the ball into the goal, instead of taking the early chance. While the Chileans tried to score a goal in order to decrease the deficit, the Brazilians showed them how it was done and scored their third.
The match was soon over with the Chilean’s not realizing what had just happened, there wasn’t much that they did do wrong to begin with, it was just the simple fact that only a team on top of its form, playing perfect football can maybe challenge the Brazilians. Any team that falls short on any of those two requirements might as well forget about the match and head home.
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