Player Profile: Kaka - Part 5
After a few months, he managed to feature for the senior team of Brazil as the South Americans took on Bolivia. He showed the world that he was simply an outstanding midfielder and became an integral part of the Brazilian midfield.
Just because of his fabulous performances, he became a part of the Brazilian team during the FIFA World Cup 2002 and that year Brazil won the tournament. Even though Kaka played for only 25 minutes, he was still a part of the World Cup winning squad as he
featured for the match against Costa Rica.
In 2003, Kaka started to shine for the Brazilians and became the captain for the CONCACAF Gold Cup. The Brazilians decided to send their under 23 team and they still finished as runner-ups since they suffered a loss to the Mexicans
in the finals. Kaka scored three goals throughout the tournament and with that performance he was included in the FIFA Confederations Cup that took place in Germany in 2005. He appeared in all the five matches and also scored a goal in the final that was against
the South American rivals Argentina. The Brazilians managed to win the match 4-1 and were crowned champions again.
The Brazilian midfielder started in his first ever FIFA World Cup in 2006. Even though the world cup did not really turn out to be very eventful for him, he still managed to score the only goal of the tournament against Brazil’s
1-0 victory over Croatia. That was the first game of the group stages and Kaka was named man of the match. Despite such a good start by the South Americans, Kaka could not really keep up the momentum and the Brazilians were eliminated by France during the
quarter finals. The French team later went on to face the Italians in the final which the Italians won on penalties.
Kaka finally made a comeback during the friendly match against South American rivals Argentina which took place on 3rd
September, 2006. Kaka entered the match as a substitute and got a moment of his own after scoring a wonderful goal for the Brazilians. The dynamic midfielder got the ball in his own half after a deflected shot from an Argentinean corner kick. Kaka managed
to outrun Lionel Messi during his run towards the goal and after running down three quarters of the field, he found the net and added a superb goal to his tally.
On 12th of May 2007, Kaka was left out of the 2007 Copa America. This was not because of an injury but because of an “exhausting schedule” with his club, AC Milan. He had to play matches in the Italian Serie A and the
UEFA Champions League so he could not really come on for the Brazilians during the tournament but his national team still managed to win the tournament as Kaka came back to perform for them during a friendly match against Algeria.
Kaka also participated in the FIFA Confederations Cup and that was his first international tournament after the 2006 FIFA World Cup. The tournament was won by the Brazilians and Kaka found the only 2 goals for himself against Egypt
in a group stage encounter. He found the net in the fifth minute and ninetieth minute respectively, thus helping his nation win the match 4-3.
He received the “golden ball award” for that tournament as he was the best player throughout the Confederations Cup. In the final match Brazil defeated USA 3-2 as they came back from 0-2 and then scored 3 goals to win the tournament
and add another trophy for themselves.
Kaka then became a part of the FIFA World Cup 2010. The Brazilian number 10 was supposed to do wonders during the tournament but it was the Jabulani ball and his coach’s tactics that led to the team’s failure. Kaka could not really
perform at his best also because of his fitness, as he was not “100%” during the tournament that was taking place in South Africa.
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