World Cup Soccer 2010: Why did Brazil win against Chile?
Previous meetings between the two sides in World Cups encounters had always ended in Brazil’s favour. The first World Cup match between Chile and Brazil came way back in the semi-final of the seventh World Cup in 1962 which was hosted by Chile after 1960’s most powerful earthquake ever recorded in human history. It still remains Chile’s best ever run in the World Cups during which they defeated Switzerland, Italy and USSR only to be beaten by the then defending champions Brazil with a score of 4-2. Chile went on to take the third place in the tournament, defeating Yugoslavia 1-0 in a third place playoff. This victory remained Chile’s last win in World Cup history for 48 years until they won again in South Africa 2010.
After disqualification and banishment of Chile from the 1990 and 1994 World Cups, the country made their seventh appearance in the tournament in France 1998. After having drawn all three of their group matches with Italy, Austria and Cameroon, they faced Brazil in the Round of 16 who were the defending champions once again after their title win in USA 1994. Brazil was leading at half time by 3-0 and went on to defeat Chile again by 4-1.
To qualify a ticket to South Africa, both teams faced each other twice in the South American qualifiers. Brazil won both the matches at home and away with 3-0 victory in Santiago and a 4-2 win in Salvador. Chile had not defeated Brazil since a friendly win in 1993 but at the same time, Chile had ended the South American qualifying stage at the second position, a point behind Brazil but one more win than the Brazilians.
Brazil played their first group match of the 2010 World Cup against the lowest ranked team in the tournament in the shape of North Korea. In the biggest “mismatch” of the tournament’s history, the North Korean defence made the Brazilians run for their money. It took 55 minutes for the five-time world champions to get anything past the rock solid defence line of North Korea through a cross-c*m- shot from Maicon before Elano added another through a pin-point through pass from Robinho. A similar kind of stubborn defence confront Brazil in their last group match against Portugal. Brazilians could not find any passage through and the match ended in dull draw. It could be established that the Brazilians found it hard to play against those teams which employed a defence-focused strategy and showed a less attacking front line. In their second group match against Ivory Coast, Brazil scored 3 goals as the Elephants played to win the match instead of just parking the bus in front of their goal mouth. Chile’s aggressive style was never going to settle for a defensive game and there was a possibility of a high scoring game.
Chile was drawn in Group H of the tournament and faced Honduras in their opening match. Despite creating a plethora of chances, the Chilean strikers could not convert more than one goal. Chile also won their second group match against Switzerland by the same score line to confirm their place in the Round of 16. Their last group match was, however, against Spain who needed a win to keep their title hopes alive. Chile managed to keep the reigning European champions at bay for most of the match and only two mistakes cost them the goals which meant they finished the group at second place on goal difference and had to encounter the new favourites for winning this tournament.
Chile could not pose much of a threat to Brazil in the match. The Samba Boys were in control with the Chilean players unable to find their target. Just after the half hour mark, Juan headed Maicon’s corner kick to put Brazil in the lead and just four minutes later, the in-form Luis Fabiano added another goal to put it beyond Chile’s reach. Robinho added another at the hour mark to complete the score line of 3-0.
Brazil will now face the Netherlands in the quarterfinals. The winner of this match will tie up with either Uruguay or Ghana for a place in the final match.
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