By Frankie Mascarenhas

Brazil stands a pretty good chance of making it to the July finals since ‘GROUP A’ consists of the following 8 teams Uruguay v/s South Korea, USA v/s Ghana, Holland v/s Slovakia & Brazil v/s Chile. In ‘GROUP A’ Uruguay, USA, Holland and Brazil are most likely to make it into the last

eight. Now comes the ‘GROUP B’ with all the Soccer Powerhouses Germany v/s England, Argentina v/s Mexico, Paraguay v/s Japan & Spain v/s Portugal in what promises to be the ‘Group of Death’. Two out of these four Teams Germany, England, Portugal & Spain are not likely to make it to the Quarter Finals. From now on it is all mind games-whoever plays intelligent and keep its cool and with a little bit of lady luck, any team can progress further. Two South American teams will definitely make it to the last eight i.e. Brazil or Chile; Argentina or Mexico. The finals will most probably be between a team from Europe versus a team from South America.

With the outcome of the draw Brazil’s Coach Dunga should be a very happy man and should only instill some confidence in his players, lift their morale so that the Brazilians can entertain the globe with their short passing game/enthralling soccer, just like the way they played in the eighties i.e. the 1982 and the 1986 World Cup Teams.

It was a pleasure to watch players such as Zico, Socrates, Falcao, etc. even a blind man could score from a Zico’s pass. The way Brazil played against Portugal it seems that they have lost its roots of entertaining especially when the whole world is watching them.

Also a repeat of the 1986 World Cup between England v/s Argentina is possible and is on the cards where England can find it tough to contain Messi who according to my description is a gifted player with one leg of Zico (ball feeding) and one leg of Maradona (dribbling and scoring) and is surely the world’s best player.  

So let’s watch without wasting a minute the high crunch matches like the one between Spain v/s Portugal where a slight mistake/ error can lead to a disaster and could be any nation’s joy or sorrow after all it’s a match wherein one has to WIN and one has to LOSE and go home early.

(The writer is a former international footballer)