From Hero to Goat

First, let me just say how disappointed I am that ZERO Canadian television stations picked up the Brazil/Canada soccer friendly that just happened tonight. Yes, Sportsnet will show it at 10 am but thats 12 hours too late. I just find it comical that CBC just had a "Soccer Day in Canada" broadcast on the same day and failed to broadcast the game. TSN opted to show a re-run of the Spelling Bee/Sportscentre and Sportsnet showed the Jays game on ALL four Sportsnet channels.

Thank goodness we faced a soccer crazed country or I would have had to get up early to see the game. Even though I didn't understand the ESPN Deportes commentary, I did see Julian de Guzman go from hero to goat in about 7 minutes. But more importantly, I saw Canada OUTPLAY Brazil for most of the 90+ minutes.

Quick recap of the goals:

- Brazil 1, Canada 0 : RRRRRRRRRRRRRobinho BROKE a Canadian defenders ankles with some very fancy moves. He proceeded to find Diego and he put it past Onstad [4th minute].

- Brazil 1, Canada 1: Header by Friend on a lovely cross from Klukowski past the Brazilian keeper [10th minute].

- Brazil 2, Canada 1: This one sucked. Cross from Robinho to Fabiano and he put it past Onstad with a header [45th minute].

- Brazil 2, Canada 2: de Guzman walked in and sent a brilliant strike from just beyond the box past the keeper. If the game ended with this score, he'd be a hero in my book [56th minute].

- Brazil 3, Canada 2: de Guzman tried a backpass to Onstad and instead horribly mis-hit the ball. Guess who capitalized? RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRobinho took it, did a little dangle to get past Onstad on a breakaway and calmly put it in the back of the net. Then he did the "rock the cradle" celebration to the Canadian fans to signify that he put the game to bed [63rd minute].

I didn't believe the game was over because Canada really outplayed Brazil most of the night. They out-chanced Brazil and got past the Brazilian defense with relative ease. There were so many times I thought Canada had a goal but they just couldn't convert their chances.

I'll give Brazil credit though. With the little chances they had, they made good on them. Canada wasted one too many chances and you can't do that against the 2nd best nation in the world (even though they were missing Kaka, Ronaldinho and Ronaldo).

If this were a World Cup qualifying match, de Guzman would never be forgiven. But the main point of the friendly was for Canada to see how they stacked up against a premier team.

Later this month, de Guzman will have a chance to redeem himself with an upcoming friendly against Panama. Then on June 15th and 20th, they play two World Cup Qualifiers against St. Vincent and the Grenadines.

Following this effort, the qualifiers will be VERY interesting. Canada may have lost against Brazil but it definitely knows it can compete with the best. Even though I haven't watched many Canadian soccer international games, I think they may make it to South Africa in 2010.

And by then, I doubt anyone will remember de Guzman's mental mistake.


DD