Invisible
Robot
- Feb 11, 2006
- 9,075
- 7,878
By Yoosofo Farah
written on June 07, 2010
On the surface, Brazil's warm-up annihilation of Tanzania and Zimbabwe might well seem rather pointless.
After all, these are two national teams who most certainly will not be featuring in South Africa, and entertained a Brazil side 107 and 109 places above them respectively in the official FIFA World Rankings.
In the first match in Zimbabwe, the Samba Kings were in cruise control as they crushed their modest opponents 3-0.
That was followed up with a trip to the United Republic of Tanzania and the country's largest city (but not capital city), Dar-es Salaam, where Brazil thrashed their again modest opposition 5-1, with Jabir Aziz eeking out the slightest chink in the Brazilian armour with a consolation goal for the home team.
And whilst most will see these games as a bit of pointless fun from the Brazilians, the above matches were more than just a check on some African opposition (Brazil take on Ivory Coast in Group G).
They were the confidence boosters that any sporting team would need before heading into the most important and prestigious competition of their sport.
The aforementioned morale-lifters were matches to not only prove to the world that Brazil is football's most colossal superpower, but to prove the same point to the players themselves.
Most often in sport, and football especially, self-confidence and belief in one's own ability is of course paramount to success.
The likes of Robinho, Ramires, Kaka, Elano, Michel Bastos, etc, gave themselves vital, timely reminders that they are indeed among the much better players in the world, scoring the goals to give their team convincing victories.
One may argue that these players don't need reminding of just how great they are, but when coaches, technical staff and the players are always pressing ahead of the next game to achieve tactical and technical perfection, with weaknesses constantly identified and corrected, there isn't much time left at all to reflect and think, 'Hey, we really are a magnificent bunch of players'.
And so, to get around that potentially hazardous blow to team morale and players' self-efficacy, a demonstration of guaranteed football brilliance is what's needed to keep the team believing they are great, potentially world-conquering superstars.
In any case, it's not just Brazil who have latched onto this idea of making the players start to feel slightly omnipotent.
As has been well documented, Germany thought of this as well when they took on a local amateur team near their pre-World Cup training camp.
AFC Eppan were the unlucky team, getting thrashed 24-0 by the efficiently callous Germans.
It was a match in which five strikers got on the scoresheet, most of them more than once, giving them the convenient reminder they are potent finishers who can destroy opponents with ease.
North Korea will be the first ones to challenge Brazil in Group G, when they take on the Selecao in eight days time.
And the footballing stars from the Democratic People's Republic of Korea don't rank much better than Zimbabwe or Tanzania, with a current FIFA World Ranking of 105th.
Thus, with the knowledge the Brazilian players have in that they can beat lowly ranked opponents mercilessly without anything near maximum effort, against North Korea (or Korea DPR as they're officially referred to as) the watching world could well see a much greater, more spectacular annihilation than that of Tanzania or Zimbabwe.
And come June 15, we'll probably see why Brazil's decision to face such easy World Cup warm-up opponents will be well and truly vindicated.
Credit: 2010 FIFA World Cup: Why Brazil Played Tanzania and Zimbabwe | Bleacher Report
written on June 07, 2010
On the surface, Brazil's warm-up annihilation of Tanzania and Zimbabwe might well seem rather pointless.
After all, these are two national teams who most certainly will not be featuring in South Africa, and entertained a Brazil side 107 and 109 places above them respectively in the official FIFA World Rankings.
In the first match in Zimbabwe, the Samba Kings were in cruise control as they crushed their modest opponents 3-0.
That was followed up with a trip to the United Republic of Tanzania and the country's largest city (but not capital city), Dar-es Salaam, where Brazil thrashed their again modest opposition 5-1, with Jabir Aziz eeking out the slightest chink in the Brazilian armour with a consolation goal for the home team.
And whilst most will see these games as a bit of pointless fun from the Brazilians, the above matches were more than just a check on some African opposition (Brazil take on Ivory Coast in Group G).
They were the confidence boosters that any sporting team would need before heading into the most important and prestigious competition of their sport.
The aforementioned morale-lifters were matches to not only prove to the world that Brazil is football's most colossal superpower, but to prove the same point to the players themselves.
Most often in sport, and football especially, self-confidence and belief in one's own ability is of course paramount to success.
The likes of Robinho, Ramires, Kaka, Elano, Michel Bastos, etc, gave themselves vital, timely reminders that they are indeed among the much better players in the world, scoring the goals to give their team convincing victories.
One may argue that these players don't need reminding of just how great they are, but when coaches, technical staff and the players are always pressing ahead of the next game to achieve tactical and technical perfection, with weaknesses constantly identified and corrected, there isn't much time left at all to reflect and think, 'Hey, we really are a magnificent bunch of players'.
And so, to get around that potentially hazardous blow to team morale and players' self-efficacy, a demonstration of guaranteed football brilliance is what's needed to keep the team believing they are great, potentially world-conquering superstars.
In any case, it's not just Brazil who have latched onto this idea of making the players start to feel slightly omnipotent.
As has been well documented, Germany thought of this as well when they took on a local amateur team near their pre-World Cup training camp.
AFC Eppan were the unlucky team, getting thrashed 24-0 by the efficiently callous Germans.
It was a match in which five strikers got on the scoresheet, most of them more than once, giving them the convenient reminder they are potent finishers who can destroy opponents with ease.
North Korea will be the first ones to challenge Brazil in Group G, when they take on the Selecao in eight days time.
And the footballing stars from the Democratic People's Republic of Korea don't rank much better than Zimbabwe or Tanzania, with a current FIFA World Ranking of 105th.
Thus, with the knowledge the Brazilian players have in that they can beat lowly ranked opponents mercilessly without anything near maximum effort, against North Korea (or Korea DPR as they're officially referred to as) the watching world could well see a much greater, more spectacular annihilation than that of Tanzania or Zimbabwe.
And come June 15, we'll probably see why Brazil's decision to face such easy World Cup warm-up opponents will be well and truly vindicated.
Credit: 2010 FIFA World Cup: Why Brazil Played Tanzania and Zimbabwe | Bleacher Report