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Old June 17, 2014, 04:32 PM
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shaad shaad is offline
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Join Date: February 5, 2004
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Much, though not all, of the problem lies in Scolari's continued use of Paulinho in the midfield. He is static, cannot distribute passes evenly, and prevents the effective buildup and flow from defense to offense. Unfortunately, he had a couple of goals (while still playing as horribly) in the Confederations Cup, so Scolari will probably stick with him instead of using someone more mobile and a better distributor like say, Fernandinho.

Another issue was that Hulk was injured. Even when he doesn't score, his size and pace force defenders to focus on him and creates openings for other Brazilians.

And we must give credit to the Mexican GK, Ochoa, He was absolutely amazing.

I think essentially the same Brazilian team was much more solid in the Confed Cup, so it might be matter of nerves or being rusty. Many WC teams don't peak till the knockout rounds. And while it's still too early to generalize from just one or two matches, I see this Brazilian team, if it persists in its current state, having a terrible time against the Dutch or Germany, or even against Italy's catenaccio defense.
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