Tag Archives: brazil

Nobody remembers two others missed as well

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On 17 July 1994, Italy lost the World Cup Final in a penalty shootout to Brazil when their top scorer of the tournament, Roberto Baggio, sent his attempt over the bar.

Simply making it to the Final was a minor miracle for Italy, who opened their tournament campaign with a first-round loss to Ireland. And, as the fourth-best third place team in the group stages, they were the last team to qualify for the knockout rounds. Baggio, who had won the 1993 Ballon d’Or and FIFA World Player of the Year award for his UEFA Cup-winning season with Juventus, shined in the later rounds, scoring five goals–three of them match-winners (against Nigeria, Spain, and Bulgaria)–to take Italy to the final.

Baggio’s scoring streak dried up in the final, as it did for Brazil’s top scorer Romário (who was also on five goals for the tournament). With the match scoreless at the end of extra time, the teams went into penalty kicks to decide the winner. After four kicks each, Brazil were up 3-2 when Baggio stepped up to the spot.

It was his second penalty attempt of the tournament, as his match-winner against Nigeria had come from the spot in the 102nd minute. But this time, he fired the ball over the bar to end the match and give the trophy to Brazil.

He returned to the World Cup with Italy in 1998 to become the only Italian player to score in three different World Cups and his total of nine World Cup goals remains an Italian record.

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Ronaldo Announces Immediate Retirement

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Déjà vu is never a nice thing to have first thing on a Monday morning.

Roughly a calendar year after announcing his retirement the first time round, Brazilian legend Ronaldo has confirmed that he is now retiring from the game with immediate effect, after finally admitting defeat in his long-standing battle against dodgy knee ligaments, niggling injuries and cakes.

After scoring 44 goals in 44 games for Cruzeiro, 54 goals in 57 for PSV, 47 goals in 49 for Barcelona, 59 goals in 99 for Inter, 104 goals in 187 for Real Madrid, 9 goals in 20 for Milan, 35 goals in 69 for Corinthians, 62 goals in 97 for Brazil, the man they call ‘El Fenomeno’ is calling it day.

Speaking to Estado de Sao Paulo, 34-year-old Ronaldo said:

“I can’t take any more. I wanted to continue, but I can’t do it any more. I think of an action, but I can’t do it the way I want to. It’s time.

“It’s the body that’s hurting me. The head wants to go on, but the body can’t take any more.”

May the stories of transsexual discretions and his  bloated physical decline never shroud the fact that Mr Nazario de Lima was truly one of the greats…

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Neymar Will Not Be Joining Chelsea Any Time Soon

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Having been a near-constant fixture on the radars of Europe’s elite since the age of 13, Santos’ wünderkind Neymar has found himself linked with big-money moves to all and sundry on a consistent basis for at least the last couple of years.

Neymar, now aged 18, reportedly came to within a gnat’s knacker of joining Chelsea over the summer and after super agent (and Chelsea rep) Pin Zahavi was spotted chatting to the player’s agent Wagner Ribeiro in Brazil rumours have been flying that a deal may have been struck to take the prodigious Brazilian forward to Stamford Bridge in January.

However, Ribeiro insists that no such deal has been struck and that his client will not be leaving Santos until 2012 at the earliest – telling a Brazilian website:

“Zahavi is a personal friend and only travelled to Brazil to escape from the European winter. The chance that Neymar will leave Santos for Chelsea in this season (2010/2011) are zero per cent.

“Neymar wants to play the Copa Libertadores with Santos. If we wanted go abroad, he wouldn’t have even been here, I speak every day with Santos’ chairman and I can say that Neymar won’t go anywhere until the 2012 Olympics.”

He’s still a bit pap when it comes to cocky penalties mind…

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World Cup 2010 Quarter Finals

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World CupThe Quarter Finals

Holland 2 Brazil 1
Holland produced a stunning second-half comeback to reach the semi-finals. After taking an early lead through Robinho, Brazil were pegged back after a defensive mix-up early in the second-half gifted Holland an equaliser and were behind soon afterwards when Wesley Sneijder headed in.
Felipe Melo was sent off for stamping on Arjen Robben with 17 minutes to go and, although Dunga’s side gave everything they were knocked out in the quarter-finals for the second successive tournament.

Uruguay 1 Ghana 1 (Uruguay win 4-2 on penalties)
Ghana looked certain to become the first African side to reach the semi finals when Uruguay’s Luis Suarez was sent off for a deliberate handball on the line in the dying seconds of extra-time. However, Asamoah Gyan’s penalty hit the crossbar with what was the last kick of the game.
Gyan took and scored Ghana’s first spot-kick of the shoot-out but John Mensah and Dominic Adiyiah both had their efforts saved by Fernando Muslera, before Sebsatian Abreu dinked the decisive penalty beyond Richard Kingson to break Ghanaian hearts.

Argentina 0 Germany 4
Germany took Argentina apart to book their place in the semi-finals and end Diego Maradona’s dream of winning the World Cup. Inspired by Bastian Schweinsteiger Germany scored four times for the third game at this World Cup in a devastating display of attacking. Mirolsav Klose’s 2 goals moved him to within a goal of Ronaldo as the highest ever scorer at World Cup finals.

Paraguay 0 Spain 1
David Villa scored a late winner to book Spain’s first ever appearance in a World Cup semi-final as they beat Paraguay. Villa’s 82nd minute goal, his fifth of the tournament, hit one post, rolled across the goal line before hitting the other post and ending in the goal.
It was a heartbreaker for Paraguay, who had also never reached the quarter-final stage before, and who earlier had seen an Oscar Cardozo penalty saved by Iker Casillas. Xabi Alonso also saw his retaken penalty saved. Spain’s normal passing game seemed to be absent for this one and they will need to improve if they want to make the final

The Semi final line up
Uruguay v Holland
Germany v Spain

World Cup 2010 Day Eighteen

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World CupMonday 28th June – Day 18
The favourites are through

Holland 2 Slovakia 1
A great goal from Arjen Robben and a late Wesley Sneijder second gave Holland a deserved win over Slovakia and reach the quarter-finals.
In his first start of the competition, Robben fired in a superb low drive from 25 yards. Sneijder sealed the game for the Dutch and then Robert Vittek scored a consolation penalty for Slovakia with the very last kick of the game.

Brazil 3 Chile 0
Brazil strolled past a disappointing Chile to set up a quarter-final match against Holland. Juan scored first with a powerful header, Luis Fabiano slotted into an empty net for the second and then Robinho got his first goal of the tournament from the edge of the area.

Got a feeling its all set up for an Argentina v Brazil final, how good would that be!!


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