The9

After 5 days of rubbish football, with the exception of Germany, and with the abysmal standard of New Zealand in particular fresh in the mind, it was with great relief that I sat down to watch the one-sided hammering with skills from any angle and at any time that was doubtless going to be...

Brazil v North Korea Group G

The usual scanning of the crowd for Brazilian bimmers complete, and with me having not seen the bloke bursting into tears during the anthem until the 5th or 6th repeat of it, the match kicked off with Brazil in their usual fluid formation with the Dunga Defenders supporting the back 4, and North Korea fielding the expected (if you've read this) "loads of defenders and loads of defensive midfielders".

But boy did it work for them. After the first few minutes of Brazil moving the ball quickly, being repelled, moving the ball even more quickly and NK's two spare centre backs still mopping anything up, the pattern was pretty well established. But then the ball broke to Jong Tae-Se, the Japanese born, J-League star - and he went on a superb run, beat a couple of Brazilians and got a shot off.

From a match which looked on paper to be a slaughter in waiting, all of a sudden there was not just the possibility that the hard-working, assured and organised North Korea might hold out, there was an outside possibility they might even score a goal - just MAYBE nick a win. Whatever happened, it was a damn sight more intriguing watching the likes of Robinho on the ball trying to unlock the 5-man Korean back line than 10 of the other matches put together. By the time the half time whistle went with Brazil surprisingly still being held 0-0, Jong Tae-Se had probably done enough up front to get himself a move to any team in the world, should he want it.

A brief discussion on Facebook with Rattlehead revealed he'd laid his entire World Cup betting budget on Brazil to win by 3 (despite me having sent him the link above previously)... and he was clearly a bit concerned. I laughed.

Inevitably in the 55th minute Brazil DID score, rampaging right back Maicon slicing the ball in at the near post in such a bizarre manner that the idiots on commentary were talking about an own goal until the first replay showed the fluke/genius/fluke slice/accident/skillz which prompted some fairly heated debate elsewhere on SaintsWeb.

The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (FFS) showed no change in outlook or organisation, and though Brazil got a second after finally carving them apart with a through-ball to Elano, their rapid counter-attacking actually brought a goal for the number 8. Ji Yun-Nam (yeah, I looked it up), and even then had a chance to tie the match up, leaving the final score a rather surprising 2-1 to Brazil.

Finally though, something to get excited about. Unless you're Rattlehead, whose World Cup betting is over.