Brazil's Scolari: Mission Accomplished
- by Paul Kennedy @pkedit, Jun 26, 2013
Brazil and Uruguay appeared headed to overtime when Paulinho got free behind Martin Caceres and outjumped the Celeste defender to head Neymar's corner kick into the goal at the far post for the winner in the 86th minute.
“Our mission was to reach the final, and we have done it,” said Brazil coach Luis Felipe Scolari. “We needed to win games like that to learn how to win in the World Cup. Our team is very young and this kind of game helps us to grow.”
Brazil had been fortunate in the first half when goalkeeper Julio Cesar stopped Diego Forlan's penalty kick in the 14th minute and went ahead on local favorite Fred's goal off a rebound from Neymar's effort in the 41st minute -- one of Brazil's few chances in the first half.
But Uruguay took advantage of some very sloppy defending to even the score early in the second half on a goal by Edinson Cavani.
The Seleção has now won all four games at the World Cup tuneup with 11 goals to its credit.
At the one-mile perimeter from the Estadio Minerao, police clashed with protesters, firing tear gas and rubber bullets and having them lobbed back at them. Early in the day, a crowd estimated at 50,000 gathered in central Belo Horizonte in the latest of a series of demonstrations.
June 26 in Belo Horizonte
Brazil 2 Uruguay 1. Goals: Fred 41, Paulinho 86; Cavani 48.
Brazil -- Julio Cesar; Daniel Alves, Thiago Silva, David Luiz, Marcelo; Luiz Gustavo, Paulinho, Oscar (Hernanes, 82); Hulk (Bernard, 63), Neymar (Dante, 90), Fred.
Uruguay -- Muslera; M.Pereira, Godin, Lugano, Caceres; A.Gonzalez (Gargano, 82), Arevalo, C. Rodriguez; Cavani, Forlan, Suarez.
Referee: Enrique Osses (Chile).
Att.: 57,482.
Extremely entertaining game. The fact that "Brazil wasn't at its best" was primarily due to excellent defense on the part of Uruguay -- except on the Paulinho goal!! Forlan's missed PK changed the game not poor play by Brazil.
Would love to see Marcelo and Dani Alves on the same club side.
Hope that Messi can teach Neymar the benefits of staying on his feet. If not, he will solidy his position as the next "diving" Ronaldo.
Great match, worth watching every minute all the way through. And actually I think Neymar is already quite a bit better than Ronaldo -- I would give him a 9.9 on at least three of his dives yesterday. The merest of touches he springs in the air like a leaping salmon, arches his back before a perfect landing, rolls over three times screaming in pain, clutching some part of his body which never made contact with another player. I am afraid that integrity is something that cannot be learned, and whether his teammates at Barca can shame him into becoming an honest person remains to be seen. I must say also that apart from Neymar and Marcello, and maybe Luis, the players on this Brazil team have more integrity that any Brazil team of late that I can remember. Oscar in particular is not only a marvelous player, but a man of integrity.