by Tim Vickery (BBC Sport) | December 5th, 2009
I watched the World Cup draw in the offices of a Brazilian sports TV station.
Amid the hubbub, comments about Charlize Theron and arguments over Sunday’s last round of the Brazilian championship, there was a single moment of silence - following the gasp when Group G was completed by the inclusion of Portugal.
Last week I mentioned that Brazil were due a difficult group - now they certainly have one.
Whatever their problems in qualification, the Portuguese line-up commands respect. And so three top teams will battle for two places.
Will Dunga lead Brazil to a sixth World Cup title?
When Brazil meet Portugal in Durban on 25 June both teams might have already secured qualification. Or they could be fighting for their lives.
The battle between ex-coloniser and former colony has already begun. Dunga’s description of Portugal as “Brazil B” was a swipe at the growing number of naturalised Brazilians in the European’s line-up.
(Incidentally, Portugal’s neighbours would also seem to be annoying Brazil’s ever truculent coach. Perhaps put out by Spain being lauded as the purists’ favourite, he described their group as the only easy one in the draw).
Brazilians with long memories will recall their previous World Cup meeting with the mother country.
In 1966 they also faced each other in the final group game. Portugal kicked Pele out of the competition before winning 3-1 and condemning Brazil to early elimination.
Brazilians with shorter memories would prefer to dwell on a recent friendly which Brazil won 6-2.
Another tennis score is unlikely. Portugal with surely not be so naive as to allow Maicon the freedom of the right flank when World Cup points are at stake.
Dunga may well not be unhappy that his team has been placed in a tough group.
Confidence is extremely high in Brazilian ranks, and justifiably so. Historically, though, favouritism has not served Brazil well. It tends to bring out the nonsense line that “we can only lose to ourselves”.
Dunga comes insured against such complacency - he now has tough opponents to help him re-enforce the message to his players that World Cup win number six will not come without a huge dose of sweat and sacrifice.
There are plenty of memories for Argentina boss Diego Maradona in Group B. His World Cup career as a player ended against Nigeria - his first opponents as a coach.
His last World Cup and international goal came against Greece, who he also faces once more.
And in the middle come South Korea, opening game rivals in the 1986 campaign when Maradona hit heights that perhaps no player before or since has reached in a World Cup.
In Argentina it is being seen as a relatively comfortable group - but that clash with Nigeria in Johannesburg on 12 June, along with Portugal against Ivory Coast, one of the highlights of the opening exchanges.
The likes of Lionel Messi, Fernando Gago and Sergio Aguero will recall beating Nigeria to win the World Youth Cup in 2005.
They will also remember how difficult it was against such physically strong opponents and how they were aided by some rash tackling from the Nigerians, who gave away two penalties.
Last year’s 1-0 win in the Olympic final was a little more comfortable for Argentina, but Nigeria will be gunning for revenge in this latest meeting between two gifted generations.
After all the problems in qualification, Maradona will surely benefit from the need to focus on a squad of 23. If the defence can be sorted out then Argentina may yet come through as challengers, though a slip up against Nigeria would put them under pressure right at the start.
The last time Argentina met Nigeria in a World Cup they were coached by Marcelo Bielsa - and despite a 1-0 win in the opening game the 2002 pre-tournament favourites were not able to qualify for the second round.
Then Bielsa was awarded the group of death, when he was included in a section with Sweden, England as well as Nigeria.
So on the law of averages he was due something a little kinder this time. Bielsa’s Chile are one of the most intriguing sides in the World Cup. With three strikers, a commitment to attack and plenty of pace in the final third, they are not one of those teams who will clog up the tournament with mediocrity.
They do have problems defending in the air, but have been drawn in a group where this deficiency might not be exposed.
Spain come last and Spanish coach Vicente Del Bosque paid full tribute to Chile after the draw, describing them as the most difficult team in the group.
The Chileans will hope to have qualification in the bag before that meeting. The key game would appear to be the second against Switzerland, but there will be plenty of pressure on the opener against Honduras.
It is a must-win match, but the Central Americans will not be the only adversary. Chile will also be up against history. Discounting 1962, which they hosted, the last time they won a World Cup match was back in 1950 against the United States.
The extent of the revolution Bielsa has brought about in the Chilean national team is clear from the fact that in qualification their away record was the best in South America.
Chile’s previous World Cup was 1998 - the start of Paraguay’s run of four consecutive appearances.
Paraguayan hopes of a quarter-final place have been boosted by a draw which, though it forces them to travel all over South Africa, pits them against opponents they will not fear.
Maradona has endured a tough baptism of fire as an international coach
The right time to face defending champions Italy is surely in the opening game - the Italians are notoriously slow starters. The crunch match is the second against Slovakia, before closing the group against New Zealand.
It is reminiscent of 2006, when tame but narrow defeats against England and Sweden put the Paraguayans out before they faced Trinidad and Tobago.
Coach Gerardo Martino’s task is to ensure that this time his men are prepared to take the initiative, especially against the Slovakians.
The first South American side in action will be Uruguay, drawn in a fascinating Group A. It’s hard to see them, or opponents France, South Africa or Mexico going on to win the cup, but it does look like an intriguingly balanced quartet.
Being in South Africa’s group is a cause for concern. No hosts have ever failed to make the second round and that puts a great deal of pressure on Uruguay’s opening day duel with the French.
But the significance of Uruguay’s presence goes well beyond anything they do on the field. In this first World Cup on African soil it is entirely fitting that the representatives include the national team which pioneered the selection of afro-descendents.
This was alluded to during the draw, when the retrospective of past World Cups showed a photo of Uruguay’s Jose Leandro Andrade from the inaugural tournament in 1930. But even in 1916, at the first Copa America, Uruguay were picking black players, Juan Delgado and the legendary Isabelino Gradin.
History resonates, then, with the meeting of Uruguay and South Africa in Pretoria on 16 June. It’s a pity that is the second group game as it would have made for a cracking opening match.
Comments on the piece in the space provided. Other questions on South American football to vickerycolumn@hotmail.com, and I’ll pick out a couple for next week.
From last week’s postbag:
Q) The 1990s was a decade that saw the individual success of numerous South American players, who made a huge name for themselves playing at the top level of European football.
However, with this decade coming to an end, I would be brave enough to say that Kaka has been really the only player developed in South America (given that Messi was practically developed by Barcelona) to make a huge name for himself.
I was wondering what the reason for this decline is. For what it is worth, my view is that this has happened because of the evolution of football into a more physical game where strength and power have eclipsed skill and craft.
Giancarlo Fiesco
think you might be a bit harsh here. What makes Messi special is his South American-ness. As Maradona’s former team-mate Jorge Valdano once commented, he’s a mixture of informal Argentine street and wasteland football and the Barca academy - and the academies don’t seem to be the place where great one against one skills are developed. That comes from the street.
On one level, the South American contribution to European football has never been deeper or wider. They have got into countries, such as England, where before they were seen with resistance, there are more of them than ever before all across the continent, and they are coming from countries such as Ecuador, which have no tradition of exporting to Europe. And the future would seem to belong to the likes of Aguero and Alexandre Pato.
The worrying trend is that the financial demands of producing for the European market can lead to the grooming of a certain type of player - big, strong, poly-functional and without idiosyncracies in his game that make it harder for him to adapt to Europe.
Fredy Guarin of Porto is a good player, but I’d rather watch Colombia with someone like Carlos Valderrama in the centre of midfield.
Q) My question is about Brazilian full-backs. Have the Brazilians always been synonymous with attacking full-backs such as Roberto Carlos, Maicon, Dani Alves, and most recently, the Da Silva twins?
Mohammed Halawi
It’s been developing as a part of their game for over 50 years. Brazil pioneered the back four, dropping an extra man to the heart of the defence to provide additional cover. This pushed the full backs out wider, and especially as time went on and wingers disappeared, they had space in front of them in which to push up and make an attacking contribution.
The great Nilton Santos was doing this from left-back in the 50s.
Interestingly, among the first to latch on to this were England, coached by Alf Ramsey who had been a constructive full-back and was fascinated by what the Brazilians were doing.
In 1970 England had Keith Newton and Terry Cooper - Cafu and Roberto Carlos decades early. In the fatal quarter final against West Germany Newton set up both the goals that put England ahead, but Ramsey made a mess of his substitutions, the Germans took advantage, bringing on wingers against England’s tiring full backs.
And in one of those spurts of amnesia that English football is prone, the attacking full-back was forgotten for a while.