RoM was over the moon upon finding out our sweepstake team for the World Cup is Brazil. Despite being drawn in the group of death, alongside Portugal, Ivory Coast and North Korea, you always have to fancy Brazil’s chances to do well in the World Cup.
Their opening game was against North Korea and we all expected them to wipe the floor with them. North Korea haven’t featured in the World Cup since 1966 and all but three of their players play in the North Korean league. They even got busted for trying to get another striker in the squad by listing him as a goalkeeper, and now can only play him in that position, meaning they only have one back-up keeper.
But Brazil really struggled to break them down, despite a brilliant performance from Robinho. Eventually, Maicon opened the scoring with a brilliant goal. It was so good some even doubted whether he had done it on purpose, although I’d argue the fact he hit it with his laces meant he had every intention of beating the keeper at his near post. Elano then made it 2-0 ten minutes later with another nice finish. The North Koreans would still have been able to leave the pitch with their heads held high, given that they had prevented the trashing all expected, but an excellent goal from Yun-Nam Ji meant the game ended in celebration for the under dogs.
Tonight, Brazil have a much tougher task and will have to put on a much better show when taking on the Ivory Coast. Didier Drogba is expected to start and will be raring to go.
The Ivory Coast drew 0-0 with Portugal during the week after managing to keep Cristiano Ronaldo relatively quiet, so they will be aiming to do the same with the tricky Brazilian superstars. The other two teams in the group play tomorrow so both sides will be keep to get more points on the board tonight, probably assuming that Portugal will win tomorrow. But then again, who can assume anything in this totally bonkers World Cup?
