Half an hour into the World Cup’s second round, Brazil found their rhythm.
A hammer-strike header. A pinball-style counterattack. An explosive run followed by a clinical finish — Brazil’s soccer orchestra was playing in true harmony on Monday for the first time in the tournament.
Coach Dunga said there’s still much to improve, but he must have been encouraged by what he saw in the 3-0 win over Chile at Ellis Park.
PHOTO: AFP
Chile are no pushovers. They earned their place in the second round with victories over Switzerland and Honduras and a 2-1 loss to European champions Spain.
Against Brazil though, coach Marcelo Bielsa’s team never had a chance.
“It was likely our best match so far,” said Maicon, who struck the corner kick that set up Juan’s powerful header for 1-0. “We did well against a team that had been playing well so far in the tournament. It was important to show that we can come up with a good performance when needed.”
Until the Chile match, Brazil had been a letdown for its samba-dancing and demanding fans, who don’t just want to see Brazil win — they want to see Brazil win in style.
The team struggled to beat North Korea 2-1, improved in a 3-1 win against Ivory Coast but were held to a disappointing scoreless draw against Portugal.
The Brazilians appeared to be heading for another lackluster performance at Ellis Park, creating few moments of danger in the first half hour save for a long-distance shot by Gilberto Silva.
It all changed with Juan’s opening goal. Bielsa made two substitutions at half-time and a third 17 minutes into the second half as Chile pushed for an unlikely comeback. But they struggled to find ways past Brazil’s defense, while Dunga’s team seemed to come close in every other attack.
Brazil and Chile split possession and the Brazilians just narrowly outshot their opponents, 17 to 15. Still, Chile never lacked precision in decisive moments, unlike Robinho, who scored his first goal of the World Cup after a dazzling run by Ramires.
“It was made perfectly clear today that there are distances between the big teams and our team,” Chile’s coach said. “Perhaps the result could have been narrower.”
“But generally speaking, we can say that the superiority of Brazil was too much for us. We were unable to slow them down,” he said.
Taiwan’s men’s table tennis team won bronze on Saturday at this year’s International Table Tennis Federation World Team Table Tennis Championships in London, matching the country’s best-ever finish at the regular tournament. Consisting of Lin Yun-ju, Taiwan’s top-ranked player at world No. 7, Feng Yi-hsin, Kuo Guan-hong, Hong Jing-kai and Hsu Hsien-chia, the team won bronze after losing 0-3 to Japan in the semifinals. In the opening match, 24-year-old Lin played the first game against world No. 3 Tomokazu Harimoto 11-5, but ultimately lost the next three closely contested games 9-11, 10-12 and 10-12. Feng then faced world No. 8 Sora Matsushima in
Lin Yun-ju on Thursday handed Taiwan two key victories as they advanced to the semi-finals of the ITTF World Team Table Tennis Championships Finals in London. The Taiwan men’s table tennis team beat Sweden 3-2 in five singles matches. The 24-year-old Lin, Taiwan’s top-ranked player at world No. 7 and nicknamed the “Silent Assassin,” opened the tie by defeating world No. 2 Truls Moregard 3-0 (11-8, 11-9, 13-11) before clinching the deciding fifth match with a 3-0 (11-8, 11-9, 11-5) win over Anton Kallberg to hand his team the overall victory. Kuo Guan-hong put Taiwan up 2-0 with a 3-2 (4-11, 11-8, 8-11,
Taiwanese fire dancer Yang Li-wei advanced to the final of Britain’s Got Talent this weekend after receiving a Golden Buzzer during her live semi-final performance. Yang, a member of Taiwan’s Coming True Fire Group, awed judges and audiences with a high-intensity fire performance featuring flaming umbrellas, fire swallowing and spinning metal structures balanced with her legs. Judge Simon Cowell praised Yang as a star, while guest judge KSI reacted with amazement before pressing the Golden Buzzer, sending her to the finals. The dance group wrote on social media that the Golden Buzzer was “the highest honor” on the talent show, adding: “Twenty-three years
As Super Rugby fast approaches its playoff season it finds itself racing toward a reckoning with many issues that threaten the southern hemisphere tournament. A group of stakeholders met in the New Zealand city of Christchurch late last month to address problems that are making the future of the 31-year-old competition increasingly tenuous. The discussion was made more urgent by the decision by the owners of Moana Pasifika to fold the Auckland-based club for financial reasons. That followed the closure of the Melbourne Rebels at the end of the 2024 season, likewise because of financial difficulties. Problems addressed included player retention as more
RSS