Guimengo Wrote:
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> That's the mentality that hurt football! A team
> playing beautifully didn't win many times simply
> due to a lack of luck.
>
> And for a quick reference, check youtube for
> videos of Zico playing for Flamengo (one example
> of flair + wins).
One way of looking at it... or maybe it was because they were naive to what was required to win. It works the other way to - look at how Manchester United won the Champions League; great attacking football, but also a huge amount of luck along the way. In the final Munich were by far the better team and it was only two strikes agaiinst the woodwork (from Jancker and Scholl) that kept MU in the game. But while MU were good to watch Bayern were nothing more than workmanlike.
I'm with you on an emotional level - I think we would all want to watch teams playing open and fast football, but it has been proven that in the modern game the odds are against you winning if you play this way. Greece in Euro 2004 is a case in point.
I am well aware of Zico, although I only really remember him from the 1986 World Cup, and vauguely 1982. And I have seen several YouTube compilations of his play - he makes Beckham look crap at set pieces
Totally off the main topic, as a Brazilian what are your thoughts on Marcelo at Real Madrid? Brazil are crying out for a left back since Bobby Carlos retired, and frankly I think Gilberto is nothing more than average. Don't know much about Kléber, but I guess he has nebver been first choice so far and probably never will.
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The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function. -- F.Scott Fitzgerald