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 Fans of attacking football rejoice: Brazil are back. Or rather, the real Brazil are back in town. While the Brazilian national team have enjoyed immense success from the mid-1990s onwards, their World Cup titles in 1994 and 2002 owed at least as much to tight, powerful marking as to sexy football. But now, Brazil have a freewheeling forward five who can claim to be the most attractive combination in world soccer.
Kaká Heading the renaissance is AC Milan midfield orchestrator Kaká. A culture vulture from a middle class background who would probably have been an architect in the absence of a career in football, Kaká is a player of exceptional sensitivity and technique. He is elegance and balance personified, and his runs can culminate in dramatic solo goals, such as the one he scored for former club São Paulo against Juventude, and a more recent goal in the Champions League for Milan against Fenerbahce. Kaká is also gifted with marvelously perceptive passing, and in the 2005 Champions League final he provided key through balls for two of Milan's three goals against Liverpool; the pass for the third, where in one movement he bisected the entire Liverpool midfield and defense, was one of the most metaphysical, out-of-gravity assists of all time. Despite Milan's eventual inexplicable loss, Kaká was deservedly voted the best midfielder of the tournament in a poll conducted by UEFA. Off the field, Kaká features prominently in advertising campaigns for Adidas, and is a devout Christian: his trademark celebration is to point the index finger of each hand to the sky in deference to Jesus, whom he credits with allowing his recovery from a vertebra fracture which could have left him paralyzed. The Milan star married his teen sweetheart Caroline Celico in December 2005. Ronaldinho Just in front of Kaká is the magical Ronaldinho, who many believe is the best currently active player in the world. The goofy-toothed icon, who like Kaká also has middle class origins, made his name at Brazilian club Grêmio, where he scored 37 goals in 110 league games. He then shot to global prominence with an amazing free-kick goal from 35 meters out in the Korea/Japan 2002 World Cup quarter-final against England. After a listless two years at Paris Saint-Germain, Ronaldinho transferred to FC Barcelona in the summer of 2004 for what seems like a ridiculously low US$ 31 million. Since then, he has never looked back. Barcelona won La Liga last season and Ronaldinho was named FIFA World Player of the Year in 2004 and 2005. Ronaldinho has enchanted Camp Nou with his brilliant goals, his seemingly impossible tricks, and his penchant for dribbling past defenders. His cultural stature was confirmed as one of his tricks, the "elástico" (also performed with distinction by Zlatan Ibrahimovic), was incorporated into the fifth edition of Konami's hit video game Pro Evolution Soccer. Ronaldo & Robinho Then there are Brazil's two Real Madrid-based forwards, one nearing the end of a glittering career, the other just setting out. The former, Ronaldo, has attained much of what any player can achieve: he has won the World Cup (in 2002), UEFA Cup (in 1998 with Internazionale), FIFA's World Player of the Year title three times (1996, 1997, 2002) and a host of other individual awards. He has also scored 57 goals in 90 appearances for the Seleção, including eight in World Cup 2002. While he has lost some of his pace, Ronaldo still has buckets of skill and possesses precise timing, and was his country's chief marksman in World Cup qualification, netting seven goals in 15 games; the only concern is whether his rather chaotic private life will take the edge off his game this summer. Meanwhile, the youthful Robinho has enjoyed a mixed start to his European club career at Real. But he clearly has huge ability and has performed well in a national team shirt, whether deployed on the right wing or more centrally. Reveling in the "New Pelé" tag, his party piece is the "pedalada" (turn of the pedal), whereby he performs multiple stepovers in rapid succession while advancing directly on goal. Adriano Completing the complement is Internazionale striker Adriano. He is generally viewed as a direct replacement for Ronaldo, who left Inter for Real Madrid in 2002. Adriano has much of the younger Ronaldo's power and upper body strength, and his link-up play is also excellent. Like Kaká and Ronaldinho, Adriano is also a threat from free-kicks, his ferocious left foot a devastating option. Anyone looking for an idea of how these players combine in practice should get hold of a copy of the 2005 Confederations Cup final. While Ronaldo was not present at that tournament (omitted after a temporary spat with Brazil coach Carlos Alberto Parreira), Kaká, Ronaldinho, Adriano and Robinho all started the game in which Brazil swept past eternal rivals Argentina 4-1. The first three players monopolized Brazil's goal tally (Adriano with two strikes), and all four Brazil goals were the products of breathtaking moves. Kaká's goal, which put the Brazilians 2-0 up after 17 minutes, involved nine passes and is one of the best ever recorded in an international. The only problem for the world audience is that because of Brazil's system, only four of these fabulous five can fit onto the pitch at any one time. But for the opposition, it barely matters: whichever four of the quintet are playing, Brazil are likely to be virtually unbeatable and monumentally stylish. This article appeared originally in OhmyNews - http://english.ohmynews.com/articleview/article_view.asp?no=282088&rel_no=1 Asad Alex Yawar is a founding member of the OneEuropa NGO, which is supporting the integration of the Western Balkans into the European Union. He has been a freelance journalist since 1995, and his work has been featured on BBC TV's What the Papers Say. His areas of interest include filmmaking, international relations, economics and football. He lives in London. You can email him at montedia@gmail.com.
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