'Beautiful football can wait', record-breakers Brazil say

By Nicholas Rigillo Jun 28, 2006, 12:17 GMT

Dortmund - Brazil's 3-0 win over Ghana in Dortmund on Tuesday will go down in history.

Ronaldo broke Gerd Mueller's all-time record of World Cup goals by netting his 15th in football's most prestigious tournament; Adriano scored Brazil's 200th; Cafu became the Brazilian player with most World Cup appearances, 19; and the win extended the defending champions' streak of consecutive World Cup victories to 11.

But while statisticians may be over the moon, critics were not so impressed.

The tournament's favourites planned to dazzle the world with 'juego bonito', but there were few moments of 'beautiful football' in Dortmund.

In fact, Brazil gained a berth in the quarter-finals with minimal effort, settling on a waiting game and stinging inexperienced Ghana on the counter-attack. Ronaldinho rarely shone and Adriano did little to live up to his fame as 'the emperor' of football.

Coach Carlos Alberto Parreira conceded as much after the match, but appeared unfazed.

'History talks about champions, not about attractive football. Of course we'd like to play beautiful football, but more than that we want to be world champions,' he told reporters.

Parreira said the scoreline was 'deceptive' and blamed his side's less-than-spectacular performance on excessive zeal on the part of his players.

'We played with haste rather than speed. Speed is when you play quickly and put moves together in a coordinated way. We should have kept hold of the ball more. Instead, our passing was sloppy,' Parreira said.

Playmaker Kaka was equally critical.

'We are beginning to move the ball around midfield very well. But we still need to improve; we can do a lot better than we are doing at the moment,' he said.

One man who was definitely satisfied with his performance was Ronaldo. The 29-year-old striker had been slammed as an overweight underperformer during the opening matches, but was able to silence the critics in Dortmund.

'How do you make history? It takes a lot of hard work, it's not easy. You need to make a lot of sacrifices. This is the reward for my efforts over a number of years,' he said.

Brazil now face France in the tournament's quarter-finals.

'I don't think it matters who we play in the quarters, it will be a great game,' Roberto Carlos had said before finding out that he would be facing France.

It is hard not to believe that Brazil will be thrilled by being offered the chance to avenge their humiliating 3-0 defeat in the 1998 World Cup final.