Almighty Defence Of Brazil

According to About.com the top ten players in each category before the world cup are:

Top ten strikers: Didier Drogba, Wayne Rooney, David Villa , Fernando Torres, Samuel Eto, Diego Forlan, robin Van Persie, Sergio Aguero, Luis Fabiano, Miroslav Klose

Top ten midfielders: Lionel Messi, Christiano Ronaldo, Xavi Hernandez, Andres Iniesta, Wesley Sneijder, Cesc Fabregas, Steven Gerrard, Arjen Robben, Kaka, Franck Ribery

Top ten defenders : Maicon, Gerard pique, Daniel Alves, Ashley Cole, Giorgio Chiellini, Nemanja Vidic, Lucio, Patrice Evra, John Terry, Philip Lahm.

Though I don’t totally agree with these top ranking lists, we must all admit that they are pretty accurate. What looks odd about these rankings? Yes you must have figured, the Brazilian players are not where they should be. Brazil, renowned for its silky, attack minded, samba style of football, currently has as it's best players as defenders. 

This is why I have a problem with the football pundits who tagged Dunga “too defensive”. It wasn’t as if he had much of a choice, the best Brazilian players in Europe right now (which of course has the best leagues) are defenders.

Look at the list again, amongst the strikers and midfielders you can only find 2 Brazilians; Kaka and Fabiano. Kaka no doubt is a great player, but was playing through an injury most of last year and we must all agree Fabiano is no Ronaldo de Lima. So how did we expect Dunga to play them? You play your team according to their strengths. Samba would have brought worse consequences during the world cup.

We have got to admit Brazil of now and maybe tomorrow, judging from the crop of talent coming up (Ramires, Rafael) might just be the new Italy.

Chidi "Chidynho" Molokwu