Canada versus Brasil Friendly

Its close enough...its big enough...to consider going? Depends on how many
of their prime time players Brasil can gather for the friendly. Still good a chance
for soccer fanatics not to pass up. How ofter will a team of Brasil's caliber roll
through the NW?

http://www.canadasoccer.com/eng/media/viewArtical.asp?Press_ID=3151

GO PILOTS!!!

I just got back from Seattle. I attended this game at Quest Field last night with 47,000 other futbol fans. It was only a friendly match...but it was first electric and gradiose! Truely a world class event! It was spectacular! Hmmm....I wonder what the atmosphere's like in a World Cup game???? HA...at least I got a hint!? The strong SouthAmerican (75% Brazilian) flavor was fantastic. It felt literally like the crowd was celebrating a "beautiful" game. So much joy cheering for their team. My boy said it reminded him of what he saw in his FIFA World Cup PSP/PS2 game! So, I guess they simulated that right!!

I can certainly now understand....why any serious soccer player would want to play at this stage and represent their country. Very inspiring. Yet, it wasn't even the good ole USA playing.

Of course Brazil was the marqee draw of the "show". 5 World Cups Tropies and a huge univeral following of loyal countrymen...and the common soccer fans (like me) can be pretty heady stuff. They did not disappoint.

I definitely had the "Brazilian" style-of-play all wrong! I thought I was gonna see a highlight reel...fancy dribbling with a lot of one-on-one challenges....Far from it!!! I saw team-play and chemisty....with excellent ball movement through every 3rd.

They were very purposeful.

They are a well oiled, experienced and patient killing machine. I watched from the 300 level...bird's eye view..nosebleed seats mind you! But it was a fabulous view....if you enjoy watching the fluidity of the game. A couple of the big names weren't there...Kaka and Ronaldinho...but...they have an attacking midfielder named Diego who was awesome. Fun to watch how he'd pick up the ball from the backline and then dictate Brazil's attack. Great distributor and passer. Very much in charge of their offense.

The final score was 3-2 in Brazil's favor....but boy...kudos to the Canucks! Those guys gave Brazil all it could handle. Canada was a tough challenge. In fact...I'd go as far as saying Canada should've won the game!! They had a couple of blown chances that Brazil probably wouldn't have recovered and catch up from. I didn't get a program but I didn't hear or recognize any "Pilot" players on the Canadian roster last night.

Pics later...but...I see there's already a lot clips posted on YouTube!!

GO PILOTS!!!

but your photos and videos are better... so post away...

Highlights of the match. Some sweet goals.

Canada and Brazil Highlights

These are my clips on YouTube and some pics. My 14Yr old daughter controlled the camera...so you get what you get. I focused watching on the match. Anyway, she did a pretty good job of recording some awesome souvenirs.

Brazil Player Introductions

Start of the Match. Brazil struck first just 4 mins into it.

What better way to close this post out...than with a WAVE!! Woohoo!!

Canada Brazil WAVE at Qwest Field

GO PILOTS!!!

I've been lucky enough to see Brasil play in three different World Cup competitions,
The most memorable was Brasil -v- Scotland in the 90 Italy Cup in Turin ,10's of thousands of partying people..scantily clad Brasilian woman and drunken kilt wearing Scotsman all singing and dancing hours before the game and hours after.

Most exciting and also scary was the Argentina -v- England game in France W.C. ..amazing game..but scuffles and fights inside and out of the stadium..

International friendlies, World Cup games and Euro Championship games are unequaled interms of atmosphere to any other sporting event..and I've been to World series games, NBA finals games and NFL playoff games.

Footyfan...I remember your post when the US Men played Brazil. I think it was a match you attended in (Chicago?) about a year ago. Nice pics too! I think Heath Pierce and Steve Cherundulo played. Not sure if Kasey Keller was there? Anyway...it was Good stuff! I'm eager to catch the US play more international friendlies like that...against Germany and Italy would be choice!!! It'd be awesome if the NW could host more of these type games. I believe the US National team plays Argentina very very soon. Forget where? Time to check USsoccer.com.

GO PILOTS!!!

Giants stadium....

...Yesterday (June . Scoreless draw, though the bloggers who were there said Argentina had plenty of chances in the first half. According to Cardillo at That's On Point, "Heath Pearce looked pretty scrappy at left back."Keller was honored for his 100th cap before the match, though Tim Howard was in goal.

I watched most of the US-Argentina game, on ESPN Classic, I think it was. Argentina had good chances, but so did the US. Howard made some great saves, but we put one off the cross-bar. The US looked much better than against England, obviously, but also than against Spain. Pearce and Cherundulo both started, with Pearce going off for about the last 10 minutes. Pearce played really well.