Fascinating post, Barca.
It was interesting to see Brazil steamrolling the Socceroos physically last year. Nobody else had been able to do this for five years. I was amazed at how physical Brazil were. Also, how big and strong some of their players were.
I think they've suffered for years where they've had the most skilful players, then often seen them steamrolled by more physical teams, even in youth tournaments. On a number of programs I've seen many Brazilian coaches say the game is much more physical now.
We've had plenty of big muscleheads, whose technical qualities have underwhelmed most. Maybe Brazil observed the big qualifier in 2005, when Urugay , the most physical team in South America, met more than their match in Australia.
I was just thinking the other day, that all the South Americans, with the exception of Argentina and Uruguay, seem a lot more physical than they used to be in this World Cup. Brazil, Columbia, Ecuador and Chile, certainly tried to throw a lot more weight around.
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