Why Brazils demise made me sympathise...
The way they kicked off, the sight of Fernandinho with the ball at his feet but not a clue what to do with it, before being promptly dispossessed, is a memory that will surely haunt the faithful Brazilian fans, who have been nothing short of fantastic despite seeing their beloved side falling way short of the standards demanded by the greats of the game.
As I watched the goals fly past Julio Cesar, who produced a few smart stops in the 2nd half to at least offer a tissue to the nations tears, I thought of the City, L'pool and Chelsea games, in particular the last two.
I thought against City, we weren't as bad as some like to dramatise. It was simply because once you go past three goals conceded, anything that succeeds that number is then vaunted as a thrashing. Rightly so if you are a club that has aims for the Title. We did score three however and if circumstances were different, and the officiating weren't of the ilk of Anthony Taylor, then it would've been a tad more competitive. Fundamentally, the defeat didn't cause me to abstain from social networking and avoid certain colleagues at work.
The Liverpool game at the time was horrifying. As bad as arguably the worst defeat in our history, the 8-2 mauling? Not quite but it burned deep. We had the best CB pairing in the League, how did this happen? It pains me to type it, if my fingers could puke they would, but Liverpool deserved credit for that result. Their attacking was akin to ours when we are in full flow. They were fluid. The reason my heart felt like it was going to implode with a heady mixture of pain and anger? A combination of the media infatuation with a Scouse Title win and Brendan Rodgers, the smug idiot. It doesn't take much for most scousers to lord it over you, it could be that they have a better taste in breakfast cereals than you, or in the case of Jon Flanagan, that they have more fingers than you do. So a 5-1 humbling caused them to declare that we have always been below them, that this is their year, that this is their time. Fast Forward a week later and we beat them 2-1. Hush now, you blithering morons. The pain will subside.
The Chelsea game hurt the most though. Their fans are and always will be the biggest, ignorant twats we have to deal with. The very fact they forget their roots and declare themselves as Londons Biggest and Oldest Club is rather infuriating. The crux of my fury and pain though is that I'm still awaiting karma to slap their behind pertinently and send them off to bed with no supper. They run their club with debt, they play football like a python asphyxiates its prey. A team run by Mourinho, who revels in our hate, comparable to certain journalists rolling around in our fury as we click on another link that sends us to their latest spurious yarn.
It was Arsene Wengers 1000th match at the helm, an occasion that merited celebration, of frivolity and nostalgia. All that is left however, is an ugly injury. If the experts from CSI were to investigate the death of our title challenge, they would no doubt find the DNA of Chelsea underneath our fingernails as we scrabbled for purchase to fend off our rabid attacker.
Brazil were left in tears on the pitch. Some argue it was the quality of the opposition that left them with potential demons to fight in their fraught dreams. Some say it was the huge apertures left by vital players. Some say it was a tactical deficiency by the manager. The fans will no doubt chew the fat over this nightmare conundrum. Do you notice the correlation though? Why when this match was being played, my thoughts strayed to memories of our beloved Club temporarily defiled?
It is the fans left questioning at the end which binds us. After a heavy defeat, unlike certain fans who will brush it off, put the old tried and trusted blinkers and rose-tinted specs on and pretend everything is A-OK, we, like the faithful Selecao fans, will be left with a ruined appetite and questions that can't be answered fully. One terrible defeat doesn't make you a bad team. We know this ever so well, but much like my Goonersphere Podcast pals like to mention, it can be used by fans as a stick to beat whatever part they feel is ailing us. Falsely or not. We feel your pain Brazil.
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