>>You are originally from Brasil, aren't you?
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>yup. :)
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>>>Wow, they are a fun team to watch. Some are complaining that they haven't played that well so far, yet they still appear head and shoulders above the competition. Rodinho popped my eyes out on Sunday and he doesn't even start!
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>yeah, every time we start a competition playing to well, we end up losing, and the other way around is true: every time we don't start too well, we end up winning.
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>what's really interesting is that we Brazilians are really picky about the way our team plays. Even when the game ends 3x0 to Brazil, we're not happy if the "magical" moments didn't show up. Basically, we want it to win, and win well. :)
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I have noticed that. The team can be ahead by 2 or 3 goals and if they play the ball backwards, even momentarily, their fans boo and hiss. The fans of most teams -- Germany and England spring to mind -- are delighted if their team grinds out a 1-0 win.

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>>>It's always out with the old, in with the new. Ronaldo is now a shadow of himself. The U.S. broadcast replayed him whiffing on that setup in front of the goal about 5 times.
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>He's definitely not that Ronaldo from the Barcelona or Inter days, or even from the 2002 world cup, but he can still cause some trouble from most of those teams out there. :)
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Yes, and has been doing so. He must have heard the "old and fat" talk and not liked it.

>Let's wait for the game with France tomorrow and see what happens. If we go all the way to the finals, I'm not sure what team I'd like to see there: We've already won 94 over Italy, and 2002 over Germany. Maybe Portugal would be a good match. :)

Except they would play Portugal next.

England-Portugal has become an intriguing matchup. IMO Portugal would have handled them pretty easily at full strength, but without two key starters (courtesy of red cards from the mad Russian), who knows?