(Photo by Koji Watanabe/Getty Images)
"The pressure people put on themselves and the rivalry between the teams is much more marked. And I think that's a good thing. As long as that rivalry remains within the spirit of competition, it can only spur everyone on."
Brazil has won the football World Cup five times. This leads us to conclude that they possess outstanding talents blessed with a unique magic and a great dominance over the beautiful game.
Brazil’s league has the most competitive teams in South America. Let’s mention, for instance, great names such as Sao Paolo, Gremio, Corinthians, Vasco da Gama. These teams have been the birthplace of great current and past stars such as Kaka, Ronaldo, Robinho, and countless others.
Throughout the history of World Cups, Brazil has always shown a great determination, not only to take part in the competition but also to win it with an amazing greed.
In the course of achieving their aim, so many squads have presented great resistance, and some of them succeeded to surprisingly put Brazil aside. When this happens, in Brazil there reigns a great feeling of disappointment and bitterness.
The reason is simple: Brazilians breathe football like fresh air, and they are always proud to have great doses of it in their veins.
On the other hand, we have Argentina, the great, eternal rivals of Brazil. A country without any doubt that has given a lot to football world. Let’s just take a look at all the Europeans leagues: there are almost always one or two players from Argentina on the best clubs, from Spain to Netherlands.
However, the next event (World Cup qualifiers) has absolutely another taste. The burden weighs so heavily on Argentinian shoulders.
For this World Cup qualifier, Argentina has no other choice except to win over the powerful Brazilians. I may say, fortunately, the match will take place in a few days in Argentina.
This means the Argentinian squad has the positive ingredient of a home-team advantage to vanquish the mighty Samba team. According to the recent matches, Argentina is almost invincible as the home team. I do remember their last victory as locals against Brazil, a 3-1 triumph.
I am not good at predictions, but this time I am pretty sure that Argentina will win the match to survive in the competition. Otherwise, it would be a historical failure and a negative omen on the coach—the legendary former star, Diego Maradona.
So the questions to be asked are:
1. Is the new generation of Argentinian player able to win this decisive challenge?
2. Can Maradona prove to the world that he is as good as a coach as he was a player?
3. Can the Brazilian squad resist the great pressure of the craziest masses of Argentina's fans?
To answer these questions, we have to wait for the next challenge between the two teams next September. Speaking as a football fan, the intensity of the match would look like that of a World Cup Final, even before the South African competition has started.
By the way, in terms of clubs, Boca Juniors is the most feared Argentine club in Brazil. The reason is very simple:Whenever I meet Brazilians in Buenos Aires, most of them buy Boca’s jerseys. And when I ask them what is the reason behind this, they honestly answer: “It’s the unique club that beat, on many continental occasions, the best Brazilians squads."
Boca Juniors has a worldwide reputation, so I prefer to leave talking about this for another article.
As I started my article by a quote, I'd love to end it with another one:
"The rivalry is with ourselves. I try to be better than is possible. I fight against myself, not against the other."
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