Brazil, Spain and the beautiful game: 2010 in Review

In recognition of the New Year, I would like to take this opportunity to reflect on what we as a community of writers and thinkers about football have accomplished since this blog was launched, soon after the 2010 World Cup, roughly 6 months ago. This year, in football, we saw the ascendancy of Spain as World Cup champions for the first time in history alongside the emergence of promising young teams from Germany, Ghana and Uruguay. Spain's passing game emerged as a model of tactical awareness and coherence for teams all over the world to emulate. Our postings examined the legacy of Carlos Dunga to the national team, Mano Menezes's efforts to renovate the Selecao, deadly strike partnerships such as Romario and Bebeto, teen Santos sensations Neymar and Ganso, AC Milan starlets Ronaldinho, Pato and Robinho, the brilliance of Lionel Messi, Kaka's recovery from knee surgery and the widely controversial appointment of Leonardo Nascimento de Araujo as coach of Inter Milan.

We have also begun a deeper investigation into the history of Brazilian football more generally. We have had the privilege to reflect on Brazil's historic loss to Uruguay in the 1950 World Cup final, the legendary team of 1982, the World Cup championship team of 1994 as well as the teams of 1998 and 2002. All this leaves us ample territory in the months and years ahead, to dig deeper into the history of Brazilian football by covering teams and players that have gradually been erased from historical memory online and, to a lesser extent, in print as well.

We saw glimpses of the beautiful game in Brazil 2002, when Luiz Felipe Scolari fielded 6 attacking players in the early matches in the form of Ronaldo, Rivaldo, Ronaldinho, Juninho Paulista, Roberto Carlos and Cafu. This year, Spain's Barcelona midfield quartet of Iniesta, Xabi, Xavi Alonso and Busquets gave us yet another tantalizing glimpse of beautiful football, but their elegant passing needs to be supplemented by more firepower up front in order to earn a place amongst the top 5 teams in footballing history.

We believe a historical investigation into Brazilian football will enable us to describe, recover and ultimately restore the true spirit of the beautiful game. We have an interest in stylish, attacking football and players and coaches that have a similar investment. And in all this, we have a larger interest in freedom, creativity, aesthetics and the capacity of sport qua art to enrich our lives with models of collaboration, mentorship, friendship, closeness, creativity and passionate modalities of self-expression.

Kaka Poised for Real Madrid Return After Resuming Pitch Training

Things are suddenly looking bright for the Brazilian midfield after the uninspired play of Elias, Ramires and Lucas against Argentina in Doha. In parallel with Ganso's recovery from a left torn ACL injury, Ricardo Kaka appears to be steadily recuperating from a knee injury that required arthroscopic surgery in August. Today, Real Madrid's website reported that Kaka had resumed training on the pitch and begun proprioception work, strength training and stamina training under the guidance of trainer Carlos Lalin. Proprioception work refers to the body's sixth sense for understanding how muscles, ligaments, tendons and joints communicate with one another. In the context of a sports injury, proprioception training gauges an athlete's sense of balance as well as its ability to sense movement and pain. Real reported that Kaka did not feel any discomfort during training and is expected to return to the pitch in January 2011. Whereas a flurry of media reports in October and November suggested that Kaka was entertaining the possibility of transferring from Real Madrid to AC Milan, Sao Paulo or Chelsea, the Brazilian playmaker's future under Jose Mourinho at Real Madrid appears set in stone given Barcelona's 5-0 thrashing of Real Madrid the season's first El Clasico at the Nou Camp. Real Madrid's midfield quartet of Angel di Maria, Mesut Ozil, Sami Khedira and Xabi Alonso struggled woefully against Barcelona's one touch passing and attacking game. Mesut Ozil faltered when denied space whereas Khedira chased the ball relentlessly but failed to obtain any significant possession that could be supplied to Alonso and subsequently to Cristiano Ronaldo and Benzema. Against Barcelona, Real's midfield sorely lacked the creativity, vision and experience of a playmaker and attacking midfielder such as Kaka, who--in form--is probably the only player on the planet who can provide an effective counter-weight to Pep Guardiola's midfield maestro Xavi. Moreover, Higuain's probable absence due to back problems in the upcoming months means that Real could benefit from Kaka's trademark ability to swoop forward from midfield and score goals. Kaka's ability to compensate for the failure of Real Madrid's midfield should be painfully apparent to a master tactician such as Mourinho, so fans of the sex symbol from Sao Paulo should look forward to seeing the 2007 Balloon d'or and FIFA World Player of the Year in the number 8 shirt behind Cristiano Ronaldo as early as February.