From: Hildegaard Beauregard [ljlife@yahoo.com]
Sent: Friday, June 21, 2002 3:26 AM
To: Lee Jerome Life
Subject: No future -- this time -- for England

Reporting from World Cup Watch Central.

England's Emile Heskey on the break sent a long pass
to the Brazil box where Michael Owen had only one
defender, Lucio. The ball fell to Lucio, but Lucio
couldn't control it. There it was for Owen, who took
it around Lucio easily for a clean shot from near the
penalty spot. Brazil goalkeeper Marcos bit badly.
England took the lead in the 23rd minute.

Prior to that, both teams looked like England, walking
the ball around and looking for a way in. But Brazil
was controlling possession, and England was looking
content to play on their heels. Some stabs at the ball
by Beckham showed that at least he thought something
needed to be done to get the ball. But then came that
fast break to the dangerous Owen, and suddenly it
looked as if England had laid a brilliant trap. From
that point they looked more in command, and Brazil
grew anxious.

But just before the half, in injury time, Brazil
returned the favor. Catching the now more confident
England well up on the attack, Ronaldinho took off on
a break, swerving his way through backpedalling
defenders. He flicked it over to Rivaldo in the box
and Rivaldo side-footed a perfect angle across the
diving England goalkeeper, David Seaman, to the far
side of the goal.

Each team had shown exactly what the other feared, and
it was all even.

Brazil came right back on the attack at the start of
the second half. Pressing the English goal, Brazil got
a free kick in the 50th minute, well outside the box
to one side of the field. Roberto Carlos is known for
his dangerous long kicks, such as the one he scored
with against China. But Ronaldinho took this one. The
ball sailed up over everyone, with Seaman taking
position on it. But it curled and dropped viciously,
and Seaman appeared to react late. It tucked inside
the upper far corner of the goal beautifully, and was
in the net before anyone quite realized what had
happened. The replay showed that Seaman hadn't even
misplayed it. It was an unbeatable shot, over the
leaping Seaman's hand, but then dropping just under
the crossbar.

England would never recover, even when, just a few
minutes later, Ronaldinho was thrown out of the match
and Brazil was left with only 10 men.

Ronaldinho went for the ball at the same time as
England defender Danny Mills, but missed and hit
Mills' foot. It was incidental contact, certainly a
foul, but even a yellow card would have been severe.
The referee was Felipe Ramos Rizo, the same man who
had thown out France's Thierry Henry just as
inexplicably. Rizo would compensate for this with
several non-calls in the next few minutes, including a
tackle of Beckham in the Brazil box. His bizarre calls
plagued the rest of the match: the ball out on the
wrong team failing to give a corner on at least one
occasion, fouls on the wrong players, a mysterious
foul when there was no apparent contact, a yellow card
on the player who got pulled when the other one made
the dramatic tumble. Whether his calls were right or
not, he was far too present in the last part of the
match.

As distressing as that was for the game in general,
the sport in general, it didn't make a difference for
the outcome. England could not coordinate a decent
shot on goal in the second half, and even had trouble
with possession against 10-man Brazil. England, who'd
given up just one goal before this match and roared
into the quarterfinals with a 3-0 win over Denmark,
faded away in the second half, undone by mighty
Brazil. It was the 4-time winners who returned the
World Cup to England's dreaming.

Ronaldinho, with his fast break and assist to Rivaldo
and his magnificent long strike, got Brazil past
England, though the referee made him pay the price of
his next match. Without him, Brazil will play in the
semifinals against the winner of Senegal v. Turkey.

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