After an extremely surprising Confederations Cup in South Africa, it's come down to this - David vs. Goliath, Round 2, aka USA vs. Brazil. The USA's shocking turn-around and even more unexpected upset victory over Spain in the Semi-finals has everyone wondering if this up-and-coming team has one more shock result in them.

10CC Wall Street Shuffle
With two losses in three days and seven goals scored against its no surprise to find message boards full angry American fans. As they passionately call for Bob Bradley's sacking and kicking Beasley off the team (I can go for that one) we see the true passion and reactions that football causes.

It wasn't going to be easy. The home team always grows in FIFA competitions. And difficulty increased as the locals have a coach who knows so well the Brazilian players. The only option for Brazil was to take advantage of the nerves of their rivals. So Brazil started the match marking South Africa in its defensive field as a way to force a mistake.

Got this video from my Brazilian friend, Mr Renato Andreão.
It's about the Brazilian players earning their living in the S.League, namely Peres De Oliveira of Home United, Ednardo Moura and Ithamar Rangel of Balestier Khalsa.
In Portuguese though, wish I can understand what they were talking about but thanks to the graphics more or less can guess what was all about.

The problem with the Confederations Cup, aside from those bloody, bloody, bloody vuvuzela air horns, is that it brings about more mismatches (in terms of quality) than even the World Cup. However, you'd not necessarily have pegged this game as being one. If the orthodox Anglocentric viewpoint is to be accepted - that 'we' invent sports so brilliant everyone in the world adopts them and then get good enough to beat us hollow - this match represents a battle between the great old new-world football power and the coming colossus.

According to the media in Brazil, he is one of the players that might replace Cristiano Ronaldo in the future, the new rising star. His agent claims that Sir Alex Ferguson has already started negotiations about signing 18-year old Brazilian, after the rumours have spread that the Portuguese might move to Real.

It seems everyone is paying tribute to the late Michael Jackson (sounds funny, this, hun?). Brazilian players decided to honor the king of pop with embarrassing goal celebrations. The worst? The celebrations brought no luck.

Diego Tardelli, the striker from Atletico, tied the match against Barueri.

Tired of hearing about Michael Jackson? We will bring some more. The King Pop was not known for his connections to football despite cheesy goal celebrations by Brazilian players.

But look at the picture below. It is Michael Jackson wearing the jersey of French side Nice. Anyone knows why?

via Reuters

Finally, the Milanistas are doing something! At Milan's first training session yesterday, fans gathered outside Milanello to protest the Kaka sale and lack of reinforcements from Uncle Fester's office. Leonardo got a bit confused by the commotion and gave them all a thumbs up.

In this series I will be looking at some of the greatest Brazilian players to have graced the game of football over the last sixty years, using the 1950s, the decade in which Brazil marched to their first World Cup triumph, as a starting point.

In part one, I take a look at the finest footballers to have pulled on the yellow and green jersey of the Selecao during the 1950s and 60s.

In part two of this series looking at the best Brazilian players of all time, I will be taking a look at the finest Brazilian talents of the 1970s and 80s.

From the remarkable team of 1970 through to the abundantly gifted yet ultimately unsuccessful squads of the 1982 and 1986 World Cups, there are some truly extraordinary footballers to choose from.

Lucescu's Shakhtar Donetsk wins the last UEFA Cup in Istanbul Turkey.
He won two championship in Turkey with
Galatasaray and Besiktas and The UEFA Super Cup with Galatasaray , still he was rejected by team officials and Turkish media in Turkey.
This should be the most proud moment for Romanian coach to lift the last UEFA Cup in Sukru Saracoglu Stadium.

An uninspired Werder Bremen lost the UEFA Cup to Shakhtar Donetsk last night, after a 2-1 loss in extra time. All three goals were courtesy of Brazilian players. Everyone wants Dopey Dunga to sit up and take notice!

Luiz Adriano opened the scoring in the 25th minute for the Ukrainian side.

The sensation of the first part of Bundesliga this season were certainly the debutants, Hoffenheim, led by three excellent Brazilian players, as well as equally important Bosnians, Vedad Ibisevic and Sejad Salihovic. The best striker in the first part of the season was Ibisevic with 18 goals scored and there would probably have been even more if he didn't earn a serious injury that saw him out for the season.

• Your favorite uncle, King Pele, has criticised the selecao in light of their recent performance against Egypt. This came after Dunga praised him as an example to his team for 'having patience' and winning the 1958 World Cup as a 17-year-old.
  
• Juninho has signed for Qatar club, Al Gharafa.

We have come to expect more of Brazil than a gritty, workman 2-1 home victory over Paraguay. Sadly, only the player ratings show any hint of artistry, as we compare the Brazilian players' performance to the corresponding pieces by Pablo Picasso.

Don't tell the Brazilian players that the Confederations Cup doesn't matter. It's a football tournament, and that means it matters to them. And after being down 2-0 to the Americans at halftime, it really mattered to Brazil that they could overcome the deficit, and win this final, and they made the US look like they were playing at least a man down in the 2nd half, scoring 4, and having 3 of them officially recognized.

It's not often in football that you see blind loyalty, but here's one such story reported by Reuters yesterday.
Shakhtar Donetsk and Ukraine defender Dmytro Chygrynsky has turned down all-conquering Barcelona's offer to join the Spanish club, preferring to stay with this year's UEFA Cup winners.

Former Inter striker Wason Rentería has been linked with a return to the Brasileirão despite being unable able to agree terms with Cruzeiro.
The Colombian who played in Portugal last season with Sporting Braga is said to be keen to return to Brazil and is eyeing up a move to one of the current top four clubs.

via AP

• Ibracadabra and Messi will play against Manchester City tonight in the Joan Gamper trophy... and tonight marks Ibra's debut after recovering from a hand fracture. The Dona doesn't need to worry either, because his beloved Messi has shaken off his muscle injury and will be available for selection.

AIK won't enjoy any sort of peace and quiet at the top of Allsvenskan. Their pole position will immediately be threatened by a very tough opponent as the reigning champions Kalmar FF comes to Råsunda on Saturday. It's a tricky match-up that AIK hasn't won since 2006. But this game could very well mark a negative turning point for Kalmar, a team that has been an unlikely success story for the past few years.

Didn't Sir Alex just finishing lecturing the FA on their media overexposure of Wayne Rooney? Apparently, shedding a little bit of limelight his way isn't much of an issue at all. The Scot didn't mince words when picking his favorite to win the 2010 World Cup.

"I can't see past Brazil, actually," Ferguson was quoted in the Daily Mail.