Brazil’s Latest Triumph Is Simply Just for Kicks

Ten years ago, the World Cup came to America and Brazil took it home. A quick recap of how both countries commemorated the anniversary:

America: Bonfires and snake-dancing in the streets have been noticeably absent. However, the U.S. now has a professional soccer league still digging in its heels after 8 1/2 seasons, Los Angeles will field two teams in this league in 2005 and the U.S. men’s national team is ranked seventh in the world. For American soccer fans, quiet satisfaction a decade on is celebration enough.

Brazil: Will a fairly reasonable re-creation of the 1994 World Cup final do?

Ten years and a week ago -- on July 17, 1994 at the Rose Bowl -- Carlos Alberto Parreira watched his Brazil team outwrestle Italy for the World Cup, winning the final on penalty kicks, with Italy’s Roberto Baggio memorably putting his final attempt high over the crossbar.

Sunday in Lima, Peru, Brazil outwrestled Argentina for the Copa America championship trophy, with Parreira again the winning coach and Brazil again victorious on penalty kicks and the runners-up again watching in agony as a crucial penalty kick sailed high over the bar.

Unfortunate Gabriel Heinze followed in Baggio’s footsteps, failing to put his penalty attempt on net, sending it well above the crossbar. Only the sequence was different for Heinze, who was the second Argentina player to kick, and the second to miss.

Argentina dug itself into an 0-for-2 hole when leadoff man Andres D’Alessandro had his attempt blocked by Brazil goalkeeper Julio Cesar, followed by Heinze’s errant strike.

By then, Brazil, which knows its way around the penalty spot, had the title all but clinched. After two kicks, Brazil led, 2-0. After two more, it was Brazil, 4-2, and that’s all Brazil needed.

Brazil reached the final with a 5-3 penalty-kicks victory over Uruguay in the semifinal. Again, Brazil was perfect from the 12-yard spot. Two rounds, nine pressurized penalty attempts, nine virtual-textbook conversions.

Add in their 4-2 triumph in penalty kicks over the Netherlands in the 1998 World Cup semifinals and the Brazilians are 13-for-13 from the spot in their last three experiences in major-tournament games decided by penalty kicks.

(In ‘94, Marcio Santos had his try blocked by Italian goalkeeper Gianluca Pagliuca. Brazil converted its next three to win, 3-2.)

So, the scouting report on Brazil is pretty clear: Whenever possible, avoid penalty kicks.

Unlike the ’94 final, which was scoreless after 120 minutes, Sunday’s match had goals. After 90 minutes, three goals had been scored, two by Argentina. Argentina figured that should suffice, considering Cesar Delgado had scored the go-ahead goal in the 88th minute, which should have been the emotional knockout punch.

At the 90-minute mark, it was still Argentina 2, Brazil 1.

Having waited 11 years since its last major championship, Argentina needed only to burn off three additional minutes of injury time.

Argentina burned more than 2 1/2.

Close, but no Copa.

Seconds before the whistle, on the final kick of regulation play, Brazil’s Adriano scored the equalizer. Brazil had scored its first goal in similar style, with Luisao heading in a free kick by Alex on the last play of the first half, erasing a 1-0 deficit.

Unlike the World Cup and the European Championship, no overtime is played at the Copa America if two teams end regulation tied. At the Copa, it’s straight to penalties.

But they do add injury time to the end of each half at the Copa -- and because they do, Brazil is South America’s champion for the seventh time.

By that much, two blinks of an eye, two injury-time goals, Brazil had not only improbably hung on but had pushed the match into its comfort zone -- penalty kicks.

Both sides had an idea as to what this meant.

Brazil’s players reacted as if they had just won the championship, celebrating with such an intensity in front of the Argentina bench, a scuffle briefly broke out.

Scorecard: Several Argentina players squirted Brazilians with their water bottles, Adriano was hit with a yellow card for taking off his jersey during his goal celebration, referee Carlos Amarilla summoned the stadium police to restore order.

Eight penalty kicks later, Brazil and Argentina were left to review the fallout.

Brazil, which won the 2002 World Cup under coach Luiz Felipe Scolari, now holds both the world and South American championships, rehiring Parreira to complete “the double” after Scolari left for Portugal in 2003.

Argentina still hasn’t won a major tournament since the 1993 Copa America -- and, worse for Coach Marcelo Bielsa, his team was favored to win the 2002 World Cup and Copa 2004. Bielsa somehow retained his job after the World Cup failure; he might not be so lucky after Sunday’s finish.

Argentina was favored in Peru because Brazil hadn’t brought all of its first team, Parreira allowing such European-based stars as Ronaldo, Ronaldinho, Roberto Carlos and Kaka to rest after long club seasons.

So Brazil threw its B-plus team up against Argentina, and still prevailed.

“We keep asking ourselves what we could have done differently to have avoided this kind of result,” Bielsa told reporters in Lima.

If the answer didn’t come immediately to Bielsa, all he had to do was keep at it. Just a few more seconds.