Chapter 50: The Punch Celebration

The Australian football team didn't have any standout players. Their advancement from the group stage had an element of luck, so the match went as most people expected – it was completely one-sided in Brazil's favor. 

The Brazilian players who were most tightly marked and defended against were Adriano and Kaka, but they were also the most active and involved in the attack.

Since Australia remained defensive and focused on protecting their goal, Brazil didn't face much defensive pressure themselves. It took Maicon and Baptista less than ten minutes to go from being eager and ready to play, to being very active and making attacking runs.

The two Brazilian players frequently helped push the attack forward, making it look like adults bullying kids on the playground.

You could see that the entire Brazilian team played in a relaxed manner, resulting in a dazzling, skillful display on the field – the kind of flair and technical ability that comes from players showing off their talents when they're dominating.

Although Brazil controlled the match, they struggled to score a goal. Australia had given up a lot of space and the attacking half, but protected their goal area very well. It was like a girl who flirts and plays hard to get – she'll let you get close, but not all the way.

In a situation like that, if you're clever, you should realize she's just keeping you as a backup option. If you don't want to give up pursuing her, you'll have to force the issue and be more aggressive – but that's probably an unwise perspective to have. Good, well-behaved people shouldn't take that kind of dating advice.

Fortunately for Brazil, they had plenty of tough, determined players, with Adriano being the toughest and most physical. He had the two main assets for breaking through stubborn defenses – set-pieces like free kicks, and individual dribbling ability.

In the 36th minute, Kaka played a beautifully weighted ball over the top for Adriano, who shrugged off the defender's challenge by using his strength. Adriano stumbled slightly but controlled the ball, and prepared to unleash one of his trademark thunderous shots.

The approaching Australian defender flinched and instinctively stuck out his right foot, trying to block the shot with his foot. But Adriano's shooting motion was a feint – he simply lifted the ball gently over the defender's outstretched legs with a poke of his foot.

The move sounded devious in the description, but it was actually very smooth and elegantly executed. 

Adriano wanted to continue his run forward after beating the defender. He was about to enter the penalty area, and a slight angle would have given him a clear shooting opportunity at goal.

However, the Australian defenders didn't allow Adriano that chance – two of them brought him down with a combination of pulling on his shirt and tackling him from behind.

"Kaka's pinpoint pass, Adriano's beautiful skill to beat the defender, oh! A foul! The referee has shown a yellow card to one of the Australians. The Brazilians are very unhappy about that. Those two Australian challenges were quite rough and cynical – that should have been at least two yellow cards shown, or even a red card..."

The player who had pulled Adriano escaped with just a verbal warning from the referee, but the one who had made the tackle narrowly avoided being physically confronted by the angry Baptista – Kaka's quick intervention calmed the situation down.

The Brazilian players' routine protests about the refereeing decision were in vain, and everyone now realized that the referee was favoring the Australian team, at least to some degree. 

Not an outrageously biased performance, but certainly a skewed one that seemed to give Australia some leniency.

Either way, it was a free-kick for Brazil in a dangerous position.

"Brazil have earned a very good free-kick opportunity here. Both Kaka and Adriano, known for their excellent set-piece quality, are standing over the ball. Adriano's free-kicks have more power, while Kaka's focus more on precise placement. Either of them taking this could pose a huge threat to Australia's goal."

Kaka had scored from a free-kick in the group stage, and judging by his and Adriano's long-range shooting abilities, their set-piece quality was bound to be top-notch. As a result, the Australian team were extremely tense, taking nearly three minutes to carefully set up their defensive wall.

Those three minutes did have some effect – Kaka couldn't find a suitable shooting angle around the wall, and Adriano probably couldn't either from his position.

"Shall we just blast one hard towards goal?" Kaka looked at the Australian wall with a mischievous intent, suggesting they just try to hit the ball as powerfully as possible.

If they were going to blindly shoot without trying to bend it around the wall, Adriano would obviously take the free-kick. His sheer power and shot strength could potentially work wonders – and if the shot hit the wall, well, those Australian players would feel the impact.

"Okay," Adriano nodded in agreement. "But you distract and cover for me."

"Alright... wait!" Just as Adriano was about to take a run-up to strike the ball, Kaka seemed to have a sudden tactical idea and leaned in to quietly give him some instructions about executing it.

Adriano looked at Kaka in surprise after listening to the plan, almost like he was saying "Look at you, acting all innocent when you're being so devious and sneaky" with his expression – or words to that effect.

Well, that's a bit too harsh of an interpretation. It was just a routine set-piece plan that teams practice, with only so many possible variations. Quite normal, really – these uncouth descriptions sometimes fail to capture what was actually happening accurately.

Kaka and Adriano both stepped back from the ball, but Adriano went straight behind it, while Kaka took a more angled position, not retreating as far back behind the ball.

The goalkeeper looked at Kaka, then at Adriano's central position, and couldn't help but shout a couple more instructions to his wall, getting them to shift slightly towards Kaka's side to cover that angle.

No matter how you looked at it, Adriano seemed like the supporting act in this free-kick routine, while Kaka was the one calling the shots and making the key decisions. Their little strategy huddle just now must have been about discussing tactics, so it made sense for Australia to closely watch Kaka's movements.

The referee blew the whistle to restart play, and Kaka and Adriano started their runs simultaneously towards the ball.

"This free-kick routine has taken some time to carefully set up. Clearly, Kaka has something tactical planned – it's unlikely to be a simple shot towards goal... They're both running up, Kaka has touched the ball, and... he hasn't shot! It was just a dummy run and kick!"

Kaka shaped up as if to shoot the free-kick himself but merely rolled the ball across to the side for the real striker, Adriano, to hit it.

A very common set-piece routine used to wrong-foot the defense, but highly effective when executed well.

The moment Kaka played the dummy ball across, an Australian defender charged out to close him down, clearly expecting Kaka to take the shot. But the well-prepared Adriano was quicker to seize the opportunity.

The ball had already cleared the wall's cover by the time Adriano struck it, and his powerful strike went straight towards the goal.

The goalkeeper, momentarily deceived by Kaka's dummy run, was a split-second late in reacting and getting across to the shot, only managing to get a slight touch on the ball as it flew past him.

The shot cannoned off the inside of the post and into the net, the unmistakable sound of the ball crashing against the woodwork audible to those nearby. For a moment, the Australians didn't know whether to rue their failure to stop the goal or be relieved it wasn't worse.

The moment the ball hit the back of the net, the scorer Adriano charged towards the touchline, roaring like a ferocious monster before unleashing an outdated 'Punch' style celebration by pretending to throw some punches.

An over-the-top, aggressive celebration that made the cool and composed Kaka visibly wince, almost like the wild actions made his teeth ache just watching it.

(end of chapter)