Not strong enough

The Brazilian Under-20 team is finally out of the Fifa U-20 World Cup which is being played in Canada. The Brazilians, who barely qualified out of the first round with one win and two losses, lost to Spain 4-2 in extra time on Wednesday, in a second round game played in Burnaby, British Columbia.

It looked like the Brazilians would advance late in the first half, after Leandro and Alexandre Pato scored one minute apart, in the 39th and 40th minutes. Four minutes later, however, Pique netted an extremely important goal for the Europeans, which meant Spain trailed by only one goal at halftime instead of two - which would have been a much more difficult mental task to overcome going into the second half.

Despite the exciting finish to the first 45 minutes, however, the second half started on a slow pace, with very few scoring chances developing for both sides. When it looked like Brazil was headed to the quarterfinals, Javi Garcia tied the game on a free kick, with five minutes left in regulation.

The tired Brazilians proved they weren't strong enough in extra time, suffering one goal in the 103rd minute and another after the 120th minute, in injury time. Bueno and Adrian Lopez scored the two goals for Spain, which will now face the Czech Republic in the quarterfinals.

An end to a terrible competition by the Brazilians. When they arrived in Canada they were hailed as one of the tournament's favourites, coming off a second place finish in the last World Cup and traditionally fielding a good team at this level. It didn't take long for everyone to realize those expectations were misconceived. Just like the main Brazilian team one year ago at the World Cup in Germany, the boys never seemed to find their top form, and exit the tournament sooner than most fans would have thought or hoped for. One can only hope this will help the youngsters learn some valuable lessons about effort and consistency, which in turn can benefit them later in their careers.

Amazingly, they still can win it

The Brazilian Under-20 team has not been playing well at the Fifa U-20 World Cup in Canada this month. Still, it has managed to advance to the second round with a 1-2 record, after losses to Poland (0-1) and the US (1-2) and a tight win over the South Koreans (3-2). After avoiding an embarrassing early elimination, the team can still recover and win the entire thing, if it manages to play better in the elimination rounds. After all, Brazil was the worst of the 16 teams that still stand after three matches were played. It's going to be a tough task if the round robin stage is any indication, but the youngsters will give their best. Their next opponent will be Spain, on Wednesday.

Thrill seekers

It seems some people just love to live dangerously. After opening up with a 1-0 loss to Poland, the Brazilian Under-20 National Team barely managed to hold on to a 3-2 win over South Korea this Tuesday in Montreal, in its second match of the Under-20 World Cup being played in Canada.

Why would anyone want to cruise and finish a game easily after opening a 3-0 lead, when you can have a lot more fun protecting a one-goal game in an exciting finish by virtue of giving two goals in the final minutes of play? The Brazilians seem to be bored in the tournament, and keep finding ways of making easy games turn into true rollercoasters. In their debut, they had already managed to lose to a Polish side playing with ten men for most of the match. Poland, by the way, was soundly beaten by the US on Tuesday, 6-1.

With one game to go in the round robin, Brazil must now defeat the Americans in their final game to guarantee a place in the second round. No matter who wins the match, it promises to be another emotional ride for the Brazilian fans.