Brazil punish Zimbabwe in football friendly in front of Mugabe and Tsvangirai


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Five time world soccer kings, Brazil cruised to a comfortable 3-0 victory over lowly ranked Zimbabwe on Wednesday during a rare international friendly that was overshadowed by politics.

Zimbabwe’s top leadership lead by the ageing Robert Mugabe and his extravagant young wife Grace, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai and countless government officials where at the National Sports Stadium.

The five time world champions, Brazil fielded a strong starting 11 including Real Madrid star Kaka and Robinho. Brazil had to sweat for the first 42 minutes before getting a goal with the second coming 2 minutes after.

And although Zimbabwe was destined to lose the game- considering that they were playing five world cup champions, the Warriors who have never won with Mugabe in attendance were twice denied goals by the wood-work

Two quick goals from Michel Bastos (42 minites), Robinho (44) all but wrapped up the game. However, Dunga’s boys suffered an injury scare when goalkeeper Julio Cesar was stretched off injured just after 26 minutes of play. The other goal came from after Dani Alves traded passes with Julio Baptista and then selflessly crossed for Elano to tap in.

Dunga’s side are now off to face Tanzania’s Taifa Stars on June 7 in their final rehearsal before the tournament proper. The Samba Boys rarely play against African teams and Zimbabwe has become only the fifth to face them in the past 30 years after Cameroon, Egypt, Nigeria and South Africa.

Hours before the game Robinho said the team had been ready for the game for the past few years. Indicating that the team regards the friendly game with Zimbabwe a good warm up before going to South Africa.

Said Robinho, “Our team has been ready since quite a long time ago.” Brazil’s player they will not take pressure on the game to avoid injuries. Friendlies are important, but I will face them calmly.” But despite the promise of a calm game, Brazil brought a rare spectacle to Zimbabwe football which saw an unusual excitement.

And even though tickets for the game were sold out by noon, fans without tickets poured into the stadium’s vicinity, taking advantage of a government declaration on Tuesday that all its workers would knock off at noon to allow them to watch the match.

In Harare, a traffic jam built up on the road to the stadium, on the edge of the capital hours before the game.

2010 World Cup  South Africa's preparation to host the games on African soil for the first time but also individual African countries' determination to take part in the historic event. Five African countries - Cameroon, Nigeria, Algeria, South Africa and Ghana - are selected to join twenty seven teams from around the world to battle it out on the football pitch for the gold trophy. One by one, the African teams are eliminated, but Africans will not be bogged down as they rally behind their compatriots on the wings of the vuvuzela, a far cry from the near diplomatic row between Algeria and Egypt during the qualifiers. Ghana are the last team to leave but not before African unity becomes reality...
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