Rotund Ron worries Brazil

ON the train down to Mannheim, the morning after watching Brazil do just enough to edge out Croatia in the Olympiastadion in Berlin, we fell in with a friendly group of Croatian Football Association staff in the restaurant car.

One high-ranking CFA official couldn’t disguise his disappointment at his country’s narrow failure to pick up a point at the expense of the World Cup favourites the previous night, pointing to one moment’s lack of concentration — a slowness in closing down Kaka before he swept home the winning goal — as the difference between the teams.

In a more generous mood he might have given a little more credit to the sublime finish by a player who deserved his man of the match gong but, in common with everybody else, our Balkan friend’s attention was mainly drawn to the Brazilian who had been anything but a candidate for honours.