Brazil 2 North Korea 1

A brilliant defensive performance by North Korea gave us a 0-0 scoreline at half-time and the potential for a shock. After 55 minutes Elano feeds Maicon instead of pulling the ball back from near the by-line he bends the ball with the outside of his right boot and beats Ri Myong-guk at his near post; stunning! Elano doubled the lead on 72 minutes after an inch perfect through ball from Robinho. In the closing minutes Ji Yun-nam scores past Julio Cesar but the opportunity to hunt for an equaliser is curtailed by the final whistle. Not as one-sided as many people probably expected.

Things that I noticed during the game:

• Kaka seemed very quiet today.
• Robinho is not the same player than Manchester City let go out on loan to Santos.
• North Korea may just manage to get something out of one of their 2 remaining games.