Brazil! Brazil!

Day -581. WorldCup2018

I'm going to say it. Yes, I am. Here I go. I enjoyed watching Brazil tonight as much as I loved watching Brazil in 1982. I have often waxed lyrical about that 1982 team and how they made me fall in love with football. The fun, the beauty is back. Coach Tite is an artist and just like Tele Santana's his canvas is a masterpiece.

Too much? An exaggeration? It's not the finished article yet. Tite has had 5 matches with this team. The thought of how much better they can get is exciting.

Yes, go ahead, tell me that Argentina were awful. And my reply will be that Brazil were so outstandingly good that of course Argentina looked terrible in comparison. And why is it that whenever one team is that good, some match reporters always have to say it's only because the opposition was so bad?

Coutinho scored a screamer, an absolute belter, a cracking goal right out of the top draw. I could go on with the cliches. The second from Neymar was a wonderful counter attacking goal and Paulinho smashed home the third from inside the penalty area. 3-0 and, yes, it is no cliche that it could have been more.

At one point in the first half Neymar had the ball just inside the penalty area and as he accelerated to his right you just knew he was going to ghost right past the two defenders like they weren't there. You could feel it, that Brazil were unstoppable and that Neymar wasn't the only player who was a few steps ahead of the Argentinian defence. His shot hit the post this time but it was oh so nearly a complete moment of beauty.

Brazil were so good, so 1982 good that before the third goal Paulinho had a great opportunity to score. He could have shot. He didn't. He rounded the goalkeeper and tried to almost caress the ball into the net. A defender on the line easily cleared it. But it was so vintage Brazil that he tried to score the pretty goal and, while disappointed, I'm sure the fans enjoyed it nonetheless.

Argentina had Lionel Messi back in the team after he ended his sulk, and retirement, and was recovered from injury. That's about all I can say about Messi. He was on the pitch. Oh, I'll say one more thing. Diego Maradona, he is not.

The result of Brazil's win is that, along with Uruguay, they are pulling away at the top of South American qualifying. Uruguay beat Ecuador 2-1. Argentina remain in 6th place but only 3 points behind 3rd placed Colombia.

Tomorrow's European qualifying highlight is England v Scotland. There will probably be a story on the pitch but before that the big news is that both teams are planning to defy Fifa and wear Remembrance Day poppies on their shirt. The two FA's are ready to deal with the Fifa sanctions. And good for them, I say.