A quick cheer for Mexico, they showed Brazil on Sunday that just having (great) flair is not enough; if you come up against stiff defense, you need to be able to zing in crosses from the wings. You can’t always feed the killer pass in a crowded box, and you can’t always play narrow. I didn’t see a single useful cross coming in from the wings in open play, Ronaldinho’s corner’s mostly didn’t clear the first man, and Adriano couldn’t even get the ball past the first defender. Solid show by Mexico, and this isn’t the first time they’ve beaten Brazil either. Brazil seems to think that they can just play into the goal, and they often can. But if a few key players are not 100% like Kaka, Ronaldinho, Adriano, Roque Junior, etc. were, then this style of playing becomes difficult, and they need an alternative style to fall back on.