AP

Brasil con la Copa

The first dangerous play brought Brazil's first goal. The game seemed very tied up in the midfield, but a long ball found Julio Baptista near the box. Baptista saw Abbondanzieri off of his line, and fired a shot past the Argentine keeper.

The early goal determined the outcome of the game. Argentina was forced to attack, while Brazil concentrated on their defense and taking advantage of the spaces left by their rivals.

Initially Argentina was the favorite to win the title, so it was expected that they would react to the goal they received and attack a lot. In the 9th minute Juan Román Riquelme smacked a rocket off the post, after a nice pass by Veron.

However, Argentina was having many problems attacking. Their game lacked continuity, while Brazil made their life very hard defensively.

While Argentina had problems attacking, Brazil brought danger to the Argentine goal almost every time they attacked.

Brazilian defender Maicon brought a lot of danger down the right flank. Down that flank is where the second Brazilian goal originated, a cross from the right was poked into his own net by Ayala.

Apart from the ball that hit the post in the 9th minute only had one more chance in the first half. Riquelme had his shot saved by Brazilian keeper Doni in the 35th minute.

Argentina was not able to generate anything important with any of the fouls they had in their favor, in fact Brazil's third goal was a counter attack from a bad free kick. Dani Alves received a beautiful pass in the box by Vagner Love. Alves put the ball far post and made the game 3-0.

Line Ups:

3. Brazil: Doni; Maicon, Alex, Juan, Gilberto; Mineiro, Elano (Dani Alves, 32), Josué, Julio Baptista; Vágner Love (Fernando, 90) and Robinho (Diego, 90). TD Carlos Dunga:

0 Argentina: Roberto Abbdondanzieri; Javier Zanetti, Roberto Ayala, Gabriel Milito, Gabriel Heinze; Javier Mascherano, Juan Sebastian Verón (Lucho González, 22), Esteban Cambiasso (Pablo Aimar, 58); Juan Román Riquelme; Lionel Messi and Carlos Tévez. TD Alfio Basile.

Goals: 1-0 (min 4, Julio Baptista) 2-0 (min 40, own goal by Roberto Ayala), 3-0 (min 69, Dani Alves)