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The Brazil-Japan World Cup game was amazing. Despite the lopsided score (4-1), the game was beautiful to watch, unlike the USA-Ghana game, which was mostly just a duty to watch because, you know, I am an American who really likes football (soccer). No; unlike USA-Ghana, the Brazil-Japan match was special; they made every minute of the game into something thrilling, exciting, fun; and they treated each other with such respect, too. It was a very clean game, despite the importance of the outcome -- no red cards, and few (no?) yellow cards, and no elbows in the eyeballs, for example.

Just as an aside, I have a strong affinity for Japan because I lived in Tokyo for a little while when I was a grad student. So keep in mind that I am not trying to trivialize Team Japan's loss, because dang, they played a very fine game.

Further, even though Team Japan lost, I would be remiss if I didn't point out that Japan is unique in the world because they have their own football-playing team of crows!

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Yes Brazil played the type of soccer that makes everyone a fan of theirs. I just hope they play the rest of the tournament with that flair (they sucked in the first two games). Also bravo for Ronaldo.