CaughtOffside is packing up and ready to leave Japan after covering the FIFA World Club Cup all week. Final thoughts will follow, but our obsession with The Duck takes priority.
With Internacional’s stunning win Barcelona, you would think that perhaps Alexandre Pato (or Pato Alexandre) would have been the decider as the “Next Big Thing” out of Brazil. But in reality, he had a quiet match and quiet tournmant in general.
But we’re judging a 17 year old kid playing his third professional match ever, and it just happens to be in arguably his club’s biggest ever match (ask any Brazilian or Internacional fan what the World Club Cup means to them) against Europe’s best team (who took this tournament a lot more seriously than you’d think given their team selection). All eyes were on him, despite the fact that he was so new to the squad that the photograph used for his lineup picture had him in a shirt and tie as opposed to team kit.
If you’re trying to evaluate the potential within a 17 year old kid only just beginning his career, you have to focus on the positives and assume that the rest will be ironed out with experience and good coaching. We watched him in his isolated moments of possesion, rather than his ability to boss the game.
That said, in the final Pato showed the talent that made him so highly rated, as well as the nervous mistakes of a young kid. In the final, he was involved in most of his side’s positive play until he lost steam in the second half. He made good runs, went on one impressive mazy dribble around half the Barca team, and had a few shots on goal including demonstrations of his surprising aerial ability. He often won the ball or controlled a long pass despite the presence of Carlos Puyol breathing down his neck.
Later in the match, he received the ball with the Spanish defender on his back, feigned right and spun 180 degrees so fast it left the Barca captain stumbling to the ground. If Gio had not arrived to hack him down from behind, Pato would have been clear through and perhaps on his way to scoring a historic goal.
Pato did lose the ball cheaply a few times, and fell over the ball at one point and it was clear that nerves may be eating away at the young lad who the adoring Japanese fanboy crowd expected to win the match with every touch. He also showed early signs of the cramping that forced him off in the first match, continually stretching his calves when the ball was away from his area. Hopefully it’s not indicative of any career-stalling growing pains.
Alexandre Pato came into the tournament with massive expectation and supposedly the potential to eventually replace Ronaldo at the spearhead of Brazil’s attack at the next World Cup. “Potential” is the operative word, and we saw plenty of it.
Sadly, it’ll probably be some Spanish or Italian club that snaps him up for the supposed 20 million euros needed to buy out his contract. We’d love to see some of this burgeoning South American talent make its way to the Premiership one day, but unless he’s willing to play in Holland or Belgium to get a passport he won’t be signing for the likes of Chelsea or Manchester United for a while.
CaughtOffside is packing up and ready to leave Japan after covering the FIFA World Club Cup all week. Final thoughts will follow, but our obsession with The Duck takes priority.
With Internacional’s stunning win Barcelona, you would think that perhaps Alexandre Pato (or Pato Alexandre) would have been the decider as the “Next Big Thing” out of Brazil. But in reality, he had a quiet match and quiet tournmant in general.
But we’re judging a 17 year old kid playing his third professional match ever, and it just happens to be in arguably his club’s biggest ever match (ask any Brazilian or Internacional fan what the World Club Cup means to them) against Europe’s best team (who took this tournament a lot more seriously than you’d think given their team selection). All eyes were on him, despite the fact that he was so new to the squad that the photograph used for his lineup picture had him in a shirt and tie as opposed to team kit.
If you’re trying to evaluate the potential within a 17 year old kid only just beginning his career, you have to focus on the positives and assume that the rest will be ironed out with experience and good coaching. We watched him in his isolated moments of possesion, rather than his ability to boss the game.
That said, in the final Pato showed the talent that made him so highly rated, as well as the nervous mistakes of a young kid. In the final, he was involved in most of his side’s positive play until he lost steam in the second half. He made good runs, went on one impressive mazy dribble around half the Barca team, and had a few shots on goal including demonstrations of his surprising aerial ability. He often won the ball or controlled a long pass despite the presence of Carlos Puyol breathing down his neck.
Later in the match, he received the ball with the Spanish defender on his back, feigned right and spun 180 degrees so fast it left the Barca captain stumbling to the ground. If Gio had not arrived to hack him down from behind, Pato would have been clear through and perhaps on his way to scoring a historic goal.
Pato did lose the ball cheaply a few times, and fell over the ball at one point and it was clear that nerves may be eating away at the young lad who the adoring Japanese fanboy crowd expected to win the match with every touch. He also showed early signs of the cramping that forced him off in the first match, continually stretching his calves when the ball was away from his area. Hopefully it’s not indicative of any career-stalling growing pains.
Alexandre Pato came into the tournament with massive expectation and supposedly the potential to eventually replace Ronaldo at the spearhead of Brazil’s attack at the next World Cup. “Potential” is the operative word, and we saw plenty of it.
Sadly, it’ll probably be some Spanish or Italian club that snaps him up for the supposed 20 million euros needed to buy out his contract. We’d love to see some of this burgeoning South American talent make its way to the Premiership one day, but unless he’s willing to play in Holland or Belgium to get a passport he won’t be signing for the likes of Chelsea or Manchester United for a while.
