By Michael Lachmann
For many fans, Brazilian football is considered the epitome of the beautiful game. “The ball artists from Sugarloaf” is probably the most frequently used description of the South American footballers in this context.
Almost everyone knows Pelé, who shaped an entire generation of footballers. For someone like me, who grew up with football in the 80s, Falcao, Eder, Zico and Socrates were the great ball magicians. Later, of course, Dunga, Ronaldo, Ronaldinho and, to some extent, Neymar.
If you want to see Brazilian ball artists in Berlin-Brandenburg, you don’t have to fly to the legendary Maracana in Rio de Janeiro.
A short drive to Rüdersdorf is enough. Or in my case in the Strausberg Garden City, where on Saturday MSV 19 dribbled their way into the 9th league with two Brazilians and a Portuguese (played like a Brazilian!).
It was impressive how Joao Vitor Rosa Dos Santos, Jose Verissmo da Silva Neto and Pedro Jorge Almeida Amaral were able to handle the ball and sometimes infuriate their opponents.
“This is the district league and not Brazil,” gasped a Garden City defender in exasperation as he stood robustly in the way of a ball artist after having his legs tied in knots.
That sounded quite friendly to me, because on a Berlin artificial turf the portly defender would probably have shouted at the agile striker like this: “You do that again, jeh’n wa beede off the pitch: you with a bruised shin and I’m red!”
But luckily things remained peaceful in the garden city. Because the Rüdersdorf ball wizards made things clear: Rosa Dos Santos scored a flawless hat trick after the break, while Silva Neto contributed two goals to the 6-1 away win.
And also the Portuguese Almeida Amaral scored. At the captain with the Shirt number 7 quickly realized that only Ronaldo (exceptionally the Portuguese one, not the Brazilian one) could be his role model. Siuuu!!!