Opinion | Brazilian Brilliance
So the Confederations Cup is over and it's thrown up a few talking points. Firstly, those of us in the Uk will have to acclimatise to a fair few late kick offs when Brazil 2014 rolls around, a 7.45pm marquee kick off time in Brazil would be 11.45pm over here, not so good for those with work in the morning. Although that will be nothing compared to the challenges we're expecting to face with Qatar.
The more pressing point of course is Brazil's victory and the manner in which they dominated. The utter decimation of Spain in the final was something that left us open mouthed while the inevitable fin del ciclo was trending in Spain, roughly translated as the end of the cycle.'
Premature maybe, but then we do love to jump on a good bandwagon in football don t we. Given the performance of the Spanish U21 side and the sheer talent they posses, we don t think they will be going anywhere just yet, despite BBC pundit Alan Hansen outdoing colleague Mark Lawrenson with his "Xavi s legs have gone, we might not see him again" comment. This of course demonstrated exactly why headphones and your Ipod are the way forward when a match is televised on the BBC. 
Spain's U21 team won the 2013 European Chammpionship in emphatic style. 
Yes, Spain were awful and the aforementioned Xavi admitted his side didn't even turn up. They might have been missing Xabi Alonso, but that is still no excuse for such a shocker. Brazil for their part were sensational and everyone from Cesar to Fred played their part. The determination and fight were something we had not seen in a long time from their national side. A product of the tournament being in Brazil maybe, but even if that is the case it doesn't bode well for their opponents during the World Cup.
One stand out player from the tournament was Neymar who more than lived up to the hype. Looking better and better throughout each match, it got to the point where Florentino Perez was considering hopping onto a private jet and offering Daniel Levy a blank cheque for Gareth Bale. The accusations of being over rated and lightweight had both been levelled at the young star yet he proved neither of these were the case during his sensational display. 
One thing that did seem abundantly clear when it comes to the newly signed Barcelona player was the fact he is more than fond of going to ground. To say Sergio Busquets will be calling up his mother to check that Neymar is not related to him after all is a slight understatement. During the final it seemed several players were putting in early and multiple nominations for next year s Academy Awards, something that marred their performances and is not what we want talents like Neymar to become tainted by.
Another lesson learnt was that Sergio Ramos should not take penalties. Yes the boy was brave to step up but quite frankly, they seem to be either sensational or utterly awful and that is not something you cannot gamble on in such a high pressured situation. He may have a love affair with yellow cards, but that does not seem the case for penalty kicks.
Whilst Cavani may have struggled for goals until the latter end of the tournament, one player who did not was Fred. The forward may not get the recognition he deserves but he simply cannot stop scoring for his national team and is someone to watch next summer.
With so much to look out for in Brazil 2014, including England s performance in the tournament, we're certainly looking forward to it. Given Italy also had to contend with the loss of Mario Balotelli and only narrowly missed out to Spain during a penalty shoot out, they may also have a say next summer, and that is without even mentioning the likes of Germany, Portugal and Argentina. One thing the Confederations Cup has certainly done is wet our appetite for the World Cup and now we can t wait!
What are your thoughts on the Brazil's performance and the rest of the Confederations Cup? Let us know. Join the conversation online, on Twitter on Facebook.
