Review of Bend It Like The Brazilians: Learn To Play The Brazilian Way

Introduction

Brazil don`t need any introduction to football fans. Most people only see the team every four years during the world cup, and even when they are drawn against the weaker teams, Brazil generate huge television audiences due to their fast, exciting attacking style of play that has seen them win the world cup 5 times.

Brazil`s success has been down to their fantastic skill, and over the years players like Pele, Zico, Ronando, Rivaldo and Roberto Carlos have astounded the world with the quality of their play. Who can forget Roberto Carlo`s impossibly curling free kick, that surely must be one of the best ever struck.

"Learn to Play the Brazilian Way" is a coaching video aimed at young players, which is designed to teach them the tricks of the World Cup winning stars.

Video

The video is presented in 1.78:1 anamorphic widescreen, and is of average quality, with no dirt on the print, but a lack of detail and an image that looks a little over-compressed leading to fuzzy edges. The footage of the Brazilian players is of lower quality again, looking a little blocky at times.

The visuals primarily concentrate on the coaching field, with the coach and some young players demonstrating and explaining the various moves. Some very brief footage of the real players is used whilst explaining the tactics employed.

Audio

The soundtrack is presented in Dolby Digital 2.0, and is of average quality, primarily featuring vocal explanation of the tricks and moves on display. The vocals are clear and understandable at all times.

The documentary footage also has reasonable sound quality and again the interviews and narration are always understandable.

Features

Extras include some documentary excerpts looking at various aspects of Brazilian football, including world cup qualification, the Maracana Stadium and interviews. These are all quite interesting, but I would have preferred the entire documentary to have been included.

The menus are well presented and easy to navigate.

Conclusion

This DVD is well presented and clearly lays out how all the tricks and moves are performed, both with the visuals and the spoken explanations. The video and sound are both average, but more than suitable for the job. i would have liked to have seen longer (and more) clips of the Brazilian player performing the moves instead of the very short clips however.

How much help anyone will get from watching the DVD is open to question, I think that there is no substitution (no pun intended!) for "real" coaching from a "real" coach, but if children can watch the DVD and pick up tricks and moves which help them to improve their game then it is of course beneficial.