Rivaldo betrays Brazilian magic

Brazil 2 Turkey 1

Brazil launched their quest for a fifth World Cup in a South Korean smog last night with a victory that contained more than a modicum of the magic their admirers feared belonged in the mists of time. Rivaldo, whose penalty completed their recovery with three minutes remaining, conjured most of it. Sadly for football, and for Turkey, the former world player of the year also showed the Brazilian game's cynical side.

In stoppage time, as Rivaldo waited to take a corner, Turkey's Hakan Unsal kicked the ball at him from 10 yards away. It was struck, in an apparent protest against what the Blackburn defender saw as time-wasting, without any great venom. Rivaldo was unmistakably hit on the thigh, yet he fell clutching his face as if his nose had been bitten by Mike Tyson.

The Korean referee, who had rightly sent off Aston Villa's Alpay Ozalan for the foul which led to the winning goal, appeared unsure as to what had caused Rivaldo to lie writhing on the turf. After consulting the linesman, who had been mere feet away from the incident, he raised a second yellow card and then the red to Hakan Unsal.

Rivaldo shamelessly rose to his feet and moments later he was high-fiving colleagues and trading tops. His behaviour would have been depressing in any game, but to tarnish this hugely entertaining contest – in which his rival No 10, Yildiray Basturk, underlined his potential to become one of the shirt's revered wearers – in its dying seconds was unforgivable.

The Barcelona midfielder may not escape punishment from Fifa, for there are precedents for the world governing body using video evidence to discipline players during the finals. Afterwards, he did not attempt to deny what billions had witnessed on television but appeared unrepentant. "I think he deserved to be sent off," Rivaldo said. "Of course he didn't get me in a place where I could be hurt. But you don't do the sort of thing he did so he deserved the sending-off."

The Turkish camp was understandably outraged. "We took control of the game," said their coach, Senol Gunes, somewhat fancifully, "but we couldn't control the referee." Emre Belozoglu, a colleague of Ronaldo's in Milan, spoke for the team, saying: "When Rivaldo fell over after the ball hit his leg, he was holding his face. Is that normal? He is an actor."

It should also be noted that the referee erred in awarding the penalty in that Luizão was well outside the 18-yard area when Alpay pulled him down. That said, Brazil fully deserved to start their Group C schedule with three points. Despite having to send home their captain, Emerson, after a bizarre training-ground injury on the eve of the match, they showed that they retain the capacity to excite in a way that few, if any, other nations can match.

Ronaldo, although portlier than in France 98 after several long injury lay-offs, worked selflessly before tiring and giving way to Luizão. With the sharpness that will surely come as the tournament progresses, he would have had more to show than the equaliser he scored shortly after half-time. But it was Rivaldo who did most to send spirits soaring – the true upholder, or so we thought until he added insult to injury time, of the legacy of Pele and Tostão.

That he and his colleagues were made to work so hard for the spoils was largely because of the excellence of Turkey's goalkeeper, Rustu Recber. Time and again he swooped to smother wickedly swerving shots or to parry headers that looked certain to add to the unusually large haul of such goals in this competition. How bitterly ironic, then, that Rustu's first mistake, a miskicked clearance to Luizão, led to both the decisive goal and a colleague's dismissal.

Rustu's best save came in the 39th minute when he changed direction to keep out a textbook downward header by Rivaldo. And when the lightweight tournament ball moved in the air, his agility made it look as if he were fielding a medicine ball. Drawing confidence from his defiance, Turkey almost scored midway through the first half when Tugay Kerimoglu's shot took a deflection off Gilberto Silva and brushed the bar.

Even so, Luiz Felipe Scolari's much-criticised defence looked compact and it was against the run of play when the Turks went ahead with a beautifully crafted goal seconds before the break. Basturk was born in Germany of Turkish migrants and plays in the Bundesliga. However, the angled pass that he drifted over the heads of several defenders to pick out Hasan Sas for a sweetly struck volley would have graced any Brazilian playmaker.

The lead was short-lived. Five minutes into the second half, the former Middlesbrough player Juninho produced one of the better passes of a patchy display to release Rivaldo on the left. His cross caught Hakan Unsal ball-watching as Ronaldo stretched to divert it beyond Rustu, and Turkey's resistance finally ended when Rivaldo's penalty carried just enough power to prevent the keeper from redeeming his error.

Brazil 2
Ronaldo 50, Rivaldo pen 87

Turkey 1
Hasan 45