Brazil World Cup Team Blog » Road to Africa 2010

Brazil-England Preview

Duvel — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 04:14:19 +0000

Brazil v. England
Khalifa International Stadium, Doha, Qatar
November 14, 2009, 12:00 ET
TV: Fox Soccer Channel, other links

First the injury report. Doni, Juan, Luisão, and Ramires are all injured coming into this match. Yesterday, AC Milan’s Thiago Silva earned a well deserved call-up to replace Luisão. As previously mentioned, Fábio Simplício replaced Ramires. Robinho and Julio Baptista are just coming back from injury and I am not expecting them to be part of the starting XI.

Saturday brings us the highly anticipated match against one of our biggest threats for 2010: England. As almost always with the Seleção, this match is being played outside of Brazil in Doha, Qatar so Nike can attempt to sell kits to the folks in all white pictured above. I am really hoping we get a good look at Michel Bastos, and some of the other newcomers to the team.

England manager Fabio Capello has called a very strong squad, but is without Steve Gerrard, who is battling fitness issues, and Rio Ferdinand, who has been in poor form lately. Liverpool right back Glen Johnson is also out with an injury.

England is a strong side no doubt about it. Wayne Rooney is a world class forward. Frank Lampard is as steady as they come in the midfield. Ashley Young and James Milner have become outstanding players, borderline stars.

I think the loss of Glen Johnson is a big one for them. If Wes Brown gets the likely start at right back he’s going to have a difficult time with whoever is playing left back for Brazil. On the other side of the pitch its the same story. I think Maicon could have a massive day against Wayne Bridge. Long story short, I’m anticipating our wing backs to be very influential in this outcome of this match.

Another thing England will need to prove is their ability to deal with the Brazilian counter attack. I don’t believe England is going to have the pace to successfully neutralize it.

Brazil:

Goalkeepers: Julio Cesar (Inter Milan), Doni (AS Roma)

Defenders: Maicon (Inter Milan), Daniel Alves (Barcelona), Fabio Aurelio (Liverpool), Michel Bastos (Olympique Lyon), Lucio (Inter Milan), Thiago Silva (AC Milan), Juan (AS Roma), Naldo (Werder Bremen)

Update 11/12: Fabio Aurelio is now out with a muscle injury, but Doni is now fit.
Update 11/13: Dunga has added Cris, a defender for Lyon to the team today.

Midfielders: Gilberto Silva (Panathinaikos), Elano (Galatasaray), Julio Baptista (AS Roma), Felipe Melo (Juventus), Josue (VfL Wolfsburg), Lucas (Liverpool), Fábio Simplício (Palermo), Alex (CSKA Moscow), Kaka (Real Madrid)

Forwards: Robinho (Manchester City), Luis Fabiano (Sevilla), Nilmar (Villarreal), Hulk (Porto), Carlos Eduardo (Hoffenheim).

England:

Goalkeepers: Ben Foster, Robert Green, Joe Hart

Defenders: Wayne Bridge, Wes Brown, Gary Cahill, Glen Johnson, Joleon Lescott, John Terry, Matthew Upson, Stephen Warnock

Midfielders: Gareth Barry, Michael Carrick, Tom Huddlestone, Jermaine Jenas, Frank Lampard, James Milner, Shaun Wright-Phillips, Ashley Young

Forwards: Darren Bent, Peter Crouch, Jermain Defoe, Wayne Rooney

Update 11/12: According to ESPN, Frank Lampard is out with a thigh injury he picked up today in training.

Prediction: Brazil 2 – England 1

U-20 Through to the Final

Duvel — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 20:22:13 +0000

They’ll play a solid Ghana team in the World Cup final on Friday. This was a well deserved win for the U20 team, although Costa Rica looked like a very legit side. Alan Kardec scored the game winner, and could have had more on more than a few occasions in this match. Rogério Lourenço has really done a masterful job with this team. They’ll be the clear favorites for the final.

BRASIL 1 x 0 COSTA RICA

Rafael, Wellington Júnior, Dalton, Rafael Tolói, Diogo (Bruno Bertucci), Maylson (Renan), Souza, Paulo Henrique Ganso, Giuliano, Alex Teixeira (Boquita) e Alan Kardec.

Técnico: Rogério Lourenço.

Esteban Alvarado, José Mena, Roy Smith, Pedro Leal, Ricardo Blanco, Diego Madrigal, David Guzman, Daniel Varela, Diego Estrada (Allen Guevara), Josué Martinez e Marcos Urena.

Técnico: Ronald Gonzalez.

Gol: Alan Kardec, aos 21 do segundo tempo.

Cartões amarelos: Diogo, Maylson, Bruno Bertucci, Souza, Giuliano (BRA); José Mena, Pedro Leal, David Guzman, Daniel Varela, Roy Smith (COS).

Estádio: Cairo International Stadium, no Cairo (EGI).

Data: 13/10/2009.

Árbitro: Alberto Undiano (ESP).

Brazil – Venezuela Preview

Duvel — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 16:34:42 +0000

Brazil v. Venezuela

Wednesday, October 14, 17:00 ET Morenão, Campo Grande, Mato Grosso do Sul
TV Link

It’s back to a normal, non-mile high city for the last World Cup qualifier in Campo Grande tomorrow. This is the end of a long, difficult grind the past two years, but one that was ultimately successful.

The last time these two nations played in October of ’08 Brazil easily disposed of the Venezuelans 4-0.
Before their 2-1 loss at Saturday, the Venezuelans had improved their form substantially from last October, playing themselves within striking distance of the World Cup playoff spot. This side had taken points in five straight matches before their trip to Asuncion.

They would need to beat Brazil by a substantial margin, plus have help from Chile in order to still attain fifth place. If they do accomplish this you will know the fix was on in this match to say the least. More realistically, the Venezuelans don’t really believe they have a chance to make up this goal differential, with their manager already talking about preparing for the next Copa America.

Giancarlos Maldonado of Mexican club Atlante is the leading scorer for the Venezuelans during their qualifying campaign. Brazil will need to focus on him to prevent his side from causing too much of a threat.

Although after the Bolivia match I was hoping to see a lot of new faces, Dunga has been indicating that Kaka, Luis Fabiano, and Gilberto Silva will all play tomorrow. I would love to see Sandro, Naldo, and Filipe get a look at some point during this match. All in all, this should be a much more entertaining match than the one we saw over the weekend.

Possible Starting XI: Julio Cesar, Maicon, Luisao, Naldo, Andre Santos, Josue, Gilberto Silva, Dani Alves, Kaka, Nilmar, Luis Fabiano

Prediction: 3 – 1 Brazil

Bolivia – Brazil Recap

Duvel — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 23:40:54 +0000

Apologies for the tardiness of this recap, it was a busy day today. I just found the time to put this together. Basically, and unsurprisingly, yesterday’s match sucked, there was no other way to put it. Its gotta be hard to motivate yourself for a rather meaningless match in a very difficult and exhausting setting due to the altitude.

However for players on the pitch who are fighting for a place on the national team there should have been significant amount of meaning. Even those individuals looked like they did not want to be there whatsoever. The midfield was a disaster right from the start.

Diego Souza must already know he doesn’t have much of a chance at South Africa, and played like it. He was completely invisible in the first half, other than one atrocious attempt at a shot. He was justifiably subbed for at half, with Alex coming on in his place.

Josue….what else can I say about him that already hasn’t been said. He is a nice player for his club team, but is awful for the national team. He gave up fouls in bad spots, and poorly distributed the ball in my opinion. His marking was crap on the first Bolivian goal.

Ramires has continued his steep decline in play since bursting onto the scene in the summer. I feel like he has gotten progressively worse in every single appearance with the team. He had a great run into the box at one point in the match that he followed up with a terrible touch on the ball, too far forward and right into the hands of the keeper.

Adriano reverted to his 2008 form before sustaining an injury that required substitution. Not many strikers would have completely botched a rebound like the one he saw in the first half. He was walking around the pitch in the first half like he had been out there for 120 minutes.

The only person who played well in this match was Nilmar. He was a threat when he received any service from the midfield and scored Brazil’s only goal of the match.

Although this was a disappointing match there are some positives that Dunga can take from this. This was an opportunity to see many players who do not get a regular look. A manager like Dunga should be able to see that guys like Diego Souza, Josue, and Miranda are just not cut out for this. I suspect there will be further changes for Wednesday qualifier against Venezuela. I think we’ll see a more unfamiliar and enthusiastic lineup later this week.

Player Ratings

Julio Cesar, 6, He couldn’t do anything about the first goal, but should have done better on the second. Should that have been saved? Probably not, but he didn’t even see the ball.

Maicon, 6.5, Didn’t make as many runs as he wanted because of the Bolivian attack. Assistant on the Nilmar goal.

Luisao, 6, I thought he was a bit shaky at times, but was not at fault for either goal.

Miranda, 5, Was careless at times and did a poor job marking. Him and Josue’s marking on the first goal off a corner kick was not good.

Andre Santos, 5.5, I wasn’t entirely sure what to make of his performance. He did play with a decent amount of energy, I didn’t think he did anything beyond average though. Was replaced by Elano in the second half.

Ramires, 5.5, He is quickly playing himself off the team.

Josue, 5, Please Dunga no more, please.

Dani Alves, 6, Got off to a slow start, but did much better in the second half. Nearly scored on two occasions.

Diego Souza, 4.5, You barely heard his name while he was on, and when you did it wasn’t for good reasons.

Nilmar, 7, Was very active and energetic, left it all out on the pitch.

Adriano, 5, Poor performance. I know he did not receive a great deal of service, but that botched rebound gets him this rating.

Subs

Diego Tardelli, 6, Was an improvement on Adriano, did not have the greatest touch yesterday though.

Alex, 6, Things started to improve and open up when he came on and settled into the matchf.

Elano, n/a

Remember the U20 team is in the World Cup semis tomorrow at 2:00 ET against Costa Rica. I’ll have the preview of the Venezuela match up tomorrow night.

Rio Wins the Olympics; Juan Out With Injury

Duvel — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 20:45:19 +0000

“The Brazilian people are good, generous and the country deserves it. The world has recognized that the time has come for Brazil.” – Presidente Lula

There is a common saying in Brazil: that Brazil would always be the country of the future. Today was undoubtedly a big step in forever putting that saying to rest. The country has progressed so much in the past fifteen years and today was another affirmation of this. Rio de Janeiro deservingly won the right to host the 2016 Summer Olympics. This is the first time the games will come to South America. Brazil has never won the gold medal in soccer, so this will obviously be a huge goal in seven years.

On a lesser note, Juan has been ruled out of the qualifiers with a hamstring injury that will keep him out action for two weeks. Dunga is most likely not going to call anyone else up as there are a sufficient amount of defenders on the roster, and the team has already been training for next week.

Brazil U-20 0-0 Czech Republic U-20

Duvel — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 03:50:58 +0000

The Under 20 team played a bit of a sleeper earlier today. They need to get a result against Australia on October 3rd to guarantee passage to the next round.

BRASIL 0 X 0 REPÚBLICA TCHECA

BRASIL: Rafael; Douglas, Rafael Tolói, Dalton e Diogo; Souza, Maylson, Giuliano e Paulo Henrique (Douglas Costa); Alan Kardec (Maicon) e Alex Teixeira

Técnico: Rogério Lourenço

REPÚBLICA TCHECA: Vaclik; Hosek, Mazuch, Celustka e Reznic; Moravek, Fabian e Wojnar (Vacha); Hendenreich e Pekhart (Vosahlik)

Técnico: Jakub Dovalil

Local: Estádio Port Said, em Port Said (Egito)

Data: 30 de setembro de 2009, quarta-feira

Horário: 13h45 (de Brasília)

Árbitro: Alberto Undiano (Espanha)

Assistentes: Fermin Martinez e Juan Carlos Yuste Jimenez (ambos da Espanha)

Cartões amarelos: Douglas, Dalton, Rafael Tolói, Giuliano e Souza (Brasil); Hosek, Morasek e Vosahlik (República Tcheca)

Brazil Announces Roster for Under 17 World Cup

Duvel — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 00:47:33 +0000

Today the CBF announced the roster for the Under 17 World Cup. Brazil has won the U-17 World Cup three times, and will have a tremendous chance to do so again next month in Nigeria. The tournament starts October 24th with Brazil’s first match being that day against Japan. The group additionally features Mexico and Switzerland. The full schedule of matches can be found here.

The surprise on this squad is most notably the inclusion of Neymar, who has been compared heavily to Robinho. I thought he had a chance to be on the U-20 roster, which did not materialize, but he was put on this one, despite the fact it’s the middle of the club campaign in Brazil. He features for his club Santos frequently, but was nonetheless released for the World Cup.

Wellington, Dodô, and Philippe Coutinho are the other three players of note on this roster. Dodô and Coutinho’s rights are owned by Manchester United and Inter Milan respectively. Wellington was the star of the South American Under 17 tournament, and has been linked with several big clubs including Arsenal.

Roster:

Goleiros: Luís Guilherme (Botafogo), Alisson (Internacional) e André (Corinthians).

Zagueiros: Gerson (Grêmio), Sidimar (Atlético-MG), Romário Leiria (Internacional) e Guilherme (Atlético-PR)

Laterais: Crystian (Santos), Romário (Vitória) e Dodô (Corinthians).

Meio-campistas: Elivelton (Santos), Carlão (São Paulo), João Pedro (Atlético-MG), Wellington (Fluminense), Philippe Coutinho (Vasco), Zezinho (Juventude) e Neymar (Santos).

Atacantes: Willen (Vasco), Felipinho (Internacional), Geovani (Internacional) e Wellington Silva (Fluminense).

Dunga Names Squad for Bolivia and Venezuela

Duvel — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 21:07:36 +0000

The CBF announced yesterday that Brazil will play England on November 18th. This is part of an older agreement that saw the seleção open Wembley Stadium back in 2007. So basically the CBF and the FA agreed to give Brazil a return match, but God forbid that match is played in Brazil, clearly Qatar makes more sense. As it almost always is the case with the national team, their friendlies are outside the country to basically sell kits for Nike. And if you don’t think Nike has that type of clout explain what the f is happening with this Luis Fabiano commercial.

Another piece of news was Ronaldinho being linked to a move back to Brazil to play for Corinthians. Normally rumors are rumors, but I think this one has legs. Corinthians has the money to pay a player like him, and they are dead set on winning the Copa Libertadores next season. Ronaldinho has gone straight to the bench at AC Milan, and if he is going to have any chance at South Africa he needs to be at a place where he is constantly on the pitch.

Finally, Dunga named the squad today for the last two qualifiers next month. I was surprised to see only two new faces: Naldo and Alex. What does this say about Pato for him not to be called up? To be fair he is a little banged up right now, but would have been healthy by the qualifiers. Some believed Ronaldo had a chance to get called, but clearly that did not happen.

Julio Cesar (Internazionale)

Victor (Grêmio)

Maicon (Internazionale)

Daniel Alves (Barcelona)

Lúcio (Internazionale)

Juan (Roma)

Luisão (Benfica)

Miranda (São Paulo)

Naldo (Werder Bremen)

André Santos (Fenerbahçe)

Filipe (Deportivo La Coruña)

Gilberto Silva (Panathinaikos)

Sandro (Internacional)

Lucas (Liverpool)

Josué (Wolfsburg)

Elano (Galatasaray)

Ramires (Benfica)

Alex (Spartak Moscou)

Kaká (Real Madrid)

Diego Souza (Palmeiras)

Luís Fabiano (Sevilla)

Adriano (Flamengo)

Nilmar (Villareal)

Diego Tardelli (Atlético Mineiro)

U-20 World Cup Roster

Duvel — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 01:25:05 +0000

The Under 20 World Cup starts this week in Egypt. All of the matches will be on ESPN360.com. The tournament opens on Thursday, however Brazil’s first match not is until Sunday. A complete schedule can be found here. Brazil’s group includes Costa Rica, the Czech Republic, and Australia. The defending champion of this tournament is Argentina, who shockingly did not qualify due to their performance at the South American Sub 20.

Many of Brazil’s promising young players were not released for this team since it’s the middle of the domestic season. This means no Sandro, Walter, and Neymar, not to mention players who signed for big clubs like Rafael, Fabio, and Dodo of Manchester United.

The players of note on this squad are midfielders Douglas Costa, who some have billed a left footed Ronaldinho and Giuliano who is a regular starter for third place Internacional. Both are solid players who have bright futures. Their play will heavily determine the fate of this team in Egypt.

Many of these players were on the side that won the Under 20 South American Championship. Forward Alan Kardec played an important role for the squad in that tournament, scoring a pair of goals in Chile. The weak link on the team is at keeper. Renan and Rafael were more than shaky in Chile, and are susceptible to making key mistakes.

Roster:

1 – RAFAEL, 23.06.89, Goleiro, Cruzeiro E.C.

2 – DOUGLAS, 06.08.90, Lateral, Goiás E.C.

3 – DALTON, 05.02.90, Zagueiro, Fluminense F.C.

4 – R. TOLOI, 10.10.90, Zagueiro, Goiás E.C.

5 – RENAN, 09.10.89, Zagueiro, Atl. Paranaense

6 – DIOGO, 30.12.89, Lateral, São Paulo F.C.

7 – ALEX TEIXEIRA, 06.01.90, Meio campo, Vasco da Gama

8 – MAYLSON, 06.03.89, Meio Campo, Grêmio

9 – ALAN KARDEC, 12.01.89, Atacante, Vasco da Gama

10 – GIULIANO, 31.05.90, Meio campo, Internacional

11 – P. HENRIQUE, 12.10.89, Meio campo, Santos F.C.

12 – RENAN RIBEIRO, 23.03.90, Goleiro, Atl. Mineiro

13 – D. COSTA, 14.09.90, Meio Campo, Grêmio

14 – FABRICIO, 20.02.90, Zagueiro, Flamengo

15 – WELLINGTON JUNIOR, 26.06.89, Lateral, Botafogo

16 – BERTUCCI, 27.04.09, Lateral, Corinthians

17 – SOUZA, 11.02.89, Meio Campo, Vasco da Gama

18 – BOQUITA, 07.04.90, Meio Campo, Corinthians

19 – MAICON, 18.02.90, Atacante, Fluminense F.C.

20 – CIRO, 18.04.89, Atacante, Sport C. do Recife

21 – SAULO, 02.04.89, Goleiro, Sport C. do Recife

News and Notes

Duvel — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 16:07:43 +0000

Dunga will annouce his squad for the final set of qualifiers next Thursday, September 24. I would expect a lot of new faces, but how many is anyone’s guess.

Luis Fabiano was linked this weekend to a move in January to Manchester United. Like his “move” to AC Milan…believe it when you see it.

The Champions League group stage begins today. The 32 teams remaining in the competition feature the extraordinary number of 75 Brazilians on their rosters. Below is the list of who is playing for who this week:

Apoel Jean Paulista
Bordeaux Henrique, Fernando Menegazzo, Wendell e Jussiê
Arsenal Denílson* e Eduardo da Silva*
Chelsea Alex, Belletti e Deco*
Atlético de Madrid Paulo Assunção e Cléber Santana
CSKA Moscou Daniel Carvalho e Guilherme
AZ Alkmaar Ari Debreceni Leandro e Vinícius Galvão
Barcelona Daniel Alves e Maxwell
Dínamo de Kiev Betão, Leandro Almeida e Gerson Magrão
Bayern de Munique Breno
Inter de Milan Júlio César, Maicon, Lúcio, Thiago Motta e Mancini
Besiktas Rodrigo Tabata, Márcio Nobre* e Bobô
Juventus Felipe Melo, Diego e Amauri*
Liverpool Diego Cavalieri, Fábio Aurélio e Lucas
Porto Helton, Maicon, Fernando e Hulk
Lyon Cris, Anderson, Michel Bastos e Ederson
Real Madrid Pepe*, Marcelo e Kaká
Maccabi Haifa Tiago Dutra e Gustavo Boccoli
Sevilla Adriano, Renato e Luís Fabiano
Manchester United Fábio, Rafael e Anderson*
Standard Liège Victor Ramos, Felipe, Marcos Camozzatto e Igor de Camargo*
Milan Dida, Thiago Silva, Ronaldinho e Pato
Stuttgart Élson e Cacau*
Olympiacos Leonardo, Dudu Cearense e Diogo
Unirea Ricardo Vilani
Olympique de Marselha Elinton, Hilton e Brandão
Wolfsburg Josué e Grafite