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April 14th, 2009 | By: Duvel | 20 Comments »

It has been a slow week in terms of national team news. Today Alex had an incredible free kick goal against Liverpool. He had one near defensive lapse in the first half, but made up for it with this outstanding strike. Alex continues to make the case for another national team call up and he is more than deserving at this point.

Another player who had a nice Champions League run was Fabio Aurelio. He has settled in as Liverpool’s left back this season, but has not had such an opportunity with the national team. He was one of Liverpool’s few bright spots in their matches against Chelsea. Every person on the planet would rate Aurelio over Kleber or Juan, but not Dunga apparently.

With Adriano not playing for the indefinite future, Globo did a couple of pieces on national team hopefuls Brandão (Marseille) and Grafite (Wolfsburg). In my opinion Brandão has not done enough to deserve a call up. Grafite has had a tremendous season at Wolfsburg, scoring 20 goals in this campaign. However, at the age of 30 he is not a long term replacement for Adriano.

Felipe Melo has been banned for 5 matches following an altercation with Cagliari’s Diego Lopez. This is a blow for his club Fiorentina as they are in a tight race with Roma and Genoa for Serie A’s final Champions League place.

Finally, Shakhtar Donetsk continues their UEFA Cup run this Thursday, up 2-0 after the first leg. In case you have not seen them play, they are led by four Brazilians, Luiz Adriano, Fernandinho, Willian, and Jádson. Ukraine has become a stepping stone for many young Brazilian footballers. Fernandinho was the league’s player of the year last season. Dynamo Kiev has also advanced into the quarterfinals of this tournament with a slew of Brazilians. Many of these individuals could be poised to make jumps to bigger clubs and receive call ups in the near future.

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Comments

By Samuel | April 14th, 2009 at 10:30 pm

Well Presented Post Duvel, i am wondering if Dunga will ever realise that Alex & Aurelio are starting material for this team. them in the lineup with Lucio, Alves, Maicon, Marcelo and T.Silva come 2010 might just be the best crop of defenders in a single squad in W.C History. one player from Ukraine i wanted to bring to your attention was the right midfielder Ilsinho, that guy is phenomenal i dont know if you’re familiar with him or not but he has great dribbling ability and a great eye for goal.

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By Samuel | April 14th, 2009 at 10:40 pm

I hope Dunga uses the Confederations cup to really experiment with his various options in order to build up a strong winning team in 2010. it could also be used at a grand opportunity to hand some like Youngsters like Pato, Anderson, a W.C like International experience. it could be a great time to also figure out his midfield and defence while deciding who he’s gonna replace Adriano with. I just pray and hope that he’s thinking Hulk, Nilmar or Keirrison. i hope Melo’s five game suspension wont harm him.

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By Joel Brown | April 15th, 2009 at 2:33 am

I wrote an article about Shakhtar yesterday on my blog. The problem with Ilinhinso is that he runs into danger too much for my liking against a good team. He’s a bit of a headless chicken in my opinion. Also, I feel Alex would be better then the aging Lucio in defense. The last time I saw Nilmar waswhen he was playing at Lyon and he didn’t impress. Has he got better?

By Samuel | April 15th, 2009 at 6:20 am

yeah Nilmar has improved tremendously since his unsuccessful stint at lyon. he now plays at Internacional in Brazil and most importantly he’s scoring goals.

By Joel Brown | April 15th, 2009 at 8:14 am

Maybe Nilmar should move to the Premiership/La Liga/Serie A/Bundesliga

When Brazilians go to France I dunno most of them don’t play that well I’ve noticed.

Grafite is good. But Dzeko is the striker mastermind at Wolfsburg. I think the long term replacement list should be :

1) Pato – Start him as Adriano has gone AWOL
2) Hulk
3) Kerrison
4) Jo – He is playing alot better at Everton. Mainly thanks to Fellaini. Fellaini is amazing.
5) Brandao
6) Grafite
7) Nilmar

By Duvel | April 15th, 2009 at 9:45 am

Samuel good call on Ilsinho, I completely forgot about him when typing up this post. Its too bad he plays at Brazil’s deepest position, it will be a challenge for him to get national team call ups with so many options at RB, but he’s a great player. Nilmar is still a young player and could have a lot of success in another stint in Europe. Another player I would put on that list is Fred, who is off to a great start at Fluminense. I would put both of them behind Jo on the depth chart.

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By Samuel | April 15th, 2009 at 3:45 pm

with little doubt Duvel, but Ilsinho seems the type that can play at RM also, besides Elano & Thiago Neves who doesnt even get much playing time there little depth in that specific area of the pitch. good call on Fred who seemed to be a player Dunga was keen on utilising when he first started off as manager. I know he went on a sleep decline last year but Dunga snubbing him the way he did was not the best way to take care of the situation at hand.

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By Samuel | April 15th, 2009 at 3:54 pm

Joel Brown, when Brazilians go to france, “i dunno most of them dont play that well i noticed” arguably that can be true looking at how Brazilians suffer when they play the french, for instance 98′ final and 02′ Quarter final games but Fred my friend is one major exception to that norm. for almost 2-3 consecutive years he’s dominated the Ligue1 as top scorer and best player. Only a fallout with Lyons management coupled with Benzema’s rapid rise to prominence caused that cycle to end.

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By Duvel | April 15th, 2009 at 8:00 pm

One other player that started out in France was PSG’s young midfielder Ronaldinho. Juninho also has had a great run at Lyon. But all in all, many players have seen their careers stall in France. I think its more a reflection of the player than the league though. Many of the best young talent is heading directly to bigger clubs, and I think the natural result of that is more average players are heading to countries like France.

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By Joel Brown | April 16th, 2009 at 4:55 am

Hulk didn’t perform to his best yesterday. Gonzalez went off early which, didn’t help Porto either Lisandro should of scored late on. The Quintuple for United it still on

By Hena | April 16th, 2009 at 6:43 am

Joel, there was a Hulk on the pitch yesterda, he was ok, but he certnly wasn’t incedible
Anderson had a strong game and i think he is bcomin more mature. i would love 2 c him and filipe melo contol the brasilo mf at th confds cup. do you guy think it would work?

By Samuel | April 16th, 2009 at 8:59 am

Hena im not too sold on Anderson yet or Lucas Leiva for that matter. for one Anderson is too reliant on him left foot and Lucas well every Liverpool game just passes that lad by. I’d rather see Hernanes get a call up alongside Melo.

By Duvel | April 16th, 2009 at 9:01 am

I think Anderson needs to be become more consistent in general. He was very active yesterday and had a good match. The confederations cup is a good forum to give him a run, but then again we thought the olympics would be, where he was not that great.

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By Samuel | April 16th, 2009 at 9:05 am

And i was not too impressed with Hulk either. he seems to have Adriano bad in game antics.. he often tends to shield the ball in the final third of the pitch way too much but i admired his body strenght and energy. he needs to be more focused to he slipped a lot at times when he could of controled a simple ball.

By Samuel | April 16th, 2009 at 9:09 am

yeah i want to Dunga to give the young guys a good run in the Confed. thats usually where teams comes together & experiment before they enter the World Cup, a great job was done there in 05′ by Parreira but we all know how the 2006 W.C Panned out. Pato should be a regular starter in that competition if Dunga plans to utilize him at all in 2010.

By Joel Brown | April 16th, 2009 at 9:14 am

Maybe try Bobo Devison of Besiktas

By Samuel | April 16th, 2009 at 9:23 am

I dont know much about Bobo, whats he like? a Ronaldo/Pato pace & poise or Adriano/Hulk power and Strenght.

By Kendra | April 16th, 2009 at 12:14 pm

Brazil may be the newest world power. The country already owns at soccer.

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By Kendra | April 16th, 2009 at 12:22 pm

http://www.smudailymustang.com/?p=6275

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By Joel Brown | April 17th, 2009 at 4:49 am

Pato is nothing like Ronaldo imo. Ronaldo is more like Adriano/Hulk. When he was at his best his strong physical presence and skill. Pato is not built enough to have that presence on a game. Bobo is like Pato. His scoring record is impressive.

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