News, analysis, history, and discussion on all things Verde-Amarela

Author: Zetona (Page 3 of 13)

Match Preview: Brazil vs. Croatia (World Cup Quarterfinal)

Now that might have been the spark we needed.

After the loss to Cameroon, I wrote that I expected Brazil to still look tepid in their round of 16 match against South Korea, and that the big, palate-cleansing win we were all hoping for seemed like a distinct improbability. Instead, on the back of a barnstorming first half, we cruised to a 4-1 win with a joyfulness we haven’t often seen from Brazil, especially in World Cup play, for quite some time.

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Match Preview: Brazil vs. South Korea (World Cup Round of 16)

With advancement to the Round of 16 secured after two games, Tite sent out the B team to play Cameroon, and they almost, but not quite, threw away our first-place finish in the group. Black Matt popped up to write a wonderful breakdown of that and the entire group stage, and you should definitely read his much-more-detailed thoughts on the matter, but for what it’s worth, here are my thoughts:

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Match Preview: Brazil vs. Cameroon

Casemiro is a fucking king. Brief thoughts on our 1-0 win over Switzerland:

  • I kind of doubted that Neymar’s absence would be a huge detriment, but it obviously was. As Black Matt pointed out in the comments, I should have remembered that Neymar just sucks up so much attention that his mere presence opens up space for others, even if he’s not doing much himself.
  • I thought Tite made a pretty significant tactical blunder in taking Lucas Paquetá off for Rodrygo at halftime. The “screw the midfield” 4-2-4/4-1-5 has worked pretty well most of the times he’s tried it, but without creative passing to link the defense and the attack, it can get pretty staid. With Neymar injured and Paquetá off the pitch, it was up to Fred and Rodrygo to provide that impetus and they couldn’t, giving up the ball to Switzerland more often in the process. Things improved notably after Bruno Guimarães’ introduction for Fred some 15 minutes later, even though he didn’t have that great of a game. Tite gets some credit for recognizing his mistake quickly and making a new change to reestablish control of the game.
  • One yellow card through two games! And it’s to a player we’d probably all like to see play less! A massive improvement from our disciplinary record in past World Cups, which was already pretty good.

Brazil vs. Cameroon

Lusail Iconic Stadium, Lusail, December 2, 2022

Kickoff: 2:00 PM EST / 4:00 PM BRT / 7:00 PM GMT

US TV/Streaming: FOX / foxsports.com/live ; Telemundo / Peacock

Possible Starting Lineup: Ederson, Daniel Alves, Militão, Bremer, Alex Telles; Fabinho, Bruno Guimarães; Antony, Rodrygo, Gabriel Jesus, Gabriel Martinelli.

Injury and Suspension Report: Neymar (ankle sprain + edema); Danilo (ankle sprain); Alex Sandro (hip). Several players (Neymar, Antony, Alisson, Vini Jr., Paquetá) have reportedly caught some sort of stomach bug that’s going around the group. FIFA protocols do not require that they test for COVID. Nobody is suspended.

Discipline Report: Fred has one yellow card.

Notes And Storylines

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Brazil: A World Cup Preview (+ Brazil vs. Serbia Match thread)

I meant to have some post up sooner than now.

We’re now less than a week three days away from Brazil’s first game at the World Cup, when those of us based in the US will be faced with the hard choice between celebrating Thanksgiving and watching the Seleção take on Serbia. In my head, I wanted to have already written a post responding to Tite’s final squad selection and use this as more of a preview / “what are our chances?” post ahead of that game. Unfortunately, I moved last week, and that kind of took up most of my time.

Anyways, here’s Brazil’s squad for the World Cup. It is still—knock on fucking wood—unchanged since Tite announced it on November 7th. While other teams are seeing star players drop like flies, thus far (keeps pounding on wood) nobody in this actually quite good squad has yet been cut due to injury:

GOALKEEPERS

Alisson – Liverpool (ENG)

Ederson – Manchester City (ENG)

Weverton – Palmeiras (BRA)

FULLBACKS

Alex Sandro – Juventus (ITA)

Alex Telles – Sevilla (ESP)

Dani Alves – Pumas (MEX)

Danilo – Juventus (ITA)

CENTER-BACKS

Bremer – Juventus (ITA)

Éder Militão – Real Madrid (ESP)

Marquinhos – Paris Saint Germain (FRA)

Thiago Silva – Chelsea (ENG)

MIDFIELDERS

Bruno Guimarães – Newcastle (ENG)

Casemiro – Manchester United (ENG)

Everton Ribeiro – Flamengo (BRA)

Fabinho – Liverpool (ENG)

Fred – Manchester United (ENG)

Lucas Paquetá – West Ham United (ING)

FORWARDS

Antony – Manchester United (ENG)

Gabriel Jesus – Arsenal (ENG)

Gabriel Martinelli – Arsenal (ENG)

Neymar Jr. – Paris Saint Germain (FRA)

Pedro – Flamengo (BRA)

Raphinha – Barcelona (ESP)

Richarlison – Tottenham (ENG)

Rodrygo – Real Madrid (ESP)

Vinicius Jr. – Real Madrid (ESP)

Breaking Down The Squad

I wrote what was intended to be a separate post about how this squad compares to Brazil’s recent World Cup teams, much as I did before the 2018 World Cup, an article lost in that year’s infamous site crash. I’m going to start with that before talking about our path to the trophy.

So: is it a good list?

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Match Preview: Brazil vs. Tunisia (Friendly)

Our last game before the World Cup is our second ever against Tunisia.

Brazil vs Tunisia

Parc Des Princes, Paris, France, September 27, 2022

Kickoff: 2:30 PM EDT / 3:30 PM BRT / 6:30 PM GMT

US TV/Streaming: FuboTV, BeinSports Connect 4

Starting Lineup: Alisson, Danilo, Marquinhos, Thiago Silva, Alex Telles; Casemiro, Fred, Lucas Paquetá; Neymar, Richarlison, Raphinha.

On The Bench: Ederson, Weverton, Éder Militão, Ibañez, Bremer, Renan Lodi, Fabinho, Éverton Ribeiro, Bruno Guimarães, Antony, Firmino, Rodrygo, Vini Jr., Pedro, Matheus Cunha.

Notes and Storylines

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Match Preview: Brazil vs. Ghana (Friendly)

Brazil’s penultimate game before the World Cup, and still so many questions to be answered.

Brazil vs Ghana

Stade Océane, Le Havre, France, September 23, 2022

Kickoff: 2:30 PM EDT / 3:30 PM BRT / 6:30 PM GMT

US TV/Streaming: FuboTV, BeinSports Connect 4

Starting Lineup: Alisson, Éder Militão, Marquinhos, Thiago Silva, Alex Telles; Casemiro, Lucas Paquetá; Neymar, Vini Jr., Richarlison, Raphinha.

On The Bench: Ederson, Weverton, Danilo, Ibañez, Bremer, Renan Lodi, Fabinho, Éverton Ribeiro, Bruno Guimarães, Fred, Antony, Firmino, Rodrygo, Pedro, Matheus Cunha.

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Making Sense Of Tite’s Last Callup Before The World Cup

(Well, hi y’all! Sorry for not posting anything for a while. I was planning to write a preview/prediction for this callup, but life got in the way, so I’m just doing this reaction post for now.)

Today, Tite called up the Brazil squad for our last round of friendlies before the World Cup in November—against Ghana on September 23 and against Tunisia on the 27th, both being played in France. And he chose an… interesting mix of 26 players, to say the least. Here they are:

Goalkeepers

  • Alisson – Liverpool
  • Ederson – Manchester City
  • Weverton – Palmeiras

Center-backs

  • Bremer – Juventus
  • Militão – Real Madrid
  • Marquinhos – PSG
  • Ibañez – Roma
  • Thiago Silva – Chelsea

Fullbacks

  • Danilo – Juventus
  • Alex Sandro – Juventus
  • Alex Telles – Sevilla

Midfielders

  • Bruno Guimarães – Newcastle
  • Casemiro – Manchester United
  • Everton Ribeiro – Flamengo
  • Fabinho – Liverpool
  • Fred – Manchester United
  • Paquetá – West Ham

Forwards

  • Antony – Manchester United
  • Firmino – Liverpool
  • Matheus Cunha – Atlético de Madrid
  • Neymar – PSG
  • Pedro – Flamengo
  • Raphinha – Barcelona
  • Richarlison – Tottenham
  • Rodrygo – Real Madrid
  • Vinicius Júnior – Real Madrid
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Match Previews: Brazil vs. South Korea and Japan (Friendlies)

Brazil vs. South Korea

Seoul World Cup Stadium, Seoul, June 2, 2022

Kickoff: 7:00 AM EDT / 8:00 AM BRT / 11:00 AM GMT

US Streaming: BeIN Sports Connect

Starting Lineup: Ederson, Daniel Alves, Marquinhos, Thiago Silva, Alex Sandro; Fred, Bruno Guimarães, Lucas Paquetá; Raphinha, Neymar, Richarlison.

On The Bench: Alisson, Weverton, Éder Militão, Léo Ortiz, Gabriel Magalhães, Guilherme Arana, Alex Telles, Fabinho, Casemiro, Danilo (of Palmeiras), Gabriel Martinelli, Rodrygo, Coutinho, Gabriel Jesus, Vini Jr, Matheus Cunha.


Brazil vs. Japan

Japan National Stadium, Tokyo, June 6, 2022

Kickoff: 6:20 AM EDT / 7:20 AM BRT / 10:20 AM GMT

US Streaming: BeIN Sports Connect


Notes and Storylines

Soooo our plans to make something meaningful of this FIFA date kind of blew up. We were going to play a third game against Argentina, in Australia, on the 11th, but the Argentine federation decided at the last minute that they didn’t want to play—leaving it too late for us to find another opponent, leaving Tite and his staff very upset, and leaving the 50,000 Aussies who’d apparently already bought tickets feeling screwed. And with the fate of that postponed World Cup qualifier between Brazil and Argentina still up in the air—FIFA wants it to be played on September 22nd, but both federations just want to cancel it at this point—we may have to keep dealing with scheduling headaches until the eve of the World Cup.

Anyway. That leaves us with two games this week against teams that, while decent, probably aren’t the sort of opponent we need to be testing our mettle against to make sure we don’t fall once again to the first European opponent we face in the World Cup knockout rounds. So what are these games good for? Well, trying some new things, I guess. And with a pile of first-teamers being rested for Thursday’s game thanks to having just played in the Champions League final, that has resulted in Tite making a few intriguing selections—namely, with Casemiro and Fabinho both getting a rest, Fred and Bruno Guimarães will anchor the midfield together, while Richarlison joins the Neymar-Paquetá-Raphinha front four that kickstarted our recent run of good performances with that 4-1 win over Uruguay.

On the other hand, ugh, I hate having to complain about this once again, but it feels like Tite’s playing it too safe. Sticking to Dani Alves and Alex Sandro as the fullbacks (especially since Tite passed up the opportunity to call up a right-back to replace the injured Danilo)? Sticking to the Thiago Silva-Marquinhos pairing even against the sort of opposition where you could give Gabriel Magalhães a start? This would be a great time to take more risks. That said, maybe I’m being too harsh. It has been a while since Alex Sandro has gotten a chance to start, and he’s clearly still Tite’s first-choice LB even if we all think he sucks. Maybe it’s better to ease Magalhães into things, since he’s only the fourth-choice center-back.

I dunno. I figure these will be fairly easy games, so at the very least I hope we see Magalhães finally get the Brazil cap he somehow still does not have. And that Palmeiras’ promising youngster Danilo gets a little time too. And that we finally get some sort of clarity about who can reliably score goals for this team. Is it Richarlison? Matheus Cunha? Gabriel Martinelli? Gabriel Jesus? Okay, it’s probably not the last one. Last two, really. Quite possibly last three. Sorry, Matheus. Ya gotta stop missing so many sitters for Atlético.

Anyways, prediction time! I think we win these games pretty handily. I’m seeing a 3-0 win over South Korea and a 5-2 win over Japan. Actually, you know what, the Japan thing poses an interesting question. Neymar looooves playing against Japan. With eight goals in four appearances, including the Puskás Award nominee at the top of this post, they’re his favorite prey in a Brazil jersey. But you have to figure Tite will want to also fit Vini Jr. into the starting lineup after his Champions League heroics. How will that work? I’m hoping Ney through the middle, or as a false nine, with VJ on the left, but I think what we actually get will be somehow clunkier—like VJ on the right.

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