In the, um, extremely long time since I last wrote a post on here, I’ve been thinking about our now-former coach, Fernando Diniz, whose six-game tenure in charge of Brazil spiraled down the toilet in remarkable style. A 5-1 debut win against Bolivia was fun but very much expected; following that up a couple days later with a listless performance and a late winner from a corner against Peru was concerning. By the next pair of games a month later, conceding a late equalizer to Venezuela at home and then losing in dismal fashion to Uruguay, the alarm bells were well and truly clanging. Losses in November to Colombia and Argentina added to Diniz’s lists of unfortunate achievements (first time Brazil had lost three qualifiers in a row, first time they’d lost a qualifier at home to Argentina) and sealed his fate. Diniz has a signature style of football, one that, on paper, hews closer to the romantic image of jogo bonito than most Brazil teams of the past thirty or forty years, and that’s why he got the job. With the limited training time afforded to national teams, and with Diniz still coaching Fluminense at the same time (with real success, to be fair)—or maybe just because Diniz was too tactically blind to adjust to changing game states or too wedded to his ideas to temper them with the slightest bit of pragmatism—he couldn’t make it work for Brazil.
Continue readingCategory: Uncategorized (Page 1 of 13)
Fernando Diniz is still, for now, Brazil’s coach, and the comments section under the last post is getting pretty long, so I thought I might as well create a new thread for Fluminense’s Club World Cup campaign.
First up, they have a semifinal against Egyptian club Al-Ahly, who produced a comprehensive and surprising victory over Al-Ittihad, the Saudi club that recently added Karim Benzema, Fabinho, and N’Golo Kanté to its ranks.
Fluminense vs. Al-Ahly
King Abdullah Sports City, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, December 18, 2023
Kickoff: 1:00 PM EST / 3:00 PM BRT / 6:00 PM GMT
Afterwards, they’ll end up in either the final or the third-place match, against either Manchester City or the Japanese club Urawa Red Diamonds.
Club World Cup Final Matches
December 22, 2023
Final: 1:00 PM EST / 3:00 PM BRT / 6:00 PM GMT, King Abdullah Sports City, Jeddah
Third Place: 9:30 AM EST / 11:30 AM BRT / 2:30 PM GMT, Prince Abdullah Al-Faisal Sports City, Jeddah
Brazilian clubs haven’t had the best record of even reaching the final in recent years, nor have CONMEBOL clubs in general. We’re currently on a streak stretching back to 2015 of CONMEBOL clubs only reaching the final in odd-numbered years of the tournament. But this is an odd-numbered year. It’s also the last time the Club World Cup will be played in this weird seven-team format before it’s reborn in 2025 as an every-fourth-year, 32-team summer tournament. While Fluminense, Flamengo and Palmeiras have already qualified for that edition by dint of winning the Copa Libertadores in recent years, it’s probably fair to say that the odds of a Brazilian club reaching the final are about to get substantially lower. This might be the best chance a Brazilian club will have to win it all for a while, even if this Fluminense side don’t look particularly capable of an upset. (I would certainly have tapped Jorge Jesus’ 2019 Flamengo or Abel Ferreira’s 2021 Palmeiras ahead of them.)
Still, right now we’re probably more concerned with how Fernando Diniz will fare, considering how bad his recent outings in charge of Brazil have been. Obviously, breaking the streak and losing in the semifinal would be a further blow to his credibility, but if he ends up leading Fluminense against Manchester City in the final, then reputationally, I think he’s playing with house money. Despite their recent stumbles, it’s hard to argue that City aren’t still the best side of the planet, so any sort of respectable loss to them won’t count as a black mark. And, because they have been stumbling, maybe there’s enough weakness there for Flu to exploit and deliver the Club World Cup to a non-European team for the first time since Tite’s Corinthians beat Chelsea in 2012.
That said, none of this applies if City do get their shit together and wallop Flu by six goals or whatever. That would stain Diniz’s reputation pretty badly. Tactically, it should be an interesting matchup, as Diniz first got notice for his Pep Guardiola-esque possession play before morphing into something a fair bit weirder. Now, he has the chance to face Guardiola himself. (As an intriguing subplot, City have developed a bad habit of losing steam and conceding goals in the last half-hour of games… much as Diniz’s Brazil has been doing in recent months, though less so Fluminense. The last few minutes of this game might get very sloppy.)
For those wondering, it looks like in the US and Canada, the games will be streamed on FIFA’s streaming platform.
Image credit: Tomofumi Kitano, CC BY 2.0 license; image unchanged.
We’re fucked, aren’t we?
Brazil vs. Argentina
Maracanã, Rio De Janeiro, November 21, 2023
Kickoff: 7:30PM EST / 9:30 PM BRT / 12:30 AM GMT
US TV/Streaming: Fanatiz
Likely Starting Lineup: Alisson; Emerson Royal, Marquinhos, Gabriel Magalhães, Carlos Augusto; André, Bruno Guimarães; Martinelli, Gabriel Jesus, Rodrygo, Raphinha.
On The Bench: Lucas Perri, Bento, Renan Lodi, Bremer, Nino, Douglas Luiz, Joelinton, Raphael Veiga, Endrick, Paulinho, Pepê.
Notes And Storylines
Continue readingColombia vs. Brazil
Estadio Metropolitano, Barranquilla, Colombia, November 16, 2023
Kickoff: 7:00 PM EDT / 9:00 PM BRT / 12:00 AM GMT
US TV/Streaming: Fanatiz
Likely Starting Lineup: Alisson, Emerson Royal, Marquinhos, Gabriel Magalhães, Renan Lodi; André, Bruno Guimarães; Raphinha, Rodrygo, Vini Jr, Gabriel Martinelli.
On The Bench: Lucas Perri, Bento, Carlos Augusto, Bremer, Nino, Douglas Luiz, Joelinton, Raphael Veiga, Endrick, Paulinho, Pepê.
Notes and Storylines
Continue readingUruguay vs. Brazil
Estadio Centenario, Montevideo, Uruguay, October 17, 2023
Kickoff: 8:00 PM EDT / 9:00 PM BRT / 12:00 AM GMT
US TV/Streaming: Fanatiz
Likely Starting Lineup: Ederson, Yan Couto, Marquinhos, Gabriel Magalhães, Carlos Augusto; Casemiro, Bruno Guimarães, Neymar; Vini Jr, Rodrygo, Gabriel Jesus.
Bench: Alisson, Lucas Perri, Emerson Royal, Bremer, Adryelson, Guilherme Arana, André, Gerson, Raphael Veiga, David Neres, Richarlison, Matheus Cunha.
Notes and Storylines
Continue readingBrazil vs. Venezuela
Arena Pantanal, Cuiabá, Mato Grosso, October 12, 2023
Kickoff: 8:30 PM EDT / 9:30 PM BRT / 12:30 AM GMT
US TV/Streaming: FuboTV, Universo/Telemundo
Likely Starting Lineup: Ederson, Danilo, Marquinhos, Gabriel Magalhães, Guilherme Arana; Casemiro, Bruno Guimarães, Neymar; Vini Jr, Rodrygo, Richarlison.
Bench: Alisson, Lucas Perri, Yan Couto, Bremer, Nino, Carlos Augusto, André, Gerson, Raphael Veiga, David Neres, Gabriel Jesus, Matheus Cunha.
Notes and Storylines
Continue readingPeru vs. Brazil
Estadio Nacional del Perú, Lima, Peru, September 12, 2023
Kickoff: 10:00 PM EDT / 11:00 PM BRT / 2:00 AM GMT
US TV/Streaming: Fanatiz (pay-per-view)
Likely Starting Lineup: Ederson, Danilo, Marquinhos, Gabriel Magalhães, Renan Lodi; Casemiro, Bruno Guimarães, Neymar; Raphinha, Rodrygo, Richarlison.
Bench: Alisson, Lucas Perri, Vanderson, Roger Ibañez, Nino, Caio Henrique, André, Joelinton, Raphael Veiga, Gabriel Martinelli, Gabriel Jesus, Matheus Cunha.
Notes and Storylines:
Well, I said in my preview of Friday’s game against Bolivia that I hoped new coach Fernando Diniz would serve up some higher-tempo football than Tite routinely did, and I got my wish, along with a rollicking 5-1 win and Neymar finally breaking Pelé’s Seleção goals record. Sure, Tite’s Brazil also scored five goals in both of their home qualifiers against Bolivia, but Neymar missed a penalty in this one, so to paraphrase Jon Bois, it’s really more like six goals Fahrenheit.
Continue readingThe New Guy’s first test.
Brazil vs. Bolivia
Estádio Mangueirão, Belém, Pará, September 8, 2023
Kickoff: 8:45 PM EDT / 9:45 PM BRT / 12:45 AM GMT
US TV/Streaming: Telemundo/Univision (maybe??? who knows???)
Likely Starting Lineup: Ederson, Danilo, Marquinhos, Gabriel Magalhães, Renan Lodi; Casemiro, Bruno Guimarães, Neymar; Raphinha, Rodrygo, Richarlison.
Bench: Alisson, Lucas Perri, Vanderson, Roger Ibañez, Nino, Caio Henrique, André, Joelinton, Raphael Veiga, Gabriel Martinelli, Gabriel Jesus, Matheus Cunha.
Notes and Storylines:
Well, the waiting is over. It’s finally time to see what Fernando Diniz can do with the Seleção. Expectations are high, there’s a lot to be written, and, uh, I once again find myself without a lot of time to write.
So let’s focus on the big stuff. Bolivia at home is the easiest game of the World Cup qualifying cycle, which is probably a good thing. Diniz has many ideas and they’ll take a while to implement (he’s said he’ll be instilling them one at a time over the next few games), so starting out with a good result can buy him some momentum and goodwill.
Continue readingThis week, Neymar left Paris Saint-Germain for the Saudi club Al Hilal on a two-year deal. Reportedly, this contract will see him receive 160 million euros a year. Roll the clip:
I don’t think I need to spend much time explaining to you all how this is Very Bad for pretty much everybody except Neymar and his bank account. The sums of money involved—and the fact that his nine-figure salary makes Neymar only the third-best paid footballer in the world, because the Saudis have splashed so much cash that Kylian Mbappé is now the only European-based player among the top 10 best paid—portend a grim power shift for the global game, as Saudi Arabia looks to leverage its vast oil wealth to launder its human rights abuses and establish itself as a hub for tourism and business. It’s also obviously bad for Brazil’s national team: not only is the guy who’s still pretty undeniably our most gifted player going to be playing in a much less challenging environment, but his mere presence there is likely to help convince other Brazilian stars to leave Europe while still in their prime. (Fabinho and Roberto Firmino preceded Neymar in their moves to the kingdom, but both seem pretty well washed at the highest level anyway. But someone like Alisson?)
It’s also worth noting that by intervening in the civil war in Yemen and establishing land, sea, and air blockades into the country, Saudi Arabia has directly caused a famine that has killed hundreds of thousands of people. But who among us, right?
Continue readingThis is gonna be another short one. It’s real simple: after losing to France in the second group game, Brazil essentially must beat Jamaica to make it to the World Cup round of 16. (There is a scenario where Brazil makes it through with a draw, but this depends on Panama pulling off the greatest upset in World Cup history and beating France.) The good news for Brazil is that this should be very doable. We’ve won both of our previous encounters with Jamaica, including a 3-0 win in the group stage of the last World Cup, and while the transitive property doesn’t really apply in football, we won our group game against Panama far more comfortably than they did. That said, Jamaica only need a draw, and they opened their World Cup with exactly that against France.
If we make it through to the round of 16, perhaps the loss to France won’t have quite so dour repercussions as I thought it would. Colombia are in the driver’s seat to win Group E after their stunning win over Germany, and while they’d be a tough opponent in the round of 16, we have a far better historical record against them than the Germans. And hell, even if we end up facing Germany after all, they just keep piling up surprising losses and we beat them in April—they don’t look nearly as scary as they did just a few days ago.
We’re at the point now where every game could be Marta’s last in a World Cup. The queen herself says this game won’t be it. I just really want to see her score in a sixth straight World Cup.
Brazil vs. Jamaica
Melbourne Rectangular Stadium, Melbourne, Australia, August 2, 2023
Kickoff: 6:00 AM EDT / 7:00 AM BRT / 10:00 AM GMT
Possible Starting XI: Lelê; Tamires, Rafaelle, Lauren, Antonia; Adriana, Luana, Kerolin, Ary Borges; Debinha, Bia Zaneratto.
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