Brazil World Cup Blog

2026 World Cup Round of 32: Brazil vs. Japan

June 28, 2026 / Zetona / 0 Comments

In the end, if Brazil’s 3-0 win over Scotland on Wednesday wasn’t spectacular, it was certainly the most comfortable a Brazil win has felt in a while. We pounced on a few catastrophic Scottish mistakes, controlled the game well enough that Scotland had barely had a chance by the time we put the game to bed, and held off their belated revival well enough to secure a second consecutive clean sheet. Neymar even got to make his long-awaited return and didn’t totally look like a husk of his former self! What more could we really have asked for besides some slightly better finishing, or maybe some slightly more favorable refereeing?

Thus ends our group stage, and we now enter the second of what, with this expanded tournament format, feels more than ever like three distinct phases. We had our three group games, in which we only had to do well enough; now come three knockout games which we must all win if we want the final two-game phase that comes guaranteed with reaching the semifinal. This is the most perilous part of the tournament, for the obvious reason of there being no second chances, no third-place game to fall back on, and also because, even if we can take a sober look at this team and say that it has some profound flaws that will make winning this World Cup extremely unlikely, Brazil losing before the quarterfinals under any circumstance will feel like a disaster, and losing in the quarterfinals might still feel like we’ve barely made any progress despite the very expensive hire of Carlo Ancelotti.

Still, things do feel like they’re starting to come together. The team looks more confident with every game. Vini Júnior has been flying slightly under the radar compared to the Messis and Mbappés of the world, but he’s having a stellar tournament, with four goals already and a hand in two others. He joins Ronaldo, Rivaldo (both 2002), Romário (1994) and Jairzinho (1970) as the only Brazilians to score in all three group stage games, and if you believe in these sorts of portents, well, every other time it’s happened we went on to win the whole tournament. Alongside him, Matheus Cunha has already quadrupled his pre-World Cup goal total for Brazil—easy enough to do when you only had one, but he’s certainly picked a fine time to find his scoring boots. Post-2002, every Brazil number 9 has either scored zero (Fred 2014, Gabriel Jesus 2018) or three (Ronaldo 2006, Luís Fabiano 2010, Richarlison 2022) goals. Cunha has allayed my fears that he’d be stuck on the former number; let’s see if he can now surpass the latter number too.

Beyond them, Bruno Guimarães has quietly had a stellar tournament too, with three assists and some invaluable contributions while pressing. Lucas Paquetá has been a bit more mixed, but when he’s on it he’s played some gorgeous passes forward that should have resulted in more than his singular assist. (He had a hand in at least two more goals by my count.) Rayan has more than a little bit of newly-birthed-foal clumsiness to him, but his size and strength have already been an impressive asset and Raphinha may find it hard to return to the starting XI once he’s recovered from his injury. While I have concerns about Casemiro and whoever we play at right-back, the defensive side of the team has generally been very capable and played like it, and as the team’s game plan becomes ever more coherent it seems like they’re starting to figure out how to minimize the vulnerability of those weak sectors.

That said, now we face a team that should give us some unique challenges.

Ah, he was so young back then, so free of chronic injuries 🥲

2026 World Cup: Brazil vs. Scotland

June 23, 2026 / Zetona / 0 Comments

I think it’s fair to expect that the side that goes on to win this World Cup will have done so by leaving a little something on the table at every opportunity. With a longer route to the final than ever before, in a particularly hot and humid part of the world, after a club season that only gets more oversaturated every year, it is extremely prudent to save your players’ bodies whenever you’re afforded a chance to do so. The wise course of action, in a vacuum, is not to run an extra 10 kilometers in the process of turning a three-goal victory into a six-goal victory. (Although, in practice, there isn’t much correlation between covering more ground and actually winning, or even winning comfortably.) The energy saved and wear and tear avoided could mean the difference in a later game between a key player coming off hurt or not, or even just having the wind for one last crucial sprint.

In that context, the second half against Haiti makes a lot of sense. Having gone 3-0 up at the half, we took our foot completely off the gas after the break, to the point where even the injection of vigor and desperation to score of Endrick, Rayan, and Gabriel Martinelli could only rarely puncture the team’s dogged insistence on doing as little as possible. I’d ragged in my review of the Morocco match about how much if at all Brazil should even be trying to press, and Carlo Ancelotti responded with a little demonstration of what happens when we totally refuse to do so.

Reader, it’s not fun. It worked, sure, in some sense—Haiti put us under a surprising amount of pressure, and tested Alisson more than Morocco had managed to, but the defense bent without breaking and we held on to the clean sheet. Haiti have improved a lot, but had we continued in the second half like we’d finished the first, I don’t think it’s unreasonable to say that we might well have ended up putting five, six, even seven goals past them like in our last encounter a decade ago. But if the energy we saved by not scoring those extra two, three, four goals against them pay off with two, three, four goals down the line that help us clinch crucial knockout stage wins, then, well, obviously it’s worth it.

But it was still extremely frustrating to watch. We’ve all watched Brazil play badly before, plenty of times, but I think this one was especially aggravating because it was so clearly a choice. After creating two goals by winning the ball high up the pitch in the first half, the degree to which we sat deeper and let the ball carrier come to us was painful. Or maybe that’s just what I wanted to see, because the truth, that this Brazil team is so inept that they can’t keep Haiti from getting a substantial foothold in a game, is too painful to face. After all, there was a reasonable case to make that a big win over Haiti would help us win the group over Morocco on goal difference. Although as the bracket begins to shake out, it’s not clear how much that will matter. Whether we finish first or second, we face one of the Netherlands or Japan in the round of 32, and both those teams look scary right now. Hell, the longer I look at this bracket, the more it seems like finishing second might actually be somewhat advantageous? Finish first and we’re setting up for a potential quarterfinal against England as opposed to France/Germany for finishing second, but if we get past that (big if) the strongest team left on the finishing-second side for the semifinal would be Spain, and I have to say, I think it’s more likely that someone manages to knock them off before then than that anyone does so to Argentina on the other side.

Shit, I hope someone smarter than me in the Seleção technical staff has gamed this out. Ultimately, a lot of this all comes down to faith in whether the extremely pedigreed coach we hired at great expense to hammer a relatively untalented and extremely disorganized team into something that could contend for a World Cup has the sort of plan for this tournament that we all hope he does.

Anyways, Scotland. I’m not going to dive deeper into the Haiti game like I did with Morocco, because this game was a lot more routine and also I was sober while watching it this time.

2026 World Cup: Brazil vs. Haiti

June 18, 2026 / Zetona / 0 Comments

Folks, I have a confession to make: I was in a good mood after the Morocco game on Saturday.

I know, I know. The sky-is-falling reactions extended well beyond our own small and sometimes pessimistic community. Lots of people saw Brazil make countless sloppy giveaways and struggle to get anywhere near Morocco’s passing moves and assumed the worst about our World Cup chances, but I can’t say I did. Blame the fact that I had guests over for the game and was a couple of caipirinhas deep by its end, or blame the Knicks for winning the NBA championship later that night and sending all of New York into an infectious good mood. Either way, I felt all right about things after the game, and in the moment, this was my reasoning:

– The Seleção historically starts a little slow in their first game of the World Cup. On top of that, they’d never before opened their tournament with a game against a top-four team from the previous edition. (In 2002, they opened against Turkey, who would go on to finish third, but had absolutely no previous World Cup pedigree; they hadn’t qualified since the 1950s.)

– A draw still very much leaves Brazil with a good chance of winning the group. It may well come down to which team can rack up a bigger goal difference against Haiti and Scotland, and while this game reinforced wider doubts about the team, I do think we have the talent to beat up on lesser teams.

– This team is still very much a work in progress. Although Morocco very recently replaced their coach, even more recently than us. But they at least have the benefit of much more coherent planning from their federation, don’t they?

– Also, uh, it was really hot, I think the hottest game of the first round so far. That makes things harder, right?

Anyways, I figured I should watch the game again, to see if the doomerism on here was justified or whether my rosy outlook actually owed to something other than drinking a bunch of rosé. (I didn’t actually drink rosé, but the pun was right there.) So I did that, and here are my thoughts…

2026 World Cup: Brazil vs. Morocco

June 12, 2026 / Zetona / 0 Comments

IT IS HERE. The World Cup. The biggest, greediest, most bloated, most extortionate, possibly most confusing, though probably not the most outright evil (yet), World Cup in history.

To say that people are excited would be an overstatement. Here in New York City, a place perhaps best known as the partial namesake of the world-famous New York New Jersey Stadium that will host the final, some bars have put up little flags and streamers, many of which got shredded in a weekend storm, and my local CVS has some World Cup merch. I did see this slightly creepy bust of Lionel Messi in the window of the West 34th Street Macy’s, at least:

Okay, that last paragraph is slightly unfair. Today, the first day of the World Cup itself, I started seeing a fair few people in Manhattan wearing national team gear, and I definitely saw more Brazil shirts than any other. (Though the Knicks are lapping everybody else in the apparel department, especially after that Game 4.) And now that the first games have started, I can’t help but start getting into the spirit of things, even with all the bullshit surrounding the tournament. (That’s how they get you!)

It’s just two days (maybe less by the time you read this) until Brazil’s opener against Morocco, which is being played at that very New York New Jersey Stadium, so close to me and yet so far away (not just because getting there from the city is a fucking nightmare, but because the cheapest ticket I’m seeing on the FIFA website right now is going for $1,384). Since I last checked in, Brazil won their final preparatory friendly against Egypt, a 2-1 win that included a bunch of encouraging signs (a ton of chances created, Endrick’s first Seleção goal for two years) and saw a few old concerns bubble up (we missed a lot of those chances, and Egypt’s goal was the product of yet another defensive fuckup). I’ve already made most of my thoughts on our situation clear, I hope, but I’d like to cover a few last questions and concerns before our debut at the tournament itself.

Before anything else, an up-to-date look at the squad:

The World Cup Looms Over This Match Thread For Brazil vs. Egypt (Friendly)

June 6, 2026 / Zetona / 0 Comments

This is it: Brazil’s last game before the World Cup. One last chance to try new things without their failure causing an immediate crisis. One last chance to test the team’s approach to the Morocco game against an ostensibly comparable opponent.

Brazil vs. Egypt

Huntington Bank Field, Cleveland, Ohio, USA, June 6, 2026

Kickoff: 6:00 PM EDT / 7:00 PM BRT / 10:00 PM GMT

US TV/Streaming: ESPN Deportes, ESPN Unlimited (which I can’t believe they have the gall to charge thirty fucking dollars a month for)

Likely Starting XI: Alisson; Wesley, Marquinhos, Léo Pereira (Gabriel Magalhães), Douglas Santos; Casemiro, Bruno Guimarães; Lucas Paquetá, Igor Thiago, Vini Júnior, Raphinha.

On The Bench: Ederson, Weverton; Bad Danilo, Bremer, Alex Sandro; Good Danilo, Fabinho; Rayan, Endrick, Luiz Henrique, Gabriel Martinelli, Matheus Cunha.

Unavailable: Neymar, possibly Gabriel Magalhães (fatigue).

Notes and Storylines

HE’S BAAAaaaaAAAaaaaAaaack… I guess…

May 30, 2026 / Zetona / 0 Comments

Did you hear? On May 18, Carlo Ancelotti announced the 26 players who will represent Brazil at the World Cup:

Goalkeepers: Alisson (Liverpool), Ederson (Fenerbahçe), Weverton (Grêmio).
Defenders: Alex Sandro (Flamengo), Bremer (Juventus), Bad Danilo (Flamengo), Douglas Santos (Zenit), Gabriel Magalhães (Arsenal), Ibañez (Al-Ahli), Léo Pereira (Flamengo), Marquinhos (PSG), Wesley (Roma).
Midfielders: Bruno Guimarães (Newcastle), Casemiro (Manchester United), Good Danilo (Botafogo), Fabinho (Al-Ittihad), Lucas Paquetá (Flamengo).
Forwards: Endrick (Lyon), Gabriel Martinelli (Arsenal), Igor Thiago (Brentford), Luiz Henrique (Zenit), Matheus Cunha (Manchester United), Neymar (Santos), Raphinha (Barcelona), Rayan (Bournemouth) e Vini Jr. (Real Madrid).

There are plenty of questions one could raise. For instance, why are there so many Flamengo players? If Bad Danilo’s justification for inclusion is veteran presence and some shred of versatility rather than his actual ability, surely it would be better to select Thiago Silva, still a much better defender, as the veteran presence and trust that any one of the three other players in the squad with experience at right-back could do at least as good a job as a washed-up almost-35-year-old? Given that several other players (Bento, João Pedro, Andrey Santos) were cut at the last minute seemingly due to poor club form coupled with a lack of Seleção performance, does Gabriel Martinelli’s goal against Croatia in March make up for the fact that he’s lost his starting spot for Arsenal and the only top-flight club side he’s scored against in 2026 was from Kazakhstan? Surely, surely, we can squeeze a sixth midfielder into the squad, you know, just in case playing four up top ends up leaving us colossally outmatched in midfield in a crucial game? Do we really want to rely on Fabinho to cover for Casemiro when he inevitably gets suspended for a knockout game? Why didn’t the technical staff use my absolutely flawless wishlist for reference?

But forget all those questions, because there’s only one thing on everybody’s lips. That’s right, ladies and gents. NEYMAR IS BACK!

Or, uh, well.

Thus far, Neymar’s selection has gone about as badly as it could have. The cheers and chants of “Neymar, Neymar” when his name was announced were a tad embarrassing, whether they were from journalists or just fans in attendance. What was reported ahead of the callup as a minor edema in his calf soon got upgraded to a grade 2 tear with a minimum recovery time of two to three weeks. Not only did this spark a fresh controversy over whether Santos had hidden the nature of his injury in order to help secure his selection, it means that, having already not played for the Seleção since November 2023, Neymar will miss both of Brazil’s preparatory friendlies, all of the training time in between, and may not be available for the World Cup opener against Morocco. Amidst all this, he was the very last player to report to training camp, showing up in his unbelievably expensive custom helicopter, and with the blessing of his teammates has been given the number 10 shirt.

Frankly, the whole saga has made me deeply pessimistic. The Neymar of old was absolutely deserving of the number 10 shirt, and absolutely worth keeping in the team even if it wouldn’t be clear when and if he’d be fit enough to play. That is the Neymar all those cheering fans and journalists, and his fellow players, remember and hope to see again. But at this point, I see that Neymar as almost the object of a cult that can’t accept that that player may no longer exist. They attribute the man powers he no longer has. They allow him indulgences, like the helicopter thing, that were already excessive when he was one of the best players in the world. They refuse to see that even if Neymar heals with no further setbacks and is listed as fit for the Morocco game, it’s vanishingly unlikely that, having not played for Brazil in years, having never trained under Ancelotti before the World Cup itself, and playing cautiously given the risk of hurting his failing body yet again, he will be able to contribute anything at all—not even anything of note. I think it’s very possible that he doesn’t even see the field for Brazil at any point this summer. Perhaps at most he gets a few courtesy minutes at the end of what will hopefully be a blowout win over Haiti, and he may well not be fit enough even for that.

And, yes, I know I just advocated for his inclusion in my last column, and the reasons I gave there are part of why, even now, I’d wait a bit before cutting him. We can cut injured players until June 12, 24 hours before the Morocco game, and if we’ve committed this far, we might as well wait a little longer. Whoever we brought in to replace Neymar would also be a fringe element of the squad, and while there are a couple of players I might like to see brought in, it’s doubtful they could have any more impact on Brazil than could Neymar. Plus, perhaps someone else might have to be cut and thus open the door for the likes of Éderson or João Pedro.

And, I dunno, maybe I’ve gotten a little of the cult Kool-Aid on me. Anyways, we play Panama at the Maracanã tomorrow before setting off for the US, where we play one more preparatory friendly next Saturday against Egypt. For those interested, Brazil will be based in northern New Jersey, training at the NY Red Bulls training facility in Morristown. Given I haven’t managed to get tickets to any of their World Cup games yet (i.e. I’m not willing to pay nine-hundred-plus dollars for the privilege), I may try and cheer them on in training instead.

Brazil vs. Panama

Maracanã, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil, May 31, 2026

Kickoff: 5:30 PM EST / 6:30 PM BRT / 11:30 PM GMT

US TV/Streaming: None

Starting XI: Alisson; Wesley, Bremer, Léo Pereira, Alex Sandro; Casemiro, Bruno Guimarães; Matheus Cunha, Raphinha, Vini Junior, Luiz Henrique.

Unavailable: Neymar, Gabriel Magalhães, Gabriel Martinelli, Marquinhos. (The former is injured; the latter three just played in the Champions League final.)

Prediction: Panama have sprung the occasional surprise in CONCACAF, and our last two friendlies against them ended in scores of 1-1 and 2-0, so another 2-0 win seems like a safe prediction, but frankly, I hope we’re starting the World Cup push with enough pizzazz to at least score three or four goals in this one.

Preview: 2026 World Cup Squad Announcement

May 16, 2026 / Zetona / 0 Comments

This coming Monday, May 18, at 5:45 PM Brasília time (4:45 PM Eastern), Carlo Ancelotti will call up the 26 players who will represent Brazil at this summer’s World Cup in North America.

Below, per Globo, is the 55-man list from which he will select his final squad. The only surprises in here are pretty minor, I’d say, and anyone whose inclusion raises some eyebrows probably doesn’t have much of a chance of making the final squad anyway: Lucas Beraldo missing out to the likes of Natan is a bit of a curveball, Gabriel Jesus has returned to the broader picture out of absolutely nowhere, and Thiago Silva’s inclusion is actually a pleasant development.

Below the list, you’ll find my own 26-man World Cup squad I’d call up out of these 55 players.

Goalkeepers

Alisson (Liverpool)
Bento (Al-Nassr)
Ederson (Fenerbahçe)
Hugo Souza (Corinthians)
John (Nottingham Forest)
Weverton (Grêmio)

Defenders

Alex Sandro (Flamengo)
Alexsandro Ribeiro (Lille)
Bremer (Juventus)
Carlos Augusto (Inter de Milão)
(Bad) Danilo (Flamengo)
Douglas Santos (Zenit)
Fabricio Bruno (Cruzeiro)
Gabriel Magalhães (Arsenal)
Ibañez (Al-Ahli)
Kaiki Bruno (Cruzeiro)
Leo Ortiz (Flamengo)
Leo Pereira (Flamengo)
Luciano Juba (Bahia)
Marquinhos (PSG)
Natan (Betis)
Paulo Henrique (Vasco)
Thiago Silva (Porto)
Vitinho (Botafogo)
Vitor Reis (Girona)
Wesley (Roma)

Midfielders

Andreas Pereira (Palmeiras)
Andrey Santos (Chelsea)
Bruno Guimarães (Newcastle)
Casemiro (Manchester United)
(Good) Danilo (Botafogo)
Ederson (Atalanta)
Fabinho (Al-Ittihad)
Gabriel Sara (Galatasaray)
Gerson (Cruzeiro)
João Gomes (Wolverhampton)
Lucas Paquetá (Flamengo)
Matheus Pereira (Cruzeiro)

Forwards

Antony (Betis)
Endrick (Lyon)
Gabriel Martinelli (Arsenal)
Gabriel Jesus (Arsenal)
Igor Jesus (Nottingham Forest)
Igor Thiago (Brentford)
João Pedro (Chelsea)
Kaio Jorge (Cruzeiro)
Luiz Henrique (Zenit)
Matheus Cunha (Manchester United)
Neymar (Santos)
Pedro (Flamengo)
Raphinha (Barcelona)
Rayan (Bournemouth)
Richarlison (Tottenham)
Samuel Lino (Flamengo)
Vini Jr (Real Madrid)

The Squad I’d Pick

Match Preview: Brazil vs. Croatia (Friendly) (plus thoughts on that France game)

March 31, 2026 / Zetona / 0 Comments

Apparently, Bruno Fernandes is having one of the best seasons of passing in the history of the Premier League. The stat guys say his numbers are the best in the league, he just broke David Beckham’s club record for most assists in a season, and he’s only four assists off the all-time Premier League record with seven games remaining.

I would not have believed this, because every time I see Bruno in a highlight, it seems to be him throwing away a promising break by shooting from 30 yards out rather than passing to an open teammate.

I wrote those paragraphs right after watching Brazil’s loss to France on Thursday, and only just came back to them this Monday evening, finding myself wondering just what exactly I was going on about. Something about, at least Bruno is posting good stats behind the scenes even if he’s taking these moronic low-percentage shots every time I glance up at him, and it’d be nice if Brazil could at least back up their own moronic low-percentage shooting like that?

But then I actually looked at the stats (Brazil is on the left in the screenshot below), and, well, I’ll be damned:

So what’s the lesson here? Is it that Brazil were secretly better than the eye test showed against France? Is it that statistics are a mixed bag that can color and sometimes even change the narrative built around the game? Or is it that fancy metrics are bullshit, the eye test is all that really matters, and Bruno Fernandes is in fact an infuriating ball hog?

Right now, I lean towards the latter, and not just because it lets me keep hating on Bruno Fernandes.

Brazil’s performance against France was… not good. I wrote in my big 2026 preview that Carlo Ancelotti’s coaching tenure was already showing some worrying signs, and they were all very much on display on Thursday. He continues to insist blindly on the same 4-2-4 as his predecessors, cramming all our star attackers into the lineup with no thought to how they’ll combine with each other. The intensity and quality of play is extremely inconsistent at best. The defense still makes at least one catastrophic error per game. He’s already picked favorites, and made some troubling picks; he revealed today that he appears to have bet his entire life savings on Danilo Will Come Good Island rising from the waves and becoming a prime resort destination.¹

All of this would be at least somewhat excusable if the team were playing well, or at least winning games like these, but that’s not happening! France went down to ten men and then nonchalantly tore through Brazil like it was nothing. If not for Les Bleus’ own tendency, I’m sure very annoying to their fans, of only playing up to their incredible talent level for what feels like five total minutes a game and then walking around in second gear for the rest, we could have had a much more embarrassing scoreline. We only really stepped up in the final few minutes, with Bremer scoring a nice goal (the other Danilo, now officially christened Good Danilo, created that chance and was one of the few bright spots for Brazil) and nearly assisting a would-be last-second Vini equalizer, and even then the team was listless, disorganized, incoherent, its star players lacking any understanding with or confidence with each other or anything except their own ability to charge into the teeth of the defense and lose the ball (mainly talking about you here, Vini) and its lesser lights getting completely obliterated by Kylian Mbappé. (Seriously, how is Léo Pereira that slow? Bremer isn’t exactly fast, and yet Pereira ended up at least twice as far away from Mbappé as he did.²)

The question is: will anything change against Croatia?

Brazil vs. Croatia

Camping World Stadium, Orlando, Florida, USA, March 31, 2026

Kickoff: 8:00 PM EST / 9:00 PM BRT / 12:00 AM GMT

US TV/Streaming: ESPN Deportes

Starting XI: Bento, Ibañez, Marquinhos, Léo Pereira, Douglas Santos; Casemiro, Good Danilo; Luiz Henrique, Matheus Cunha, João Pedro, Vini Jr.

On The Bench: Ederson, Hugo Souza; Bad Danilo, Kaiki, Bremer, Vitor Reis (called up Friday); Andrey Santos, Gabriel Sara, Fabinho; Endrick, Igor Thiago, Gabriel Martinelli, Rayan. (Raphinha and Wesley out injured.)

Match Preview: Brazil vs. France (Friendly)

March 26, 2026 / Zetona / 0 Comments

Brazil vs. France

Gillette Stadium, Foxboro, Massachusetts, USA, March 26, 2026

Kickoff: 4:00 PM EST / 5:00 PM BRT / 8:00 PM GMT

US TV/Streaming: ESPN2, ESPN Deportes

Starting XI: Ederson; Wesley, Ibañez, Léo Pereira, Douglas Santos; Casemiro, Andrey Santos; Raphinha, Matheus Cunha, Vini Júnior, Gabriel Martinelli.

On The Bench: Bento, Hugo Souza (replaces Alisson); Kaiki (replaces Alex Sandro), Bremer, Danilo (Flamengo), Marquinhos out vs. France, Gabriel Magalhães cut for injury and not replaced; Danilo (Botafogo), Gabriel Sara, Fabinho; Endrick, Igor Thiago, João Pedro, Luiz Henrique, Rayan.

Pictured: two World Cup heroes in the making, maybe?

Where Is Brazil Heading Into 2026?

February 22, 2026 / Zetona / 0 Comments

It is February 2026, and the Brazil national team slumbers still through international football’s comically long (northern hemisphere) winter hibernation. The memories of the Seleção’s last games in November have begun to fade; it is still a little too early to be thinking too hard about the upcoming end-of-March games against France and Croatia. And yet, it is beyond time to be worrying about what the heck will happen at the World Cup in June.

More so than in the leadup to any other World Cup I can remember, it is wildly unclear what, if anything, we should expect from Brazil this summer. The entire cycle since Qatar 2022 has been an unmitigated disaster, with the scandal-ridden CBF administration thrusting one incompetent coach after another into the Seleção job¹ to the tune of several historic losses—right up until, somehow, just before his rampant corruption and comical mismanagement finally toppled him, federation president Ednaldo Rodrigues actually managed to sign Carlo Ancelotti as Brazil’s new coach.

Signing one of the best coaches of the 21st century understandably lifted the general mood. Brazil’s results have improved since Ancelotti took over, the team officially qualified for the World Cup with games to spare (though things might still have been hairy if not for the expansion of the World Cup to 48 teams, which increased the number of automatic qualifying spots in CONMEBOL from four to six), and the draw put us in a very winnable group with a potentially clear path through the knockout rounds until (checks notes) oh great, a possible quarterfinal rematch with Croatia.

But I want to delay worrying about that for just a little longer. Instead, I’ll be kicking off 2026 by digging into the current state of the Seleção and the burning questions still surrounding the team ahead of the World Cup.

And what better place to begin than:

So how is Carlo Ancelotti doing?

Is it fair to feel a bit concerned?