One game Saturday, one Sunday.
Brazil Men vs. Peru
Itaquerão, São Paulo, June 22, 2019
Kickoff: 3:00 PM EDT / 4:00 PM BRT / 7:00 PM GMT
US TV / Streaming: Telemundo, Globo international feed, ESPN+, FuboTV
Likely Starting Lineup: Alisson; Dani Alves (C), Thiago Silva, Miranda, Filipe Luís; Casemiro, Arthur, Coutinho; Everton, Roberto Firmino, Gabriel Jesus.
Brazil Women vs. France
Stade Océane, Le Havre, June 23, 2019
Kickoff: 3:00 PM EDT / 4:00 PM BRT / 7:00 PM GMT
US TV / Streaming: FOX, Telemundo, and their streaming apps
Likely Starting Lineup: Barbara; Letícia, Katheleen, Mônica, Tamires; Formiga, Taysa, Debinha; Andressa Alves, Cristiane, Marta (C)
As has been the case all month, I don’t have time for more than a few brief notes:
We’re not yet assured a place in the Copa América quarterfinals… but the odds of missing out would be vanishingly small. We’d have to lose to Peru and Paraguay would have to beat Colombia and Argentina or Qatar would have to win by a large margin to make up their deficit to us in goal differential (5 for Argentina, 4 for Qatar) and Japan would have to beat Ecuador by enough make up their 7-goal deficit to us.
It’s not going to happen, in other words, but I fully expect Tite, given his approach so far, to take absolutely zero chances and set up the team for a very conservative 0-0 draw. (Regardless of his intent, his decision to drop Richarlison, rather than Roberto Firmino, is baffling and I don’t know what he’s playing at, taking off our only forward who actually knows how to use his body while presumably sticking Gabriel Jesus on the wing again.)
I won’t even get into the math about whether we’d end up first, second, or third in the group and who we might face in the quarterfinals as a result.
The women have a clearer task, but a tougher one. Against the hosts, 538 gives the Brazil women only a 23% chance of going through to the quarterfinals, barely better than Cameroon’s chances against England. There’s definitely a chance, but this was a flawed squad from the get-go and, having escaped an extremely tough group and set new World Cup goalscoring and appearance records for Marta and Formiga, they can hold their heads high even in defeat.
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