This week, the Seleção travels to the United States to face two South American opponents, in the first friendly games since the Copa América triumph.

The U-23 side is also playing, preparing for the Olympics with two friendlies in Brazil, the first one happening this very evening.

Brazil vs. Colombia (Full International)

Hard Rock Stadium, Miami, September 6, 2019

Kickoff: 8:30 PM EDT / 9:30 PM BRT / 12:30 AM GMT

US TV / Streaming: Pay-per-view only (post stream links in the comments and save us all $25)

Likely Starting Lineup: Ederson; Dani Alves, Thiago Silva, Marquinhos, Alex Sandro; Casemiro, Arthur, Coutinho; Neymar, Roberto Firmino, Richarlison.

Available On The Bench:

Goalkeepers: Weverton, Ivan.

Full-backs: Jorge, Fagner.

Center-backs: Éder Militão, Samir.

Midfielders: Fabinho, Allan, Lucas Paquetá.

Forwards: David Neres, Vinícius Júnior, Bruno Henrique.

Copa América starters Alisson (injury), Gabriel Jesus (suspension + injury), and Everton Cebolinha (Tite opted not to call players from teams in the Copa do Brasil semifinals) are not available. For once, nobody had to be cut from Tite’s original squad due to injury, and as far as I know, nobody in the group has any fitness issues that might keep them from seeing the pitch.

Notes And Storylines:

You’ve already noticed it and it’s probably a bit disappointing, but Tite is using basically his regular XI, aside from the players who were unavailable. According to Globo, his intent is to treat the game against Colombia as a final and use what he feels is his strongest starting lineup, and then mix things up against Peru on Tuesday. There’s some sense in that; Colombia have arguably been our most consistently challenging opponents in South America over the past few years, and believe it or not, the last game between Brazil and Colombia decided by a margin of more than one goal was all the way back in 2003. Given that Filipe Luís is being phased out, Alisson, Everton, and Gabriel Jesus are unavailable, and Neymar is back playing, you could argue that this lineup is still sufficiently changed from the one that played in the Copa América that we can still learn something useful. But you can’t help but think that Tite could have been a little bolder about trying a replacement for Thiago Silva, giving Fabinho a chance to start in midfield, or giving someone besides Coutinho a shot.

Having said that…

Neymar is back! Between his injury problems and transfer saga, he’ll be playing in his first match of any kind since June, and, given that he came off injured within the first 20 minutes of his last two games with Brazil, he could play significant minutes for the Seleção for the first time since November. (Knock on wood, of course. Let’s hope he can actually stay healthy for a while now.) Brazil finally demonstrated at the Copa América that they could play convincingly without him, but there’s no arguing that the team is better when he’s part of it. If there is one flaw to Brazil with Neymar, it’s that games tend to start to gravitating around him, such that he ends up being the sole means through which the team tries to attack. Hopefully his return will not disrupt the balance Tite managed to find in his absence. For now, I’m just really excited to watch him play again.

Coutinho is back, too. Tite has made the perplexing choice to keep Coutinho in the starting lineup. At this point, that seems pretty hard to justify. With Neymar out, Coutinho was given the run of the team at the Copa América and did very little with it, and it’s hard to imagine that he’ll be more effective now that Neymar is back. Not only that, Globo has reported that Tite is considering trying Neymar in a central role at some point, but that experiment seems less likely to happen with Coutinho on the pitch than it would if a faster player like Vinícius Júnior were starting. Frankly, I’m a little bemused. Sure, it’s essentially the lineup and formation that just won the Copa América, plus Neymar, but I think most people would agree that Coutinho was the weakest link in that team, and that after failing to deliver in Neymar’s absence, it was high time to try someone new there. Heck, even if putting Neymar in the center straight away wasn’t on the cards for whatever reason, we have plenty of players who could play there, albeit in somewhat different roles: Lucas Paquetá (though he’s struggling for form himself), Arthur, Roberto Firmino as a second striker… even Dani Alves has played there occasionally in recent times.

A chance for Ederson: With Alisson injured, Ederson gets a rare chance to start in goal—so rare that Colombia represent the most difficult opposition he’s ever faced while playing for Brazil. Despite joining Alisson as one of the three nominees for FIFA’s Best Goalkeeper prize this year, Ederson only ever gets to play for Brazil in “easy” games where the second-choice players are given a runout, which means he’s very rarely faced an opponent capable of seriously testing him, and even more rarely been able to play with the first-choice outfielders. The thought of him launching 70-yard-balls to Neymar is mouthwatering.

That said, this entry is mainly here for one reason and one reason only: the insane Sid-from-Toy Story energy Ederson emits thanks to his new haircut.

No TV? This is a new one. Both tomorrow’s game and Tuesday’s match against Peru will only be shown in the US on pay-per view ($25 for each, at least on Verizon). It’s especially annoying because the games are being presented by BeIN Sports, who will be broadcasting a rerun of some Ligue 1 game at 8:30 on Friday. They could totally have put these games on TV if they wanted to, but I guess someone figured there might be more money in making people pay extra for the privilege. If you’re in the US and you’re not happy about paying this much—especially since most of the money will likely line the pockets of the famously corrupt and greedy CBF—please keep an eye out for good streams and post them in the comments when game time comes around.

Meanwhile, you lucky bastards in Canada will be able to watch the game on BeIN Sports, because the fall of the Golden Age of Streaming is slow and piecemeal.

Prediction: Colombia are hard to beat, and harder still to beat resoundingly. We’re sure to see another close game between the two tomorrow night, even with Neymar’s return. Colombia will make things physical (fingers crossed that Neymar won’t end up hurt again), and that tends to cause problems for Arthur and Coutinho. On the other hand, the combination of Richarlison and Firmino up top might be muscular enough to trouble Colombia’s back line in ways they’re not used to from Brazil. Still, the safe bet would be a narrow scoreline. A 2-1 win for Brazil seems reasonable.

Brazil vs. Colombia (U-23)

Pacaembu, São Paulo, September 5, 2019

Kickoff: 8:30 PM EDT / 9:30 PM BRT / 12:30 AM GMT

US TV / Streaming: None (post stream links in the comments)

Likely Starting Lineup: Cleiton; Emerson, Lyanco, Ibañez, Guilherme Arana; Douglas Luiz, Pedrinho, Wendel; Antony, Paulinho, Matheus Cunha.

Available On The Bench:

Goalkeepers: Daniel Fuzato, Lucão.

Full-backs: Guga.

Center-backs: Luiz Felipe, Walce.

Midfielders: Allan, Jean Lucas, Mauro Júnior.

Forwards: Bruno Tabata, Arthur Cabral, Artur.

Left-back Renan Lodi was not given permission by his club, Atlético Madrid, to travel with the squad. Shame, since I imagine the only reason he wasn’t called up to the full national team this time was so that he could help the U-23 side.

New coach André Jardine started well in the role, taking the Olympic team to victory at the Toulon Tournament over the summer. Now his task is to build on that success, taking advantage of some high-quality players who weren’t available to him in France, and get this squad ready for CONMEBOL’s Olympic qualifying tournament in January. The friendlies over the next three months will be a useful bellwether. Recall that this side’s previous coach Carlos Amadeu, when preparing for the South American U-20 Championship, could only manage a string of low-scoring draws in his preparatory friendlies, before his team scored only six goals (and conceded seven) in the nine games of the tournament itself. A few wins, especially hefty ones, should indicate that Jardine is building a more potent side to contest a spot at the Olympics.