In case you missed it, Brazil officially qualified for the men’s soccer tournament at this summer’s Tokyo Olympics after a lengthy CONMEBOL Pre-Olympic Tournament campaign that briefly looked like it was going to blow up in our faces. After a strong start in the first group stage, where we won all four games and played some very nice football, we could only draw our first two games in the four-team final round, leaving us needing a win against Argentina, to that point the only team to have won all their games, to secure qualification for the Olympics. But despite shaky performances in our previous two games, we stepped up when it mattered (and perhaps Argentina, having already secured their place in Tokyo, took it a bit easy), and we produced a stellar, completely dominant performance in a 3-0 win that could’ve been twice that big.

There’s plenty of reason to celebrate. Coach André Jardine has done a good job with this team, getting them to play attractive, winning football despite never being sure which players he’d have available (clubs aren’t obligated to release players for U-23 games), and his hard work has paid off with a trip to Tokyo. Matheus Henrique and new Lyon signing Bruno Guimarães formed a midfield duo that holds great promise for Brazil’s future. Matheus Cunha and Paulinho, both benchwarmers for their clubs, showed how good they can be when given playing time. Reinier Jesus, who only turned 18 on the day of Brazil’s first game in the competition, didn’t look at all out of place at U-23 level.

But it’s been close to a week, so now it’s time for stage 2 of the fun: baseless fantasy!

That’s right: it’s time to start dreaming about what sort of team we’ll be able to field at the Olympics. There are boatloads of talented Brazilians born on or after January 1, 1997 who didn’t participate in the Pre-Olympic Tournament, whether because they’re already regulars with the senior side, their clubs didn’t let them participate, or they weren’t fit. To the side that won qualification, we might be able to add Richarlison, Vinícius Júnior, David Neres, Gabriel Jesus, Rodrygo, Éder Militão, Lucas Paquetá, Gabriel Martinelli, Renan Lodi, Douglas Luiz, Emerson, Wendel, Lyanco, Pedro, Roger Ibañez, Gerson, Matheus Pereira, João Pedro, Walce, Gabriel Brazão, Tetê, Anderson Silva, Daniel Fuzato… only problem is we can only pick 18 players in total, and three of them can be overage, so we might be tempted to throw in a Thiago Silva to shore up the back line or a Neymar to just completely obliterate defenses.

Of course, it’s utterly improbable that we’ll be able to bring all or most of these players; clubs aren’t obligated to release players for the Olympics, and with the gold-medal match overlapping with the opening weekends of the English and French league seasons, I expect many will exercise their right of refusal. Plus, many of these players are going to be at the Copa América, and the short turnaround (and long physical distance) between the tournaments will make it hard for anyone to play in both, as Neymar claims to want to do. But hey, let’s have some fun with this! Comment with your dream squad, your realistic squad, whatever you want. We’ve got a couple weeks until Tite calls up the squad for our first World Cup qualifying matches, so we’ve got to fill the void somehow.

Anyway, here’s one I just whipped up that’s totally unrealistic, and below that I’m closing things out with the highlights from each of our games in the Pre-Olympic Tournament.

Ederson

Emerson – Lyanco – Thiago Silva – Renan Lodi

Gerson – Bruno Guimarães – Douglas Luiz

Gabriel Jesus – Gabriel Martinelli – Vinícius Júnior

With Ivan, Ibañez, Paulinho, Pedrinho, Reinier, and Matheus Henrique on the bench.