Paraguay vs. Brazil

Estadio Defensores del Chaco, Asunción, Paraguay, June 8, 2021

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

US TV / Streaming: FuboTV (not available through their free trial since you need the “CONMEBOL & More” add-on package to watch it)

Likely Starting Lineup: Alisson; Danilo, Éder Militão, Marquinhos, Alex Sandro; Casemiro, Fred, Lucas Paquetá; Richarlison, Neymar, Gabriel Jesus.

On The Bench: Ederson, Weverton; Emerson Royal, Rodrigo Caio, Felipe, Renan Lodi; Douglas Luiz, Fabinho, Everton Ribeiro; Everton Cebolinha, Gabigol, Roberto Firmino, Vinícius Júnior.

Unavailable: Thiago Silva (injured)

Notes And Storylines

Hoo boy, where to start? The Seleção goes into this game after the most tumultuous week in its recent history. Let’s see if I can summarize: CBF president Rogério Caboclo, in the midst of like three different scandals (he’s on tape sexually harassing a female employee, the same employee alleges further harassment and a serious drinking problem, and he’s alleged to be in communication with ex-CBF president Marco Polo Del Nero, who’s banned for life from all football-related activities), coordinated directly with Brazil’s president Jair Bolsonaro to bring the Copa América to Brazil after its previous hosts pulled out. The players and Tite, upset that Caboclo didn’t tell them any of this when he visited the training camp the day before it was all announced, as well as that he tried to keep them from talking to the media after Friday’s game against Ecuador, revolted and threatened to boycott the Copa América. Upset at this, the Bolsonaro government, through Caboclo, planned to fire Tite (reported to not be Bolsonaro’s biggest fan) after Tuesday’s game against Paraguay and replace him with Renato Gaúcho, a coach friendlier to the regime. Fortunately, his other mounting scandals meant the CBF removed Caboclo (temporarily, for now) from the presidency before any of that could happen, so Tite’s job is safe for now and the players appear to be sated enough to grudgingly play the Copa América. That said, the squad still intends to send out a manifesto after the Paraguay game airing their grievances, so I imagine we’ve still got some drama ahead of us.

As for the game itself, I’m going to keep this relatively brief. Our opponents Paraguay are in an odd situation: they’re one of three unbeaten teams (along with us and Argentina) in World Cup qualifying so far, but with four draws and only one win. I expect them to defend and counterattack as robustly as any team we’ve faced in qualifying so far, which once again begs the question of whether we can break them down. Against Ecuador and Venezuela, it took until the second half, and making more attacking substitutions, to find an opening. Tite seems to be persisting with the same sort of setup that made the team look far too sluggish in those games, with Fred, surprisingly, speculated to retain his spot over Douglas Luiz. Whichever one starts will be the most interesting storyline in this lineup, I think. Can he step up and prove his horrible display against (Ecuador for Fred, Venezuela for Douglas Luiz) was just a fluke? I doubt it, and while I stand with Tite through this ongoing political drama, I really take issue with his insistence on starting such uncreative midfielders. (Oh, also, why is Alex Sandro still starting?)

Anyways, that leads into my next and final point, which is that sometime between the end of this game on Tuesday and Brazil’s Copa América debut on Sunday, Tite will have to announce his Copa América squad. This would most likely be a formality (he’d just bring over the squad from WCQs), except for the fact that, thanks to COVID, teams are allowed to bring squads of 28 players instead of the usual 23. The current squad (including Thiago Silva) includes 24 players, so Tite has some wiggle room here unless he chooses to pull a Luis Enrique and not use every available spot, which would be foolish on many levels. Personally, I hope he uses the extra room to bulk up the midfield with another decent passer or two. Arthur is the obvious choice, and he could also bring in Rafinha Alcântara or someone from the Olympic team like Gerson or Bruno Guimarães, though that may not be an easy sell for their clubs. Beyond that, Raphinha is the most obvious “why hasn’t he called this guy up already” player. Honestly, I’m not sure Tite will call up 28 players—even if he wants to, he may run into trouble with upsetting some clubs (the Brasileirão isn’t stopping for the Copa this year) or potentially jeopardizing players’ participation in the Olympics. But I hope he uses this opportunity to flesh out the weaknesses in this squad.

Brazil U24 vs. Serbia U24

Partizan Stadium, Belgrade, Serbia, June 8, 2021

Kickoff: 1:00 PM EDT / 2:00 PM BRT / 5:00 PM GMT

US TV / Streaming: Might be streamed live on globoesporte.com if you have a VPN

Squad:

Goalkeepers: Cleiton (Red Bull Bragantino), Brenno (Grêmio), Gabriel Brazão (Real Oviedo)

Fullbacks: Guga (Atlético-MG), Gabriel Menino (Palmeiras), Guilherme Arana (Atlético-MG), Abner (Athletico Paranaense)

Center-backs: Gabriel Magalhães (Arsenal), Luiz Felipe (Lazio), Nino (Fluminense), Vitão (Shakhtar Donetsk)

Midfielders: Bruno Guimarães (Lyon), Liziero (São Paulo), Matheus Henrique (Grêmio), Gerson (Flamengo), Claudinho (Red Bull Bragantino), Reinier (Borussia Dortmund)

Forwards: Gabriel Martinelli (Arsenal), Rodrygo (Real Madrid), Pedro (Flamengo), Evanílson (Porto), Antony (Ajax), Malcom (Zenit St. Petersburg)

Notes And Storylines

The objective of this game is simple: prove that the last one was just a fluke. The Olympic side lost to Cape Verde on Saturday in pretty embarrassing fashion, dominating the game but only managing to score a single goal from the penalty spot, and then letting Cape Verde come from behind thanks to two instances of extremely sloppy defending. André Jardine’s Olympic team has generally played some very attractive football, but this is hardly the first time they’ve struggled mightily to score and then conceded cheap goals at the other end. A team with this much talent has to do better, and they don’t have long before the Olympics to shape up.