Brazil vs. Venezuela

Estadio Monumental de Maturín, Maturín, Venzeula, November 14, 2024

Kickoff: 4:00 PM EDT / 6:00 PM BRT / 9:00 PM GMT

US Streaming: Fanatiz (pay-per-view)

Squad:

Goalies: Bento (Al-Nassr), Ederson (Manchester City), Weverton (Palmeiras)

Fullbacks: Danilo (Juventus), Vanderson (Monaco), Abner (Lyon) e Guilherme Arana (Atlético-MG)

Center-Backs: Léo Ortiz (Flamengo) (replaces Éder Militão), Gabriel Magalhães (Arsenal), Marquinhos (PSG), Murillo (Nottingham Forest)

Midfielders: André (Wolverhampton), Andreas Pereira (Fulham), Bruno Guimarães (Newcastle), Gerson (Flamengo), Lucas Paquetá (West Ham), Raphinha (Barcelona)

Forwards: Estêvão (Palmeiras), Igor Jesus (Botafogo), Luiz Henrique (Botafogo), Gabriel Martinelli (Arsenal) (replaces Rodrygo), Savinho (Manchester City), Vinicius Junior (Real Madrid)

Notes and Storylines

So, how’re we feeling? I mean, last time out, Brazil secured two important wins against Chile and Peru, a major step towards guaranteeing our place at the next World Cup, and the Peru game in particular ended with a pretty impressive 4-0 scoreline. But on the other hand, Brazil didn’t play well against Chile and barely created any chances against Peru before VAR awarded a penalty to open the scoring.

And if we look at Dorival Jr.’s squad selection for this FIFA date’s matches against Venezuela and Uruguay, I think they speak to a similar trend: Brazil may finally be improving under Dorival, but not nearly enough to get out of the hole he dug them. The big addition this time is Murillo—the right one, with the right number of L’s in his name!—who is very welcome, but otherwise, things haven’t changed a ton. Dorival backtracked a little bit on his “only have four proper midfielders” ploy from last month, but he’s still passing off a forward as a midfielder to make up the numbers (last time it was Rodrygo; now, even before Rodrygo pulled out due to injury, it’s Raphinha). And that midfield selection is still iffy, as André got yanked at halftime of Wolves’ first game after the last international break and has only played three minutes since, while nobody seems to think Gerson is playing well. Up front, Vini Jr. and Estêvão are welcome returns after their injuries, but Igor Jesus remains the only true striker—even as we saw Evanilson, Matheus Cunha, and João Pedro excel in the Premier League over the past few weekends.

Oh, and Danilo and Guilherme Arana are still omnipresent at the back. Yippee. (To be fair, Yan Couto was out injured for the last month, and Samuel Lino seems to be losing his starting spot for Atleti.)

If there’s actual reason to be excited about the players on display, it comes from the stars who are returning after injury. Vini Jr. seems to have taken his Ballon D’Or snub as motivation, if his hat trick on Saturday was any indication, and while we’re still waiting for him to deliver like this for the national team, every little bit of motivation will help him overcome the limits imposed by Dorival’s middling coaching. Estêvão is back too, and not only has he now passed Neymar’s record for goals in the Brasileirão in his age-17 season (despite being about three months younger when that season started than Neymar was for his), he’s the top scorer and joint-top assister in the league this season! That’s pretty cool, even if it underscores how poor the talent level is that no full-grown adult could manage 12 goals in 33 games. (Pedro probably would have, to be fair, had the national team not killed him.) Can’t wait for Chelsea to ruin him!

Luiz Henrique was also a surprise bright spot in the October games, with two excellent goals and an assist. He’s demonstrated that he belongs here, just in time to be swept up in the Lucas Paquetá betting scandal. Wait, shit, stay positive. Uh… I can’t wait for Dorival to keep relying on the two of them like there’s no possibility that they’ll be banned from football in the next six months! Shit.

Okay, but on the actual bright side, we may be facing this week’s opponents at the right time. Venezuela had a stellar Copa América, winning all three group stage games and nearly making the semis, but their form has collapsed since then and they’re all the way down to eighth in the qualifying table. Still, they held Uruguay and Argentina (sans Messi) to draws in their last two home games, so a result is far from guaranteed. For Uruguay’s part, the wheels might be coming off the Marcelo Bielsa express—they’re scoreless in their four qualifiers since the Copa, and the players seem to be turning on their coach. I won’t predict the Uruguay game until we see against Venezuela whether there’s been any semblance of continued improvement. I kind of think we’ll stumble again and that Venezuela will continue their decent home form against tough opposition. I’m probably just going to keep predicting that until Brazil starts playing well enough for me to feel more optimistic. I’m thinking another 1-1 draw like when we hosted them last October.