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Once again, Brazil’s hopes in a major tournament rest upon being able to defeat France, something the women’s team has never done in 12 meetings. To make matters worse, this isn’t simply about getting into the semifinals and having a legit shot at a medal: Marta’s senseless red card against Spain in the final group game could very well have been her last act at an Olympics or World Cup—unless, without her, Brazil can somehow get a result that has eluded them for literal decades.

I don’t think it’s going to happen. Brazil haven’t been one of the top sides in the women’s game since at least 2011, and since then they’ve rarely even looked like they could seriously threaten an upset. Even when they’ve managed to go toe-to-toe with better teams, or even just scrape open a surprise lead, finishing or defending always seem to let them down. (A recent example: the stoppage-time collapse against Japan.)

But there’s nothing wrong with hoping.

Brazil vs. France

Stade de la Beaujoire, Nantes, France, August 3, 2024

Kickoff: 3:00 PM EDT / 4:00 PM BRT / 7:00 PM GMT

US TV/streaming: Peacock

Have a quick match thread for the women’s Olympic debut. They’re in a really tough group that also has Spain, who won the last World Cup, and Japan, who beat Spain 4-0 in that same World Cup. It’s also likely to be Marta’s last tournament for Brazil (though we’ve been here before), and we’ll all be wanting a better sendoff for her than last year’s grim World Cup exit.

Brazil vs. Nigeria

Nouveau Stade de Bordeaux, Bordeaux, France, July 25, 2024

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

US TV: Telemundo

Possible Starting XI: Lorena; Antonia, Thais Ferreira, Rafaelle, Tamires; Vitória Yayá, Duda Sampaio, Adriana, Ludmila (Gabi Portilho); Marta, Gabi Nunes (Jheniffer).

The angst continues. Needing a win in the last group stage game against Colombia to win the group and avoid an extremely tough-looking quarterfinal against Uruguay, Brazil were lucky to manage a 1-1 draw in a performance that was quite possibly worse than Fernando Diniz’s disasterclass against them last November. At least in that game Brazil got forward effectively, even as Colombia overran the nonexistent midfield and created plenty of shots of their own; this time, Colombia overran a far more present midfield that also couldn’t create anything going forward.

Now we face an equally high-flying Uruguay side that might pose a similar test just days after we failed the first one. And on top of that, Vini Jr. got his second yellow card of the tournament and will be suspended for this quarterfinal. Oh, and the ref is Argentinian. Oh dear!

Brazil vs. Uruguay

Allegiant Stadium, Las Vegas, Nevada, USA, July 6, 2024

Kickoff: 9:00 PM EDT / 10:00 PM BRT / 1:00 AM GMT

US TV: FS1, Univision

Lineup info TBD

Rather than write another 4,000 words about how this game might go, I’m just going to focus on one question for this preview: how should Dorival Jr. replace Vini Jr.? Vini hasn’t had the best of tournaments—nobody in the front line has—but he’s still our top scorer and managed to draw a clear, uncalled penalty against Colombia that may well have made the difference (although the way Colombia were playing, I think they would have just kept the pressure up until they tied the game either way.) Replacing him may well be impossible, but it could well be a blessing in disguise. As I see it, there are three main ways Dorival could approach this:

Brazil will play two friendlies this week, against Mexico tonight and the USA on the 12th, to prepare for the Copa América. That’s not unusual in the slightest. What is unusual is that after those games, the team will have almost two full weeks before returning to action in the Copa itself. It’s a strangely long break for games that will be played with the same squad as the Copa, and it means Dorival Júnior will have extra time and training sessions to mull over what happened in those friendlies and make adjustments before the games get serious.

With that in mind, here are a few questions we might hope to answer in these friendlies, along with the match info and the available players. Dorival has already said he’ll be using very different lineups for the two games, and it seems this will manifest in a full B-team taking the field tonight against Mexico.

I know I should write a match preview, but I want to talk a bit about Brazil’s first game under Dorival Júnior. I may write something more cohesive once we see how the game against Spain goes, but I wanted to commit to getting these thoughts out into the open.

So! Dorival’s debut exceeded expectations, as Brazil beat England for the first time in the “new” Wembley Stadium. Considering the quality on paper of the opposition, it might well have been the most impressive debut result for a Seleção coach this century. Dorival has passed a very tough first test, and though England went a little flat as the game went on, there was a lot to like in Brazil’s performance, as well as a few things I took issue with. So, have a list of pros and cons:

Brazil vs. England

Wembley Stadium, London, England, March 23, 2024

Kickoff: 3:00PM EST / 4:00 PM BRT / 7:00 PM GMT

US TV: FOX

Likely Starting Lineup: Bento; Danilo, Fabrício Bruno, Beraldo, Wendell; João Gomes, Bruno Guimarães, Lucas Paquetá; Raphinha, Rodrygo, Vini Jr.

On The Bench: Léo Jardim, Rafael; Yan Couto, Ayrton Lucas, Bremer, Murilo; André, Andreas Pereira, Douglas Luiz, Pablo Maia; Endrick, Pepê, Galeno, Richarlison, Savinho.

Notes and Storylines

In the, um, extremely long time since I last wrote a post on here, I’ve been thinking about our now-former coach, Fernando Diniz, whose six-game tenure in charge of Brazil spiraled down the toilet in remarkable style. A 5-1 debut win against Bolivia was fun but very much expected; following that up a couple days later with a listless performance and a late winner from a corner against Peru was concerning. By the next pair of games a month later, conceding a late equalizer to Venezuela at home and then losing in dismal fashion to Uruguay, the alarm bells were well and truly clanging. Losses in November to Colombia and Argentina added to Diniz’s lists of unfortunate achievements (first time Brazil had lost three qualifiers in a row, first time they’d lost a qualifier at home to Argentina) and sealed his fate. Diniz has a signature style of football, one that, on paper, hews closer to the romantic image of jogo bonito than most Brazil teams of the past thirty or forty years, and that’s why he got the job. With the limited training time afforded to national teams, and with Diniz still coaching Fluminense at the same time (with real success, to be fair)—or maybe just because Diniz was too tactically blind to adjust to changing game states or too wedded to his ideas to temper them with the slightest bit of pragmatism—he couldn’t make it work for Brazil.