Why am I always so busy during matchweeks? Once again, I barely have time to write anything. Which reminds me: hey, does anyone else have an essay on Brazilian soccer they’re just burning to let out? If so, fill out this form so I can know about it! I’d love to run something more in-depth during these increasingly lengthy periods where I’m busy with other things.

Brazil vs. South Korea

Seoul World Cup Stadium, Seoul, South Korea October 10, 2025

Kickoff: 7:00 AM EDT / 8:00 AM BRT / 11:00 AM GMT

US TV/Streaming: none 🙁

Likely Starting XI: Bento; Vitinho, Éder Militão, Gabriel Magalhães, Douglas Santos; Casemiro, Bruno Guimarães; Estêvão, Matheus Cunha, Vini Júnior, Rodrygo.

On The Bench: John, Hugo Souza; Caio Henrique, Carlos Augusto, Fabrício Bruno, Lucas Beraldo, Vitinho; André, João Gomes, Joelinton, Lucas Paquetá; Gabriel Martinelli, Luiz Henrique, Richarlison, Igor Jesus.

Brazil vs. Japan

Tokyo Stadium, Tokyo, Japan, October 15, 2025

Kickoff: 6:30 AM EDT / 7:30 AM BRT / 10:30 AM GMT

US TV/Streaming: none 🙁

Notes and Storylines

Again, don’t have much time, but…

• South Korea have performed legendary giant-killings at the past two World Cups, knocking out Germany in 2018 and then securing their own spot in the knockout stage in 2022 by coming from behind to beat Portugal in the final group game, but they have not given Brazil much trouble at all in recent meetings. Five months before that 2022 World Cup, we beat them 5-1 in a friendly, and then in that World Cup round of 16 we were 4-0 up at halftime. That’s the sort of recent record where we should probably be concerned if we don’t win handily.
• Japan should give us a tougher test, but I don’t even want to think ahead to Tuesday at this point. Bit of a shame Neymar isn’t fit, actually—if there were any favorable circumstance in which to give him one more chance for Brazil, it’d be against the team he’s scored more goals against for Brazil than any other.
• That round of 16 game, incidentally, marks the last time Richarlison scored for Brazil—a drought that will soon turn three. But then again, nobody wearing any number with 9 in it has scored for Brazil since Igor Jesus against Chile, a whole year ago.
• Rodrygo is finally back! I know I’ve griped in the past about his frustrating performances for Brazil, but I am very curious to see how he’ll play in his first Seleção games under Carlo Ancelotti’s tutelage. With Vini seemingly playing through the middle, he’ll even have the rare opportunity to play in his preferred left-wing spot.
• What is Bento doing starting this game? I’m not following him too closely in Saudi Arabia, but I think that’s fine because he plays in Saudi Arabia! Júlio César, a much more pedigreed goalkeeper, spent the year leading up to the 2014 World Cup playing in MLS and we all know how that turned out. That, and it’s not hard to find instances of Bento fucking something up even in the Saudi League. This flap at air that cost Al-Nassr the Saudi Super Cup final was just two months ago. Oh well—it sounds like Hugo Souza might start vs. Japan since Ancelotti wants to give other goalies a chance in Alisson’s absence, and that’s likely to be a tougher test anyway.

Brazil vs. Bolivia

Estadio Municipal de El Alto, El Alto, Bolivia, September 9, 2025

Kickoff: 7:30PM EDT / 8:30 PM BRT / 11:30 PM GMT

US TV/Streaming: ViX Deportes ($8.99/month), Fanatiz ($59.99 pay-per-view).

Likely Starting XI: Alisson, Vitinho (Wesley), Fabrício Bruno, Alexsandro, Caio Henrique; Andrey Santos, Bruno Guimarães e Lucas Paquetá; Luiz Henrique, Samuel Lino e Richarlison.

On The Bench: Bento, Hugo Souza; Caio Henrique, Wesley(Vitinho), Marquinhos, Gabriel Magalhães; Jean Lucas, Andreas Pereira (replaces the injured Kaio Jorge); Gabriel Martinelli, João Pedro, Raphinha. (Casemiro is suspended after receiving a yellow card vs. Chile.)

Notes and Storylines

I don’t think I’ll have much time to write out a proper preview for this one, so I wanted to make sure to get this out.

Brazil vs. Chile

Estádio do Maracanã, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, September 4, 2025

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

US TV/Streaming: ViX Deportes ($8.99/month). Some sources claim it will also be on Peacock ($7.99+/month), but I can’t confirm that.

Likely Starting XI: Alisson, Wesley, Marquinhos, Gabriel Magalhães, Douglas Santos; Casemiro, Bruno Guimarães; Raphinha, Estêvão, João Pedro, Gabriel Martinelli.

On The Bench: Bento, Hugo Souza; Caio Henrique, Vitinho, Alexsandro, Fabrício Bruno; Andrey Santos, Jean Lucas, Lucas Paquetá; Kaio Jorge, Luiz Henrique, Richarlison, Samuel Lino.

I’m traveling all weekend, so I may not be able to give more of a match preview than this. But given that this is the first we’ll be seeing of this team under Carlo Ancelotti, maybe it’s better to wait and watch and come back with our takeaways afterward. With any luck, I’ll write up something separate ahead of the Paraguay game, but for now I’m putting them both here.

Brazil vs. Ecuador

Estadio Monumental, Guayaquil, Ecuador, June 5, 2025

Kickoff: 7:00PM EDT / 8:00 PM BRT / 11:00 PM GMT

US TV/Streaming: Fanatiz ($30 pay-per-view)

Possible Starting XI: Alisson; Vanderson, Marquinhos, Alexsandro, Alex Sandro; Casemiro, Bruno Guimarães, Gerson; Estêvão, Richarlison, Vini Jr.

On The Bench: Bento, Hugo Souza; Beraldo, Carlos Augusto, Danilo, Léo Ortiz, Wesley; Andreas Pereira, Andrey Santos, Éderson; Antony, Gabriel Martinelli, Matheus Cunha, Raphinha (suspended for one game).

Brazil vs. Paraguay

Arena Corinthians, São Paulo, June 10, 2025

Kickoff: 8:45PM EDT / 9:45 PM BRT / 12:45 AM GMT

US TV/Streaming: ViX Deportes ($8.99/month)

Notes and Storylines

It’s real! It’s real! It’s really, really real! Two days removed from thanking the Santiago Bernabéu crowd after his last Real Madrid game, Carlo Ancelotti arrived in Brazil to announce his first callup for the national team. Here it is:

Goalkeepers: Alisson (Liverpool), Bento (Al-Nassr), Hugo Souza (Corinthians).

Defenders: Alex Sandro (Flamengo), Alexsandro (Lille), Beraldo (PSG), Carlos Augusto (Inter Milan), Danilo (Flamengo), Léo Ortiz (Flamengo), Marquinhos (PSG), Vanderson (Monaco), Wesley (Flamengo).

Midfielders: Andreas Pereira (Fulham), Andrey Santos (Strasbourg), Bruno Guimarães (Newcastle), Casemiro (Manchester United), Éderson (Atalanta), Gerson (Flamengo).

Atacantes: Antony (Betis), Estêvão (Palmeiras), Gabriel Martinelli (Arsenal), Matheus Cunha (Wolverhampton), Raphinha (Barcelona), Richarlison (Tottenham), Vini Júnior (Real Madrid).

It’s as official as it can possibly be. Despite numerous reports about negotiations breaking down because he was unsure about his safety, or didn’t want to live in Brazil, or didn’t want to deal with the political instability in the CBF, or that Brazil’s supreme court was investigating whether CBF president Ednaldo Rodrigues had forged one of the signatures needed to secure his job, or that Saudi Arabian clubs were offering triple the salary, the CBF today announced Carlo Ancelotti as the new coach of the Brazil national team.

I, for one, am pleasantly surprised. I really thought Ednaldo Rodrigues, whose presidency up until this point had probably been the most embarrassing in the history of Brazilian football—with the original, ill-fated push for Ancelotti’s signature in 2023, the disastrous interim hirings of Ramon Menezes and Fernando Diniz and the historically bad results that followed, the increasingly calamitous year of Dorival Júnior, the federation’s apparently forgetting to sack Menezes from the junior teams even after embarrassing failures in the 2023 U-20 World Cup and 2024 Olympic qualification, and let’s not forget the ongoing saga surrounding whether Rodrigues’ mandate was even legitimate in the first place—would remain single-mindedly fixated on bringing in Ancelotti beyond all reasonable indications and find himself not only failing to sign his man but leaving himself without any remotely decent fallback options. As best I can tell, that will not be the case. Huzzah! Maybe the 2026 World Cup isn’t a lost cause!

Ancelotti, of course, is as blue-chip as football coaches come, and thus almost by definition, given the backwater that Brazil has become in the world of football tactics and coaching, the best coach the Seleção has had in decades. What previous Brazil coach is even in the same conversation as far as pedigree? Telê Santana, maybe Mário Zagallo, and I’m not sure there’s anybody else. He’s not the first foreign coach Brazil has ever had (in fact he’s the fourth), but he’s the first in sixty years, more than that if you consider that the team Filpo Nuñez coached—yes, an Argentine has, technically, coached the Seleção—was in fact the Palmeiras side he managed for his day job press-ganged into service as the Brazil national team for the inaugural game in Belo Horizonte’s Mineirão stadium. And in an age where the tactical ineptitude of Brazilian coaches is becoming more and more glaring, even as nativist elements in the country’s footballing “intelligentsia” try and insist there’s no problem and that Renato Gaúcho is totally the best option to lead the Seleção right now, we can only hope that Ancelotti, who has proven his worth at the absolute highest levels of European football, can improve Brazil’s performances and results to a degree that can help demonstrate the need for and benefits of more tactical sophistication and create a positive impact that lasts well beyond however long he spends in charge.

More immediately, hopefully he can fashion Brazil into genuine contenders for the 2026 World Cup. The utter mess of the last two and a half years makes it easy to forget that Brazil really does have some serious talent to work with. Vini Jr. was FIFA’s Best Men’s Player in 2024 and came second in the Ballon D’Or voting. Raphinha may well follow suit this year. The defensive spine boasts more top-quality center-backs than may even be able to fit in a single tournament squad, especially if Éder Militão’s knee ligaments ever stop exploding, and Brazil continues to produce a seemingly endless supply of quality goalies, even if Alisson isn’t much help in a penalty shootout. Even in the areas where we’re a bit thin, we can count on the likes of Bruno Guimarães and Andrey Santos in midfield, Matheus Cunha as a center-forward, or newly-minted Champions League finalist Carlos Augusto as a left-back.

Supposedly Ancelotti will start on May 26, in time for the June games against Ecuador and Paraguay, though given the time constraints he will share the responsibility for compiling the initial long list of players from which the 23-man final squad is chosen with Juan and Rodrigo Caetano from the CBF’s technical staff. He’ll hit the ground running with games against two of the most in-form teams in the confederation. With Brazil fairly comfortable but not yet assured of their spot at the World Cup, the extent to which he can instantly improve a team will be put to the test straight away.

Ednaldo Rodrigues, against all odds, got his guy at last. Let’s hope Carlo Ancelotti proves to be what the Seleção needs.

Brazil vs. Argentina

Estadio Monumental, Buenos Aires, Argentina, March 25, 2025

Kickoff: 8:00PM EDT / 9:00 PM BRT / 12:00 AM GMT

US TV/Streaming: Telemundo (network TV), ViX Deportes ($8.99/month), Fanatiz ($25 pay-per-view)

Likely Starting XI: Bento, Wesley, Marquinhos, Murillo, Guilherme Arana; André, Joelinton, Raphinha; Vini Jr, Rodrygo, Matheus Cunha.

On The Bench: Weverton (replaces Alisson – injured), Lucas Perri; Alex Sandro, Vanderson, Lucas Beraldo (replaces Gabriel Magalhães – suspended), Léo Ortiz; Éderson (replaces Gerson – injured), João Gomes (replaces Bruno Guimarães – suspended); Estêvão, Endrick, João Pedro, Savinho.

Notes and Storylines