Brazil vs. Venezuela

Arena Pantanal, Cuiabá, Mato Grosso, October 12, 2023

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

US TV/Streaming: FuboTV, Universo/Telemundo

Likely Starting Lineup: Ederson, Danilo, Marquinhos, Gabriel Magalhães, Guilherme Arana; Casemiro, Bruno Guimarães, Neymar; Vini Jr, Rodrygo, Richarlison.

Bench: Alisson, Lucas Perri, Yan Couto, Bremer, Nino, Carlos Augusto, André, Gerson, Raphael Veiga, David Neres, Gabriel Jesus, Matheus Cunha.

Notes and Storylines

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Peru vs. Brazil

Estadio Nacional del Perú, Lima, Peru, September 12, 2023

Kickoff: 10:00 PM EDT / 11:00 PM BRT / 2:00 AM GMT

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

Likely Starting Lineup: Ederson, Danilo, Marquinhos, Gabriel Magalhães, Renan Lodi; Casemiro, Bruno Guimarães, Neymar; Raphinha, Rodrygo, Richarlison.

Bench: Alisson, Lucas Perri, Vanderson, Roger Ibañez, Nino, Caio Henrique, André, Joelinton, Raphael Veiga, Gabriel Martinelli, Gabriel Jesus, Matheus Cunha.

Notes and Storylines:

Well, I said in my preview of Friday’s game against Bolivia that I hoped new coach Fernando Diniz would serve up some higher-tempo football than Tite routinely did, and I got my wish, along with a rollicking 5-1 win and Neymar finally breaking Pelé’s Seleção goals record. Sure, Tite’s Brazil also scored five goals in both of their home qualifiers against Bolivia, but Neymar missed a penalty in this one, so to paraphrase Jon Bois, it’s really more like six goals Fahrenheit.

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The New Guy’s first test.

Brazil vs. Bolivia

Estádio Mangueirão, Belém, Pará, September 8, 2023

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

US TV/Streaming: Telemundo/Univision (maybe??? who knows???)

Likely Starting Lineup: Ederson, Danilo, Marquinhos, Gabriel Magalhães, Renan Lodi; Casemiro, Bruno Guimarães, Neymar; Raphinha, Rodrygo, Richarlison.

Bench: Alisson, Lucas Perri, Vanderson, Roger Ibañez, Nino, Caio Henrique, André, Joelinton, Raphael Veiga, Gabriel Martinelli, Gabriel Jesus, Matheus Cunha.

Notes and Storylines:

Well, the waiting is over. It’s finally time to see what Fernando Diniz can do with the Seleção. Expectations are high, there’s a lot to be written, and, uh, I once again find myself without a lot of time to write.

So let’s focus on the big stuff. Bolivia at home is the easiest game of the World Cup qualifying cycle, which is probably a good thing. Diniz has many ideas and they’ll take a while to implement (he’s said he’ll be instilling them one at a time over the next few games), so starting out with a good result can buy him some momentum and goodwill.

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This week, Neymar left Paris Saint-Germain for the Saudi club Al Hilal on a two-year deal. Reportedly, this contract will see him receive 160 million euros a year. Roll the clip:

I don’t think I need to spend much time explaining to you all how this is Very Bad for pretty much everybody except Neymar and his bank account. The sums of money involved—and the fact that his nine-figure salary makes Neymar only the third-best paid footballer in the world, because the Saudis have splashed so much cash that Kylian Mbappé is now the only European-based player among the top 10 best paid—portend a grim power shift for the global game, as Saudi Arabia looks to leverage its vast oil wealth to launder its human rights abuses and establish itself as a hub for tourism and business. It’s also obviously bad for Brazil’s national team: not only is the guy who’s still pretty undeniably our most gifted player going to be playing in a much less challenging environment, but his mere presence there is likely to help convince other Brazilian stars to leave Europe while still in their prime. (Fabinho and Roberto Firmino preceded Neymar in their moves to the kingdom, but both seem pretty well washed at the highest level anyway. But someone like Alisson?)

It’s also worth noting that by intervening in the civil war in Yemen and establishing land, sea, and air blockades into the country, Saudi Arabia has directly caused a famine that has killed hundreds of thousands of people. But who among us, right?

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This is gonna be another short one. It’s real simple: after losing to France in the second group game, Brazil essentially must beat Jamaica to make it to the World Cup round of 16. (There is a scenario where Brazil makes it through with a draw, but this depends on Panama pulling off the greatest upset in World Cup history and beating France.) The good news for Brazil is that this should be very doable. We’ve won both of our previous encounters with Jamaica, including a 3-0 win in the group stage of the last World Cup, and while the transitive property doesn’t really apply in football, we won our group game against Panama far more comfortably than they did. That said, Jamaica only need a draw, and they opened their World Cup with exactly that against France.

If we make it through to the round of 16, perhaps the loss to France won’t have quite so dour repercussions as I thought it would. Colombia are in the driver’s seat to win Group E after their stunning win over Germany, and while they’d be a tough opponent in the round of 16, we have a far better historical record against them than the Germans. And hell, even if we end up facing Germany after all, they just keep piling up surprising losses and we beat them in April—they don’t look nearly as scary as they did just a few days ago.

We’re at the point now where every game could be Marta’s last in a World Cup. The queen herself says this game won’t be it. I just really want to see her score in a sixth straight World Cup.

Brazil vs. Jamaica

Melbourne Rectangular Stadium, Melbourne, Australia, August 2, 2023

Kickoff: 6:00 AM EDT / 7:00 AM BRT / 10:00 AM GMT

Possible Starting XI: Lelê; Tamires, Rafaelle, Lauren, Antonia; Adriana, Luana, Kerolin, Ary Borges; Debinha, Bia Zaneratto.

This is the moment of truth for this team.

Brazil started off the Women’s World Cup on the right foot, with a 4-0 stomping of Panama for the team’s biggest World Cup win since 2007, and Ary Borges marking her World Cup debut with the first Brazilian hat-trick in the competition since… okay, only since Cristiane in Brazil’s opening game four years ago. But the real cherry on top was her assist for Bia Zaneratto’s goal, which is sure to instantly go down as an all-time great Brazilian goal:

Say what you will about the heartbreaking way Brazil’s men’s World Cup campaign ended last year, and the way the women’s campaign could still very much end this year, we’ve been absolutely spoiled for stellar Brazilian World Cup goals in the past year. But now things get a lot harder.

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Welp, I’m sorry once again. I did not leave myself the time to write a proper preview ahead of Brazil’s Women’s World Cup debut. But here’s a thread for those who’ll be watching tomorrow morning.

Brazil vs. Panama

Hindmarsh Stadium, Adelaide, Australia, July 24, 2023

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

Possible Starting XI: Letícia; Antônia, Kathellen, Rafaelle, Tamires; Luana, Ary Borges, Kerolin, Adriana; Debinha, Geyse.

Once again, I’ve let my life get too busy and not left enough time to write up something proper for this week’s friendlies. In my defense, I’m not sure how many of us will be able to watch them legally, as I haven’t found any evidence that they’re actually going to be broadcast in the US.

Brazil vs. Guinea

Estadi Cornellà-El Prat, Barcelona, Spain, June 17, 2023

Kickoff: 3:30 PM EDT / 4:30 PM BRT / 7:30 PM GMT

Possible Starting XI: Alisson (Ederson), Danilo, Éder Militão, Marquinhos, Ayrton Lucas; Casemiro, Joelinton, Lucas Paquetá; Rodrygo, Vini Jr, Richarlison.

Brazil vs. Senegal

Estádio José Alvalade, Lisbon, Portugal, June 20, 2023

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

Notes and Storylines

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Well, crap. I’ve been busy with other things and left myself without enough time to compose a proper preview for Brazil’s U-20 World Cup campaign. And it’s a pretty big deal! Repeated screwups in the South American U-20 Championship, and a healthy dose of COVID cancellations, meant Brazil had only qualified for one U-20 World Cup in the past decade. For once, though, the youngsters won the South American tournament outright earlier this year to easily qualify for the big show.

Unfortunately, some big names will not be participating, as their clubs would not let them. In particular, Athletico-PR’s Vitor Roque, joint-top scorer in the Sul-Americano, and Pedrinho of Corinthians, who added two goals of his own, weren’t released by their clubs. This is to say nothing of Endrick, who Palmeiras kept from playing in the Sul-Americano in the first place, let alone the World Cup. Still, several of Brazil’s most exciting young stars did manage to get their club’s blessing, including the other joint-top scorer from the Sul-Americano, Andrey Santos. Here’s the squad:

Goalkeepers: Mycael (Athletico-PR), Kaíque (Palmeiras), Kauã Santos (Flamengo)

Defenders: Arthur (América-MG), Jean Pedroso (Coritiba), Robert Renan (Zenit St. Petersburg), Kaiki Bruno (Cruzeiro), André Dhominique (Bahia), Douglas Mendes (Red Bull Salzburg)

Midfielders: Andrey Santos (Vasco), Marlon Gomes (Vasco), Matheus Martins (Watford), Guilherme Biro (Corinthians), Ronald (Grêmio)

Forwards: Giovani (Palmeiras), Marcos Leonardo (Santos), Marquinhos (Norwich City), Giovane (Corinthians), Kevin (Palmeiras), Matheus Nascimento (Botafogo), Sávio (PSV)

It’s a pretty top-heavy squad, which concerns me a bit (only three center-backs and three fullbacks!), but even without several of our best young prospects, it’s a pretty talented one. Coach Ramon Menezes, though he didn’t do a great job as the caretaker manager for the senior Brazil team back in March, has done really well with the youngsters, and I expect that’ll continue here. (And he’s been here before—he was part of the squad that lost the 1991 U-20 World Cup final on penalties to Portugal.)

For all Brazil’s struggles in actually qualifying for this tournament, we’ve done very well whenever we actually appear in it. We’ve reached the final in our last three appearances: losing on penalties in 2009, to a 118th-minute winner in 2015, and winning it all in 2011. (I expect Argentina to bring some of this same energy: they didn’t even qualify for the tournament at first, but got a spot by becoming the new hosts of the tournament after FIFA stripped Indonesia of the rights. Watch ’em make it all the way to the final.)

Anyways, here’s our schedule for the group stage. This is a tough group, no doubt, but as this is a 24-team tournament, the four best third-place teams in the group stage go through to the knockout rounds.

As for TV broadcasts and streaming in the US at least: the whole tournament is being carried by FOX Sports and FuboTV. It sounds like every game will be available to stream on Fubo and most will be broadcast on FS2, with the remainder on the premium Fox Soccer Plus channel. Brazil’s first two games will be on FS2, with the game against Nigeria on FSP.

Brazil vs. Italy

Estadio Malvinas Argentinas, Mendoza, May 21, 2023

Kickoff: 5:00 PM EDT / 6:00 PM BRT / 9:00 PM GMT

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Brazil vs. Dominican Republic

Estadio Malvinas Argentinas, Mendoza, May 24, 2023

Kickoff: 5:00 PM EDT / 6:00 PM BRT / 9:00 PM GMT

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Brazil vs. Nigeria

Estadio Único Diego Armando Maradona, La Plata, May 27, 2023

Kickoff: 2:00 PM EDT / 3:00 PM BRT / 6:00 PM GMT

Well then. After the Tite era ended in such, uh, infuriating fashion in the quarterfinals of the World Cup, Brazil is about to take to the field with its first new manager in charge since 2016. Tite was, for all his many faults, clearly the outstanding Brazilian coach of his time—which is maybe less a credit to him than an indictment of his competition—and lacking any obvious successor, the CBF has a choice between two unorthodox options: either they hand the Seleção over to a fresh but unproven Brazilian manager and hope that his new ideas and skillset can overcome his lack of experience in the global game à la Lionel Scaloni for Argentina; or they bite the bullet, acknowledge that there is no Brazilian manager who has proven himself at the highest levels of the game, and hire a foreign coach for the first time in Brazil’s history.

Right now, they seem to be splitting the difference. Leading the team in Saturday’s game against Morocco is Ramon Menezes, a man who, before he led the under-20 side to victory in the South American Youth Championship last month, had achieved little distinction as a coach. But it seems very likely that he will be nothing more than a stopgap option, as rumors have Carlo Ancelotti leaving Real Madrid to take the job in the summer. Except that may not be finalized yet and the CBF may still be keeping tabs on the likes of Jorge Jesus, José Mourinho (ugh), and even some Brazilian coaches like Fernando Diniz.

For now, though, Ramon has the reins. What did he do with them? Well, he kind of made the case for avoiding another Brazilian coach:

The Squad

Goalkeepers: Ederson (Manchester City), Mycael (Athletico-PR), Weverton (Palmeiras).

Full-backs: Arthur (América-MG), Emerson Royal (Tottenham), Alex Telles (Sevilla), Renan Lodi (Nottingham Forest).

Center-backs: Ibañez (Roma), Éder Militão (Real Madrid), Bremer (Juventus), Robert Renan (Zenit).

Midfielders: André (Fluminense), Andrey Santos (Vasco), Casemiro (Manchester United), João Gomes (Wolverhampton), Lucas Paquetá (West Ham), Raphael Veiga (Palmeiras).

Forwards: Antony (Manchester United), Yuri Alberto (Corinthians), Rodrygo (Real Madrid), Rony (Palmeiras), Vini Júnior (Real Madrid), Vitor Roque (Athletico-PR).

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