The last two Copa Libertadores winners meet in the second all-Brazilian Copa Libertadores final of the year! Here’s a brief preview.

2021 Copa Libertadores Final

Sociedade Esportivo Palmeiras vs. Clube de Regatas do Flamengo

Estadio Centenario, Montevideo, Uruguay, November 27, 2021

Kickoff: 3:00 PM EDT / 5:00 PM BRT / 8:00 PM GMT

US TV / Streaming: Bein Sports

Format: Single game, 30 minutes extra time and penalties if needed.

I’m going to keep this relatively short because I haven’t followed these teams nearly as closely as I probably should.

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Who’s truly the best team in South America? Let’s find out.

Argentina vs. Brazil

Estadio San Juan del Bicentenario, San Juan, November 16, 2021

Kickoff: 6:30 PM EDT / 8:30 PM BRT / 11:30 PM GMT

Possible Starting XI: Alisson; Danilo, Marquinhos, Éder Militão, Alex Sandro; Fabinho, Fred, Lucas Paquetá; Raphinha, Matheus Cunha, Vinícius Júnior (Philippe Coutinho).

Notes and Storylines

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A good “how far have we come?” test on a potentially big day for the Seleção.

Brazil vs. Colombia

Arena Corinthians, São Paulo, November 11, 2021

Kickoff: 7:30 PM EDT / 9:30 PM BRT / 11:30 PM GMT

Possible Starting XI: Alisson; Danilo, Marquinhos, Thiago Silva, Alex Sandro; Casemiro, Fred, Lucas Paquetá; Raphinha, Gabriel Jesus, Neymar.

Notes and Storylines

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Tite just called the squad for the games (at home vs. Colombia on November 11; away vs. Argentina on Nov. 16) that should confirm our place at the 2022 World Cup. At the behest of Brazilian clubs, which will play three crunch games during the international break, he did not call any Brazil-based players, with the exception of Grêmio goalie Gabriel Chapecó, who appears to be this FIFA date’s Young Goalie Who Gets To Hang Out With The Seleção.

Anyways, here’s the squad:

GKs: Alisson (Liverpool), Ederson (Manchester City), Gabriel Chapecó (Grêmio)

Fullbacks: Danilo (Juventus), Alex Sandro (Juventus), Émerson (Tottenham), Renan Lodi (Atlético Madrid)

Center-backs: Thiago Silva (Chelsea), Marquinhos (Paris Saint-Germain), Éder Militão (Real Madrid) Lucas Veríssimo (Benfica)

Midfielders: Casemiro (Real Madrid), Fabinho (Liverpool), Fred (Manchester United), Gerson (Olympique de Marseille), Lucas Paquetá (Lyon), Philippe Coutinho (Barcelona)

Attackers: Antony (Ajax), Matheus Cunha (Atlético de Madrid), Raphinha (Leeds), Roberto Firmino (Liverpool), Neymar (Paris Saint-Germain), Gabriel Jesus (Manchester City)

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Three more games! Maybe we’ll get to finish them all this time.

Brazil’s Squad

(players called but later cut struck through, players added later in italics.)

GKs: Alisson, Ederson, Weverton.

Fullbacks: Danilo, Emerson Royal, Alex Sandro, Guilherme Arana.

CBs: Thiago Silva, Marquinhos, Éder Militão, Lucas Veríssimo.

DMs/CMs: Fabinho, Casemiro, Douglas Luiz, Fred, Gerson, Edenilson.

AMs: Everton Ribeiro, Lucas Paquetá.

Forwards: Neymar, Gabriel Jesus, Vinícius Júnior, Raphinha, Antony, Gabigol, Matheus Cunha, Arthur Cabral.

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The Games

Brazil vs. Venezuela

Estadio Olímpico de la UCV, Caracas, Venezuela, October 7, 2021

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

US TV / Streaming: FuboTV

Possible Starting Lineup: Alisson, Danilo, Thiago Silva, Marquinhos, Guilherme Arana; Fabinho, Gerson, Everton Ribeiro, Lucas Paquetá; Gabriel Jesus, Gabigol.

Brazil vs. Colombia

Estadio Metropolitano Roberto Meléndez, Barranquilla, Colombia, October 10, 2021

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

US TV / Streaming: FuboTV

Brazil vs. Uruguay

Arena da Amazônia, Manaus, October 14, 2021

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

US TV / Streaming: FuboTV

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Notes and Storylines

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Tite just called up the squad for Brazil’s World Cup qualifiers against Venezuela (Oct. 7), Colombia (Oct. 10), and Uruguay (Oct. 14th). Once again, he called up a bunch of players based in England, in the hopes that this time they’ll be allowed to travel internationally and join up the squad. (Note that Russia-based players Malcom and Claudinho, part of his last callup before COVID protocols led to their removal as well, are not here.)

So here’s the 25-man squad:

GKs: Alisson (Liverpool), Ederson (Manchester City), Weverton (Palmeiras)

Fullbacks: Danilo (Juventus), Alex Sandro (Juventus), Émerson (Tottenham), Guilherme Arana (Atlético-MG)

Center-backs: Thiago Silva (Chelsea), Marquinhos (Paris Saint-Germain), Éder Militão (Real Madrid) Lucas Veríssimo (Benfica)

Midfielders: Casemiro (Real Madrid), Edenilson (Internacional), Fabinho (Liverpool), Fred (Manchester United), Gerson (Olympique de Marselha), Lucas Paquetá (Lyon), Everton Ribeiro (Flamengo)

Attackers: Antony (Ajax), Matheus Cunha (Atlético de Madrid), Raphinha (Leeds), Vinicius Júnior (Real Madrid), Neymar (Paris Saint-Germain), Gabriel Jesus (Manchester City), Gabigol (Flamengo)

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Brazil’s upcoming slate of games are enough of a departure from the norm that I’m departing from my usual style of doing things.

First, to make up for the World Cup qualifiers that were canceled due to COVID in both March 2020 and 2021, FIFA has given special dispensation for CONMEBOL to play three qualifiers in this international break instead of the usual two.

Second, because a bunch of countries that are in better shape COVID-wise right now than the UK (including, somehow, Brazil) are high on British do-not-travel lists, Premier League clubs refused to release players for this round of fixtures. Unlike Argentina and Colombia, who were willing to let their PL-based players return to their clubs after the second of the three fixtures, the CBF wanted Brazil’s players to be available for all three games, meaning none of them have been released and we have to do without nine key players.

Because of all that, I won’t be posting individual match previews this week. While this might mean I miss covering an interesting storyline or bit of lineup news, I think the most compelling storylines to follow have been all set up by the unusual squad we’ll be playing with.

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So my predictions for the Olympics were almost entirely backwards. I thought the Brazil women’s team would win a medal, and they ended up losing in the quarterfinals; I expected the men’s team would flame out early on, and they won the friggin’ gold medal. Let that say what it will about my powers of prediction.

Anyway, tomorrow (August 13th), Tite will call up the squad for Brazil’s next round of World Cup qualifiers, so let’s try and predict what he’ll do, based upon who did well at the Olympics!

There’s an interesting wrinkle to this upcoming set of qualifiers: thanks to previous COVID-necessitated cancellations, CONMEBOL is cramming three games into the FIFA date instead of the usual two. So we’re playing Chile away on September 2, Argentina at home on the 5th, and then Peru at home on the 9th. I wonder if that’ll compel Tite to call up a couple of extra players? I mean, he didn’t do it for the Copa América, so…

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You thought Brazilian football was done for the summer? Think again! There are two Olympic medals up for grabs over the next two and a half weeks, and because I’m a little tired of writing match previews, I’m going to write one big preview for both the men’s and women’s teams and maybe revisit things if either one gets out of the group stage.

Brazil Men

Coach: André Jardine

(Squad is players born on or after January 1, 1997, plus three overage players, marked with an asterisk.)

Goalkeepers: Santos*, Brenno, Lucão

Fullbacks: Dani Alves*, Gabriel Menino, Abner, Guilherme Arana

Center-Backs: Diego Carlos*, Nino, Bruno Fuchs, Ricardo Graça

Midfielders: Bruno Guimarães, Claudinho, Matheus Henrique, Reinier, Douglas Luiz

Forwards: Antony, Gabriel Martinelli, Matheus Cunha, Paulinho, Malcom, Richarlison

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Well, fuck. That didn’t end super well.

We don’t need a long recap of Brazil’s 2021 Copa América campaign. A promising start, albeit one in which Brazil missed way too many chances and often started games far too slowly, fizzled out by the end of the group stage as the team had a harder and harder time scoring goals and taking control of games, ultimately losing 1-0 in the final and letting Argentina end their 28-year wait for an international trophy.

While Brazil generally dominated possession and allowed few good scoring chances to opponents, our attacking play increasingly fell apart as the tournament went on. We scored seven goals across our first two games of the Copa, but only five across our last five. We had a good 60 minutes to find an equalizer after Argentina went ahead in the final and never got particularly close.

So what went wrong? And who can we scapegoat blame?

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