In his piece “The Death Of Basketball”, Jon Bois uses the video game NBA 2K14 to simulate a future in which all basketball talent suddenly dries up and the NBA is forced, year after year, to draft from a pool of short, scrawny, completely useless players, each as devoid of athleticism and technical skill as the game will allow. It takes a while for the change to become apparent; for a few seasons, the horrid new players barely see any action and teams continue as they were with the stars they drafted in the before times. But, inevitably, the cracks soon start to show. The first teams to press the new players into starting roles unsurprisingly slump to historically bad seasons. As the quality of those around them declines, the dwindling group of good, but aging, players who remain begin posting astounding numbers. Desperate teams begin digging forgotten players out of free agency, years after they last played in the NBA. The Atlanta Hawks win an NBA championship. Finally, when the last good player retires, the statistical bottom falls out. Game 1 of the simulated 2034 NBA Finals ends 3-0, after 12 overtimes. Basketball dies an ignominious virtual death.

Uruguay vs. Brazil

Estadio Centenario, Montevideo, Uruguay, November 17, 2020

Kickoff: 6:00 PM EDT / 4:00 PM BRT / 11:00 PM GMT

US TV / Streaming: PPV only

Likely Starting Lineup: Ederson; Danilo, Thiago Silva, Marquinhos, Renan Lodi; Allan (Arthur), Douglas Luiz, Éverton Ribeiro; Richarlison, Roberto Firmino, Gabriel Jesus.

Updated Squad:

Goalkeepers: Alisson, Ederson, Weverton.

Right-backs: Danilo (Gabriel Menino cut without replacement – COVID).

Left-backs: Alex Telles, Renan Lodi, Guilherme Arana (last-minute callup to cover Telles if a positive COVID test kept him from entering Uruguay, but that didn’t happen, so Arana’s just here for general cover now).

Center-Backs: Marquinhos, Thiago Silva, Felipe (replaces Éder Militão – COVID), Diego Carlos (replaces Rodrigo Caio – injured).

Midfielders: Bruno Guimarães (replaces Casemiro – COVID), Allan (replaces Fabinho – injured), Douglas Luiz, Arthur, Lucas Paquetá (replaces Coutinho – injured), Éverton Ribeiro.

Forwards: Everton Cebolinha, Firmino, Gabriel Jesus, Richarlison, Vinícius Júnior, Thiago Galhardo (replaces Pedro – injured, who himself effectively replaced Neymar – injured).

Notes And Storylines

Brazil vs. Venezuela

Estádio do Morumbi, São Paulo, November 13, 2020

Kickoff: 7:30 PM EDT / 9:30 PM BRT / 12:30 AM GMT

US TV / Streaming: PPV only

Likely Starting Lineup: Ederson; Danilo, Thiago Silva, Marquinhos, Renan Lodi; Allan, Douglas Luiz, Éverton Ribeiro; Richarlison, Roberto Firmino, Gabriel Jesus.

Notes And Storylines

This morning, Tite announced Brazil’s squad for the upcoming World Cup qualifiers against Venezuela on November 13 and Uruguay on November 17:

Goalkeepers: Alisson, Ederson, Weverton

Right-backs: Danilo, Gabriel Menino

Left-backs: Alex Telles, Renan Lodi

Center-Backs: Éder Militão, Marquinhos, Rodrigo Caio, Thiago Silva

Midfielders: Casemiro, Douglas Luiz, Arthur, Everton Ribeiro, Fabinho, Philippe Coutinho

Forwards: Everton Cebolinha, Firmino, Gabriel Jesus, Neymar, Richarlison, Vinícius Júnior

Additionally, U-23 coach André Jardine called up the Olympic squad for preparatory friendlies against Saudi Arabia and Egypt ahead of what is now next summer’s tournament. If there’s a U-23 player you felt was missing from the main squad, there’s a good chance he’s in this squad instead. I’m including club names for these players because most of us are probably not familiar with at least some of them.

Goalkeepers: Phelipe (FC Dallas), Gabriel Brazão (Real Oviedo), Daniel Fuzato (Gil Vicente)

Fullbacks: Emerson (Real Betis), Dodô (Shakhtar Donetsk), Caio Henrique (Monaco), Ayrton Lucas (Spartak Moscow)

Center-Backs: Gabriel Magalhães (Arsenal), Ibañez (Roma), Luiz Felipe (Lazio), Lyanco (Torino)

Midfielders: Bruno Guimarães (Lyon), Wendel (Zenit), Maycon (Shakhtar Donetsk), Marcos Antônio (Shakthar Donetsk), Lucas Paquetá (Lyon), Reinier (Borussia Dortmund)

Forwards: Antony (Ajax), David Neres (Ajax), Evanilson (Porto), Matheus Cunha (Hertha Berlin), Pedrinho (Benfica), Rodrygo (Real Madrid)

Recontesting the Copa América final, again.

Brazil vs. Peru

Estadio Nacional del Perú, Lima, October 13, 2020

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

US TV / Streaming: Pay-per-view only

Likely Starting Lineup: Weverton; Danilo, Thiago Silva, Marquinhos, Renan Lodi; Casemiro, Douglas Luiz, Coutinho; Neymar, Roberto Firmino, Everton Cebolinha (Richarlison).

Bench: Ederson, Santos, Gabriel Menino, Felipe, Rodrigo Caio, Alex Telles, Fabinho, Bruno Guimarães, Éverton Ribeiro, Matheus Cunha, Richarlison (Everton Cebolinha), Rodrygo.

Notes and Storylines

The Seleção is back at last.

Brazil vs. Bolivia

Arena Corinthians, São Paulo, October 9, 2020

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

US TV / Streaming: Pay-per-view only

Likely Starting Lineup: Weverton; Danilo, Thiago Silva, Marquinhos, Renan Lodi; Casemiro, Douglas Luiz, Coutinho; Neymar (Éverton Ribeiro), Roberto Firmino, Everton Cebolinha.

Bench: Ederson, Santos, Gabriel Menino, Felipe, Rodrigo Caio, Alex Telles, Fabinho, Bruno Guimarães, Éverton Ribeiro (Neymar), Matheus Cunha, Richarlison, Rodrygo.

Notes and Storylines

FIFA and CONMEBOL just greenlit October’s round of South American World Cup qualifiers, meaning the Seleção is going to play for the first time in eleven months: first at home against Bolivia and then away to Peru, tentatively scheduled for the 9th and 13th of the month respectively.

Unfortunately, the COVID-19 pandemic has hit South America hard, particularly Brazil (gosh, I wonder why), which now has more deaths from the virus than any country except the United States. This is a potential issue for European clubs, who will be obligated to release their players for two weeks and then potentially lose them for at least two more weeks when they have to quarantine upon returning from hotspot countries like Brazil and Peru (which actually has an even worse per capita death rate right now). Even obligated by FIFA to let their players travel, they may find sneaky ways to get around it (like how English players always get conveniently injured for 10 days during international breaks) or just ask players to sit out.

The result is that Tite might end up having to draw from Brazil-based players more than he’d like, and in a worst-case scenario, we might end up seeing a squad with only Brazil-based players, like that 2017 friendly against Colombia to commemorate the Chapecoense plane disaster.

We spent months voting, and at last we have chosen a winner. Winning 53% of the vote over that Carlos Alberto goal, Pelé’s first goal in the 1958 World Cup final against Sweden, Brazil’s third and thus decisive goal in a 5-2 win, is the greatest Seleção goal of all time.

I’ve already said everything I had to say about this goal in the last post, so let’s just take this opportunity to bask in finally having chosen a winner.

If you want to look over the bracket, that’s here; my spreadsheet with all the goals that were nominated is here. I’m thinking of creating a post listing every goal in the bracket later on, but that many videos and GIFs may take a deadly toll upon any web browser that tries to view it, so perhaps it’ll just be a YouTube playlist or something.

For now, let’s use the comments celebrate the greatest goal in the history of the Brazil national team and discuss the start of the 2020/21 club season. With Brazil back in action in October, it won’t be long until I’ll have some actual Seleção news to post, and maybe we’ll soon have a few more worthy goals to talk about.