Brazil World Cup Blog

News, analysis, history, and discussion on all things Verde-Amarela

Page 9 of 14

Tite To Call Up Brazil Squad On Friday

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.

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The Greatest Seleção Goal of All Time

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.

The Greatest Seleção Goal of All Time: Second Round, Part 4

In the last round of voting

Kaká’s solo goal against Argentina easily beat Ronaldinho’s solo goal against Haiti, with 79% of the vote.

Nelinho’s famous goal against Italy in 1978 thumped another Kaká goal, against Egypt in 2009, with 85% of the vote.

Despite my best efforts to convince you all to vote otherwise, Éder’s goal against the USSR in 1982 absolutely thrashed Oscar’s goal against Belarus in the 2012 Olympics, with 89% of the vote.

In a surprisingly close contest given how one-sided the other votes were this round, the team goal from the end of the 2005 Confederations Cup final beat Zico’s acrobatic goal against New Zealand in 1982 with 60% of the vote.

You can view the whole bracket here.

And now…

TODAY’S VOTING

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The Greatest Seleção Goal of All Time: Second Round, Part 3

In the last round of voting

Despite a vocal showing from the Jairzinho-vs-England-in-1970 fan club, Roberto Carlos’ free kick against France won easily with 78% of the vote.

Bebeto’s goal against the Netherlands in 1994 earned 89% of the votes over Elano’s smash against Portugal in 2008.

In the closest contest of the day, Pelé’s famous goal in the 1958 World Cup final got 69% of the vote over Sócrates’ famous goal in the 1982 World Cup opener. Nice.

Lastly, Ronaldinho’s free kick against England in the 2002 World Cup beat Júlio Baptista’s bicycle kick against Catalunya in 2004 with 88% of the vote.

You can view the whole bracket here.

And now…

TODAY’S VOTING

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