Brazil kick off their Olympic campaign on Thursday, against South Africa in Brasília. Under the stewardship of Rogerio Michale, this U-23 side (with Renato Augusto, Fernando Prass and Neymar thrown in for good measure) offers the first clean break from the turgid Dunga era. Rogerio’s squad is top heavy in terms of talent, with Grêmio’s Luan, Santos’ Gabriel Barbosa, Palmeiras’ Gabriel Jesús and Neymar all set to feature heavily. Rogerio has all but confirmed that […]
Football and the Olympics have historically made for uneasy bedfellows. The Olympics is, at its essence, a celebration of the amateur principles of sport. In modern times, it has become a festival for athletics and minority sports to spend four weeks in the soda light. European football, with its global popularity and garish riches, does not fit comfortably into this brief. The 2012 Olympic Games in London was greeted with a slew of articles in […]
Tite will assume the reigns of the Seleção for the resumption of the World Cup qualifiers in August. He is a significant upgrade on Dunga, as a glance at the track record of the two coaches suggests. Tite is comfortably the best Brazilian coach around, albeit the bar has been exponentially lowered over the years by a poisonous coaching culture. Impatient club owners sack managers with impunity, then compound this vicious cycle by hiring from […]
On Saturday, 4th June, Brazil kick off their Copa América Centenário campaign against Ecuador in the Rose Bowl in Pasadena. The stadium holds happy memories for the Seleção and troubled coach Dunga as they lifted the World Cup in that very arena back in 1994. Dunga interpreted that triumph as an act of defiance against a hostile press, who had come to regard him as emblematic of Brazil’s transition from futêbol artistes to functional army. […]
An absorbing Copa Libertadores group phase has rattled by in a flash of power cuts, on field brawls, red cards, centre halves in goal, and matches played at severe altitude or in the middle of the Andean desert. Occasionally some football broke out too. Four of the five Brazilian clubs have progressed to the knockout rounds, with Copa do Brasil winners Palmeiras narrowly missing out. How did the Brazilian clubs fare? Who awaits them in […]
12th June, 2014. Brazil opens a World Cup as host for the first time in 64 years with a group match against Croatia. The Brazil team lines up arm in arm as the opening chords of the national anthem whir around Arena Corinthians. Before the opening lyrics are uttered, Neymar is pictured blinking back tears, as are several of his teammates – the emotion of the occasion producing an undevourable lump in their throats. Hulk, […]
The Copa Libertadores gets underway this month, a tournament that mirrors all that is mystifying, hilarious, stupid and fun about South American football. It is not so much the jewel in the crown of the continent’s elite, but more of a zoo in the jungle of southern hemisphere soccer. It will never match the prestige or the quality of the Champions League, but in my opinion, it easily outstrips its continental cousin in the entertainment […]
Though fiscal buffoonery remains very much part of the Brasileirão’s fabric, it’s fair to say that clubs are economically stronger than they were in the early part of the 2000s (for now). Generally speaking, the league features a mesh of players at either end of their career spectrum. Rising young bucks toil alongside more mature players that have returned home from Europe (or other far flung territories), for one last graze before they are […]
Neymar’s recent four match suspension caused Brazil coach Dunga a great deal of consternation as the Seleção embarked upon CONMEBOL World Cup qualifying. Prior to the opening qualifier with Chile in Santiago, the CBF went cap in hand to CONMEBOL and asked for their captain’s ban to be reduced. Dunga selected only 22 of his 23 squad allocation in case the governing bodies looked kindly upon Brazil’s pleas. It was to no avail. Hulk and […]
The Brasileirão season is winding to a close and, for the third season in a row, the title will be won at a canter, this time by Tite’s Corinthians, who are a single point away from confirming themselves as campeões. With only four rounds of the 2015 season remaining, thoughts are turning towards the individual trinkets that will be handed out. In a season where they have won the league easily, with the best away […]