There is no such thing as a friendly for the Brazil national team, or at least not for its hoards of fans around the world. Brazil don’t just play friendlies, they take part in the Brazil Global Tour: it’s got a sponsor and everything. No other team in the world has such fanfare attached to non-competitive games, but when these types of games were all they had to play during the build-up to their 2014 […]
7-1 will never be erased. No one in Brazil will tell you differently. Winning the Olympics, which many rightfully point out is simply a glorified youth tournament, pales in comparison to the national embarrassment that was Germany’s 7-1 win against Brasil in the 2014 World Cup. But just as the stain that is the 7-1 will never be cleaned, so too, the shine that is the Olympic Gold Medal will never fade. Embed from Getty […]
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 […]
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 […]
Part of the fun of following Brazilian football is watching stars develop before your eyes. Before Neymar joined Barcelona, he tore it up for Santos, much to the delight of those who followed Brazilian football. With Neymar, and perhaps Douglas Costa, as the sole exceptions, Brazil has struggled to produce world-class talent in the recent years. That’s about to change. Gabriel Barbosa, also known as Gabigol, a 19-year old attacking star, has already played over […]
This summer, Brazil’s national team will participate in two international competitions deemed to be of utmost importance. First, in June, the full national team will participate in the Copa América Centenario in the United States. Then, in August, Brazil’s u-23 national team, plus three selected overage players, will participate in the Olympic Games football tournament which will be held throughout Brazil in venues that also hosted matches during the 2014 FIFA World Cup. The biggest […]
Corinthians may have wrapped up the 2015 Brasileirão title with three matches to spare, but that doesn’t mean the conclusion to the Brazilian football season will lack excitement. The relegation scrap is poised to be thoroughly entertaining, with 5 teams fighting for just 2 spots to avoid the dreaded drop to Série B. However, if not so great footballing sides fighting to avoid relegation mainly by parking the bus and hoping to poach a goal […]
By now, it is apparent that Brazil’s cupboard is startlingly bare when it comes to attacking talent. The situation has been obvious in the country for some time, but it took the world a little while longer to catch on. The band aid of Neymar allowed the rest of the footballing world to blithely assume that the country was continuing its conveyor belt of jogo bonito action dolls. The stereotypes prevailed and were able to […]