After three months of largely uninteresting state league football mixed in with some Copa Libertadores fun, Brazil’s national league, the Brasileirão, makes its much anticipated return this weekend. Things are much different now than they were last December when the 2015 campaign concluded. Then, Corinthians were the deserved champions and looking like the best side in the recent history of South American football. Now, Timão has seen so many of the players that made that […]
With the slog that is the Brazilian state leagues finally behind us, the eyes of the country turn to the Brasileirão. The are story-lines aplenty, with Flamengo looking to return to relevance on the pitch, a heavily weakened Corinthians seeking to win back to back titles, and plenty of teams looking likely to make a run at the title. With those in mind, let’s take a look at the best and worst case scenarios of […]
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 […]
After a feckless spell in Mexico with Querétaro, Ronaldinho Gaúcho returns to Brazil with Fluminense this month. Having turned 35 in March, he is winding down the final years of his career. He has never been the most fastidious player when it comes to his physical preparation, in fact, at times he has treated training as an optional part of a footballer’s existence. His peerless quality has masked his devil may care attitude in the […]
This preview of the 2015 Brazilian season was written by Anthony Wood (@FRfutebolAnt) and Luke Butler (@FRfutebolLuke), who are Brazilian football experts for the football data and analysis company, Football Radar. After a few long and arduous months of state championship football, the 2015 edition of Brazil’s premier league competition, the Brasileirão, kicks off this weekend. The league has seen eleven different teams crowned champions over the past two decades and this season looks set to be as competitive and unpredictable […]
The South American Youth Championship concluded in Uruguay last weekend, Argentina won the title after beating Uruguay, while Colombia finished in third place after beating Brazil. Colombia and Uruguay had impressive performances in the competition, outclassing a disappointing Brazil that looked tactically lost and without ideas. Argentina won the tournament largely due to the chemistry of Ángel Correa and Diego Simeone’s son Giovanni. The top four teams – Argentina, Colombia, Uruguay and Brazil – qualified […]
Brazil’s first competitive games after the World Cup shambles came in the South American Under-20 Championships, which have just come to a conclusion in Uruguay. With a young, articulate coach in Alexandre Gallo, who had time to prepare for the competition, this was an excellent opportunity to put last year’s disappointments in the past and show that Brazilian football has licked its wounds, learned its lessons and moved on. That opportunity was emphatically not taken. […]
A few weeks ago, Arsene Wenger opined that South America was the world’s citadel for top class strikers. With the likes of Luis Suarez, Sergio Aguero, Alexis Sanchez, Diego Costa, Radamel Falcao, Edinson Cavani and, if you want to stretch the definition of ‘striker’ a little, Lionel Messi setting a benchmark for forward play in recent years, Europe’s cupboard looks comparatively bare. Wenger elaborated: “Maybe it’s because in Europe street football has gone. In street […]
Another season of one of the most competitive leagues in world football has come to an end. Although they weren’t as convincing this campaign, last year’s champions Cruzeiro have successfully retained their crown, which speaks volumes about the difference in quality between the Belo Horizonte club and the other teams in the league. Even if Cruzeiro don’t rise to their normal standards they don’t have much to worry as the other so-called title contenders (São […]
In Beijing this weekend, Brazil’s ‘new’ era under Dunga received its stiffest examination, as they defeated World Cup finalists Argentina in the opulent ‘Bird’s Nest’ stadium. For Seleção fans, cleansing the stain of The Copa is going to be an incremental and rather raw process. No matter how incisively stitches are extracted, the scar lingers and the skin takes on an unweathered appearance forever more. Such was the brutality of the 7-1 mauling by Germany […]