Already labelled the ‘new hope’ by Santos fans, the 17-year-old wonder kid, Rodrygo Silva de Goes, was a highlight of the Santos win over Uruguay’s Nacional, scoring the second goal of the 3-1 win with a sublime solo run in the club’s first win in the Libertadores this year. Becoming the youngest Brazilian ever to score in the competition, Santos fans are beyond excited about the young striker, who they feel could be the next […]
Recent weeks have seen the phrase “Who is Willian José?” searched on google many times. Courtesy of Chelsea’s fixture against Barcelona in the UEFA Champions League, the phrase got more wind. Even today, if you speak it in front of someone, the first thing that will come to their heads would be this quote from the Brazilian and Chelsea star Willian da Silva, more commonly known as Willian: “Jose is my friend but I am […]
Since 2008 the highest individual accolade a soccer player can receive, the Ballon d’Or, has been won either by Lionel Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo. Now there is a new contender challenging for the title and according to Brazilian legend Cafu, Neymar is set to become the best player in the world. Cafu spoke with The Silver Times about Neymar’s talent in an interview stating, “this is a genuine phenomenon, this is one of the best […]
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 […]
For Brazilians, 7×1 is a scoreline that will always carry meaning. It was, of course, the scoreline of the trashing that Germany gave them in the 2014 World Cup. That match dashed the dreams of Brazil lifting the Cup on their home soil, and stained Brazilian football in a way which will never be washed clean. It wasn’t insignificant then, that on Wednesday night in Orlando, Brazil defeated Haiti by that same score in their […]
The last time Brazil played a major tournament on American soil, they were crowned World Champions for the fourth time. This time, the story could be vastly different. Ironically enough, the stadium that hosted Brazil’s coronation in 1994, The Rose Bowl in Pasadena just outside Los Angeles, will host their debut in this year’s Copa América Centenario, which will take place Saturday against Ecuador. Brazil enter Saturday’s match a team in crisis. Manager Dunga has […]
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. […]
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 […]
On Sunday night, all of the Americas footballing elite gathered in New York City to discover their fate for this summer’s special Copa America Centenario in the draw ceremony, held at New York’s historic Hammerstein Ballroom. Though the group seeds were already set coming into the night, there was still plenty of intrigue, with not just group competition at stake, but also the hassle of flying across a country as vast as the United States. […]