A few months ago a website wanted to pay me good money to go to Santos and write a profile piece on the team’s young striker Gabriel ‘Gabigol’ Barbosa. And I ended up talking myself out of a lucrative commission. The idea started to lose appeal when he did little of note at the start of the year in the South American Under-20 Championships. And it died a death when he was not even selected […]
The contrast between two of the managers at June’s Copa America could hardly have been more obvious. First there was Dunga, the arch-paranoia-pragmatist, piling on extra central defenders – there were four on the pitch by the end of the game – to protect a slim lead against humble Venezuela, before his side’s paucity of attacking options sans Neymar was painfully revealed in defeat in its next game against Paraguay. On the other hand there […]
For Dunga and Brazil, the qualifiers for the 2018 World Cup get underway in October, so the coach does not have much time to pick over the rubble of a pretty disastrous Copa América campaign. The Copa is usually considered a neat precursor to the qualifiers. It marks the beginning of a new cycle in the international calendar, and as such, many coaches use it as a laboratory to perfect the formula for the seasons […]
Despite all the barriers that FIFA and UEFA try to put up to prevent big clubs from stockpiling players, it is unlikely that they will ever be successful. The potential economic benefit is quite simply too large for rich (mainly) European sides not to try and benefit. They easily afford spending a couple of millions on a handful of prospects in the hope that one of them either comes good or can be sold on. […]
Brazil made it to the final of the 2015 U20 World Cup thanks to wins on penalties v Uruguay in the last 16, and Portugal in the quarter finals. A 5-0 thrashing of Senegal in the semi-final was the only time the side had really let loose as they always threaten to do, but they returned to their previous guise for this, often frustrating final match. The first chance came after ten minutes, when Boschilia whipped […]
The Copa América is not as illustrious in South America as its continental cousin the European Championships. It falls in the proceeding summer after the World Cup and precedes the Olympic Games, which is seen as a superior prize. Any tournament in which the Americas pit their wits against European counterparts stirs the loins to a much greater degree than continental competition. The fact that there is no qualifying process for Copa América means that […]
Since reassuming the reins of the Seleção last August, Dunga’s manifesto has contained two over-arching promises, both designed to clear up the mess of the previous administration, as manifestos are wont to do. Firstly, to expunge the memory of the game now known in common parlance as “the 7-1.” Dunga has made a good start with a perfect set of friendly results, but the Copa América in Chile would be the first proper band aid […]
Goalkeepers are different. So wrote Brian Glanville and, as on most occasions, the wise man of football writing was right. You have to be different to be a goalkeeper. Your basic purpose – that of stopping goals from being scored – means that you are the only one allowed to break one of the most basic rules of the game, that of playing with your hand rather than your feet. But there’s more; goalkeepers are […]
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 […]
Corinthians, São Paulo, Internacional, Atlético Mineiro and Cruzeiro all emerged from the group phase of the Copa Libertadores unscathed. Some qualified with greater ease than others, Tite’s Corinthians consummately sailed through the ‘group of death.’ In contrast, Galo, who really ought to fit their supporters with pacemakers as standard, qualified by the skin of their teeth. The main obstacle to a Brazilian club snafuing this year’s Libertadores comes mainly from Argentina, specifically Boca Juniors, […]