The State of Brazilian football en route & after 2014 World Cup

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Duarte: Robinho offered another shot with the Selecao by Fernando Duarte - ESPN FC

 

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Manchester city midfielder Fernandinho bemused by Brazil snub - ESPN FC

Maybe you could argue he is worth a squad ahed of liverpool's Lucas, but he is not going to be starting really.

 

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BBC Sport - How did Brazil become World Cup favourites?

 

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Best nike football commercial yet, a notch above the ones they have done about England.

 

[thedon5]

Brilliant. It seems like even Nike aren't trying to hide the fact that David Luiz is always out of position haha. Bernard with the giants too was so true!

 

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^^

Ha ye, although with Luiz it might help if Mourinho or Scolari stop playing him as a central defender though. I aint a world renowned coach like those two esteemed gentlemen, but he never looks good in the role.

To me, once he is playing in mid-field or as a sweeper in a back 3 defense, that when his better attacking tendencies are best utilized.

 

[Bevab]

Had he been born in the Beckenbauer era as a German, pretty sure he would've ended up as a back up for him.

Or a decent player for almost any team playing a sweeper system.

 

[StinkyBoHoon]

looking good as a defender is nearly impossible these days, they're expected to defend on the half way line with acres of space behind them while facing players that are basically picked at youth level for their speed. most teams employ attacking wingers leaving the central defender to float around about 30 feet from the their main attacking threats.

tbh Thiago Silva even as the most highly rated defender in the world is still under-rated. he's a better central defender than messi or ronaldo are forwards. at milan we're not only missing his ability to shore up the defense by himself we're missing his creativity.

 

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Comment: If Julio Cesar is serious about keeping goal for Brazil at World Cup 2014, what is he doing failing to make the bench at QPR? - News & Comment - Football - The Independent

Ha interesting poster comment on this article:

Cesar's brighter than this Sam Wallace chap: bright enough to realise that he will be a free agent once his contract is cancelled, and so the transfer window is irrelevant. Also presumably bright enough to realise that you can't get injured if you're not playing.

He can keep picking up his ?70k a week (or whatever it really is) until the end of Feb or beginning of March, then go to any top flight club in any of four or five countries, one of which will need a keeper for ten or twelve games. He'll be match-fit, uninjured, fresh, ready for the World Cup, and yes, with lots of money in the bank. Sounds like a sensible plan to me.

 

[Lee1981]

Took my boy to one of those after school soccer schools run by the fa, he has been their for the past 4 weeks but this week was the first time I really spoke to any of the coaches

Anyway he was similar age to me early 30's and we spoke at length about the current state of our game, and he said to me something which I had never thought about, firstly he said since we last won the World Cup most kids would play football night and day if possible, and I can agree with this as I would play as much as possible.

So look at it like this, we have never won the World Cup again in a time when kids would play football all the time, as there was little else to do then, so our kids were not good enough when they grew up to be footballers, now look at today's kids, they do not play anywhere close to the amount I did the generation before did, so how on earth do we ever expect to win it again when we play less than we did before?

I'd never thought about it like this before but it does make sense, he also said why do you think Spain are so good? They have bloody good weather most of the year so the kids are out playing continually, for me this hits the nail on the head.

My garden is flooded, so realistically we won't kick a ball their till March at best, the parks are water logged, yeah there are free options like these cages in parks but the concrete surface is a slippery and dangerous option.

So it then means it's down to the 3G option, as great as the pitches are they don't come cheap, my kids team train once a week one and we are currently playing our Sunday matches on them also, however our club is now investing in an alternative surface to use at our football club, some kind of carpet on rubber, basically a cheaper alternative than 3G

The cost of the 3G pitches for our club to send all our age groups to is financially to much.

So what I take from this is that yes the kids are learning a better way to play the game, but more importantly they are not playing enough for us to ever be a force again

 

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Hope springs eternal for Miranda, Filipe Luis - FIFA.com

Kaka surge may come too late for Brazil by Tim Vickery - ESPN FC

Who stays and who plays in Brazil's crowded midfield at the World Cup? by Fernando Duarte - ESPN FC

 

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Selecao legend Rivelino fears for Brazil's future by Fernando Duarte - ESPN FC

Hmm..

 

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I'm not making this thread as a fan of Brazil, since i'm not. But like any football fan, I appreciate their historical significance in world football.

However now that Brazil have not won the Olympic gold that they clearly wanted badly, with a group a talented but massively hyped youngsters. Once expects their coach to be sacked, if they are true to form.

But what does this defeat really mean?. IMO it just continues along the trend ever since Brazil were knocked out in the 2006 WC quarter-finals/2007 Copa America win. Which is Brazil are searching for an identity without much luck.

Before their Olympics, BBC sports South American guru, Tim Vickery had an insightful article articulating this issue: Can Brazil rekindle their magic? - ESPN Soccernet



Essentially he painting the picture that since the 1974 world cup, Brazil have depended solely on natural great individual skill to win them games (Ronaldo, Rivaldo, Romario, Ronaldino, Kaka etc etc etc) and have moved away from the magic mid-field play of their legendary 1970 team - which Spain has coincidentally reverted to in their modern domination of world football.

So they are hoping the likes of Oscar, Ganson, Neymar, Lucas can be their registra and triquartista versions of Xavi, Pirlo, Xabi, Iniesta. Moving away from the period of hard tackling mid-fielders like Emmerson, Edu, Dunga, Gilberto Silva, Felipe Melo, Sandro, Julio Baptista

Fortunately for the Brazil clubs pocket and unfortunately for the world, they seems to have already accepted these young kids as the real deal, while conveniently ignoring these dynamics of Brazil's decline,. The money Chelsea and PSG have thrown at Oscar and Lucas is stunning leap of fate and if Neymar and Leandro follow suite to Europe its crazy to think how much they will cost too.

The pressure Oscar and Lucas will be crazy in the next two years - if they don't star up at Chelsea and PSG.

If they can live up and you add experienced players like Julio Cesar, Alves, David Luiz, Ramires, Lucas Leiva Andre Santos or Adriano Corriea at left-back - the team can certainly be very strong. On paper it may be then come 2014, they may be the team best equipped to stop Spain:

---------------------------------Julio Cesar--------------------------

Alves---------Thiago Silva-----David Luiz-----Marcelo/Santos/Adrianno

------------------Sandro------------Lucas/Ramirez------------------

-------------------------------Oscar------------------------------

Hulk------------------------Leandro-----------------Neymar-------

But clearly the time is very short and this Olympics defeat would have clearly hindered that and if they don't win the Confederations Cup next year, then i think world would need to stop treating Brazilian talent its still the most unique commodity in world football.

Well after this defeat, when you think back at the things Tim Vickery mentioned in this article a few years ago - Brazil are back to square one.

 

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BBC Sport - World Cup 2014: Brazil must learn lessons from Germany humiliation

 

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Tim Vickery Column: Why David Luiz is evidence that Brazilian football has drifted away from the sound concepts of how the game should be played - Sambafoot.com, all About Brazilian Football

Brazil media got to be crazy..