Confederations Cup 2003 Just thought I would post this question about the roster in its own thread: Goleiro: Dida (Milan/ITA); Laterais: Belletti (Villareal/ESP) e Fábio Aurélio (Valência/ESP) Zagueiros: Juan, Lúcio (Bayer Leverkusen/ALE) e Roque Júnior (Milan/ITA) Meias: Eduardo Costa (Bordeaux/FRA), Emerson (Roma/ITA) e Zé Roberto (Bayern de Munique/ALE) Atacantes: Ronaldinho Gaúcho (Paris Saint-Germain/FRA) e Adriano (Parma/ITA) The list of players who play in the national clubs will be released in one week. ________ I had read that CAP had cited that Rivaldo needed a rest as a reason he did not get called into camp. Umm...is it me, or did Rivaldo only play about 180 minutes this last month for Milan? I would think that Rivaldo would desperately want to be on this squad to help facilitate his move to the EPL, which he has talked about. As it is, he appears to be washed up. That is possible I suppose, but I think he just doesn't fit at all with Milan's style (see: Veron). Any other thoughts on his omission?
Re: Confederations Cup 2003 A couple of thoughts Rio. a) His presence is not absolutely necessary, since the confed doesn't carry full weight, and we already know what he can do. Let's see who comes to the fore in his spot. I don't mind letting him rest this summer, which touches on the second thought... b) I believe he's been fighting injury for awhile now. Apologize for re-posting an entry from a couple of months back, but it reflects my belief (although not those of the posters on the Barca thread).. The lack of playing time in the last months and during the summer might be a blessing in disguise. He's past his 99-01 prime, but IMO still is better than 80% of the world's offensive talent when healthy. Rivaldo scored today in Coppa Italia finals. And, he set-up the other goal by Inzaghi. He's still got match winning talent.
I get excited watching the first team play, lots of fantastic players. Everyone I talk to says Brazil could field 4 to 5 relatively equal teams, but after watching Brazil in the Confed Cup, I completely disagree. Ronaldinho does not look to be himself out there, and the people I haven't seen before (Adriano, Gil, etc) are good players but not with the class of Rivaldo, Ronaldo, or even Denilson. Heck, I'd take Juninho any day over some of these guys. Agree? Disagree? Oh, and someone wrote that the new right fullback was set to take over for Cafu, but I hope it's not that #2 Belletti guy... he seems okay but not great.
I myself am kind of worried about Cafu's and Roberto Carlos' future replacements. Belleti, I feel, hasn't been cutting it. I really don't know who will be Roberto Carlo's replacement. THose are very tough boots to fill. Brazil's future midfield and attack looks promising with Robinho, Diego, Adriano, and Kaka coming up. However, Roberto Carlos is 30 and Cafu is around 34 years of age.
Leo who plays for Santos is amazing. He was voted best left full back in the Brazilian league when Santos won the championship and in the Libertadores he looks amazing...he' s got speed, dribble and a great shot as well, but I usually don't see him take any free kicks. Bottomline he will be R.Carlos replacement.
Unfortunately, I feel the CBF has been leaning on the individual brilliance of its players as opposed to putting out a a great team. There is no way Brasil should have performed so poorly in the Confederations Cup if it was about the players' skill. The Turkey team to me is very workmanlike, fairly bland (other than Tuncay), and technically and fundamentally sound. And even with the tie on the scoreboard, you can't argue that Turkey looked better throughout the tournament. I would expect this team to perform the way it did against other nations' full strength squads. Except for maybe the strikers', whose inexperience showed greatly. Adriano has a future - but when the hell will he learn what to do with the ball when he has it with back to goal from only 6 meters out? The others I don't think are among Brasil's top 10 strikers. I think that if Brasil would get organized and put together a TEAM, then yes, you could go 2-3 players deep at several positions. When you're just relying on scoring with 2-3 players linking up, then yes, you must have the world class talents of Ronaldo, Rivaldo, and RC working together. Brasil's tactics to me have approached the level of being completely and utterly naive. You saw the exact same thing in the qualifiers. Yet if you watch Santos, Cruzeiro, or any of the top teams in the Brasileiro, you see REAL brasilian football. Certainly the defenses they are going against help, but the attacking plays are so much more difficult to defend from just a strategic point of view. Ronaldinho is a great player, but I don't see him as a true creative midfielder - I like Alex MUCH better for that. In the games I've seen Alex and Ronaldinho play together - wow, they are fantastic together. I can't see why CAP is whining about having to choose one of them. It's worse than Scolari. He chooses Ricardinho over Alex for whatever reason. Left back will not be a difficult position for Brasil to fill - though you can't expect the same impact from that place on the field - RC is just the best I've seen in 20 years. And here's something scary - I thought Belleti played better this tournament than he ever has. I didn't care for Maurinho. Bottom line is Brasil has the talent to compete much better than they did.