All the drama and rumors about a potential departure by Tite with him being replaced by Renato Portaluppi on grounds the latter supports President Bolsonaro turned out to be a big and gigantic "nothing-burger," to quote Van Jones, the rabid leftist CNN anchorman who said President Trump winning the 2016 election was a "whitelash" and who later said on the streets (this was video-recorded) that the Russia collusion allegation against Trump was indeed a "nothing-burger." Tite has the right to vote for whomever he wishes. On the job, he's been phenomenal. Rede Globo came up with all this bullcrap in part because SBT, a rival network which is more to Bolsonaro's liking, is the network with broadcasting rights. Bolsonaro essentially told Globo, who is just as prone to broadcast fake news as are most American news networks, to go fornicate with itself. The only political pressure that could be brought to bear upon Tite to the extent he could lose his job via resignation or termination would be from within CBF; but, this could only come at the time through a series of very poor results. This is what cost Vanderlei Luxemburgo his job, right as he failed in the 2000 Olympics. Luxemburgo was also under pressure from what was then unprecedented bad results in WCQ. Furthermore, with Caboclo disgraced and away from power, there's no way Tite can be summarily fired. it's quite likely Tite will move on after the 2022 World Cup. He will want a break and some rest, and he will probably get offers from UEFA. In fact, he may do this even if Brazil wins the World Cup and CBF offers him an unprecedented third 4-year stint with unbelievable perks and wages. But before then, barring an unforeseen tragedy or set of defeats, Tite is not going anywhere other than Qatar.
OK, good to know; I didn't know all these details; just heard that while Caboclo was heading the CBF Bolsonaro was asking him to fire Tite, and I assumed that even after Caboclo's disgrace Bolsonaro wouldn't be letting go and his followers would be leaving death threats in Tite's voice mail and whatnot.
That was a rumor and not really confirmed. Might have been a straight out lie, might have been a bad source with 2nd intentions. I wouldn't doubt if Caboclo was pissed at Tite for staying passive with the whole "we don't want to play" deal from the players. He may view as being Tite's obligation to convince the players to play given CBF went out of their way to host the competition.
But didn't Bolsonaro directly say that Tite should be the manager for some team from Serie B that got promoted to Serie A, rather than the manager of the national team? I know it's not the same thing as pressuring for his firing but it does show that Bolsonaro dislikes Tite which will turn Bolsonaro's passionate fans against Tite. That was what I was getting at, if Tite is willing to put up with that, or take an early retirement. But that was just my guess. It's been explained here that he is not going anywhere. This said, obviously you guys know more about the local situation than I do. You guys seem to be 100% Brazilian fans, some of you living in Brazil. Me, I divide my allegiances between Italy, the United States (I'm a dual citizen of Italy and the United States) and Brazil, where I spent my formative years when my Italian-American father worked there, and where I met my wife who is Brazilian. So, despite my close ties with Brazil, these ties have been a bit on hold due to the pandemic. I used to visit Brazil with my wife to see her family, once a year or at least every other year. It happened that we were in one of those every other year cycles and about to go there when the pandemic hit so adding another year and a half to that, it's been a while since I last visited Brazil and although I sometimes do follow the local news there online or on satellite TV (my wife subscribes to TV Globo), I don't always know all the details and sometimes I hear something without looking deeply into it, which may lead me to mistaken impressions.
No. Vice-President Hamilton Mourão sarcastically said "O técnico não quer mais? Não quer? O Cuiabá está precisando de um técnico, não está? Leva lá, sai, pede o boné." This was before the team's "manifesto" was released, and before Tite himself said anything about the tournament. The team's players and coaching staff are entitled to their political views, but they never said they would refuse to play for Brazil in this tournament. This news article is from June 7; during the early June WCQ rounds, the team fell silent on the tournament's move to Brazil. After the victory at Paraguay the silence was broken. Vice-President Hamilton Mourão's words weren't the most polished, but he does have a point - it's an honor to play for Brazil. I speculate he too fell for Globo's lies, as the players did state in their "manifesto" that they honor the National Team. And why wouldn't they? Most are from very humble backgrounds; for people like them to become starters in a Série A team like SPFC or Corinthians or Flamengo or Palmeiras is a huge deal - for them to then become regularly capped NT players is a dream come true. As for President Bolsonaro, his is a rather colorful mouth. But the decision for the tournament to be held in Brazil was not his; he's the chief executive, not the head of CBF or of CONMEBOL. He consulted others on this decision and he was not against it. Much ado about nothing was created to hurt him politically. Both Brazilians who oppose him and a few South American posters here did the same. As of now, while there have been infections, no one has died. Odds are the tournament will proceed as planned right up to the day of the final, and not a single person will die. By which time, everyone will have forgotten about all the condemnation leveled at him for the tournament coming to Brazil - especially if Brazil wins the tournament.
It's the VP Mourão who made those comments. But I didn't bother to look what the line of questioning from the reporter was. Sometimes printed quotes are baited by journalists and look different when the full context is shown. https://g1.globo.com/politica/notic...ite-o-cuiaba-esta-precisando-de-tecnico.ghtml
I see. On the other hand, the "nobody will die" part may very well be foiled by the service people who got infected by servicing the foreign delegations, no? There's been a couple of dozen, no? And yes, it's unlikely that the virus will kill the athletes who are young(ish) and healthy; elsewhere (like in Italy's Serie A) lots of athletes caught the virus but recovered without any issue, as expected; I believe that there hasn't been any active footballer who died of Covid-19; not that I know. But the service people may include some older and sicker people, so if a handful of them die and it's demonstrated that they caught the virus from the foreign delegations, this will give ammunition to the opposition, right? Brazil is going through some interesting political times... very similar to what we are seeing/saw in the United States. My wife voted for Bolsonaro in the first round. She dislikes the Worker's Party. But then, she annulled her vote for the second round, because she learned of (and got disgusted by) some statements by Bolsonaro that she deemed sexist and demeaning to women, and decided that while she didn't want to vote for the Worker's Party candidate, she didn't want to vote again for Bolsonaro either so she annulled her vote. Ever since, she turned more against Bolsonaro, as she dislikes his management of the pandemic, and she worries about her family members struggling to get vaccinated. She blames him for not accepting Pfizer's early offer of vaccines, as she believes that Pfizer is the best vaccine (that's the one we all got here; me, my wife, and our two children who are young adults). My two children have Brazilian citizenship through my wife. My daughter voted for some centrist candidate (I forgot his name) in first round and annulled her vote in second round, based on the same disgust for Bolsonaro's allegedly sexist positions, and her dislike of the Worker's Party, just like Mom. My son who is more to the left than his parents and his sister, voted for the Worker Party's candidate in both rounds. Despite these political differences, they all get along very well. My leftist son doesn't mind his center-right mother and centrist sister and vice-versa; they do discuss Brazilian politics among them but in a civilized manner. Well, they are all American citizens too (my wife, naturalized; my kids, born here) and live here so I guess for them it's not as emotional as it must be for citizens who live in Brazil. I drove all 3 to Washington D.C. to vote at the consulate (we live 4 hours away by car). For me, it was fun. It meant a couple of trips to a good hotel and a meal at a very good restaurant. They said voting was well-organized and fast. I vote by mail in Italian elections. Brazil apparently doesn't have that, but again, I don't mind going to Washington D.C. for them to vote, for me it's like a nice family weekend trip.
Have to say, Paraguay is impressive in how they are dominating Argentina, even if they aren't creating chances. Argentina isn't able to get out of their own half, which is a worrying sign for Argentina, for sure. Kind of surprised this is all one way traffic.
Kind of astonishing how much Argentina just gives teh ball away in the midfield. This kind of performance would have people screeching for players to be dropped if there were Americans doing this. Pretty dire.
Argentina still managed to win, despite Paraguay dominating play at various moments (but being inept in the last third). I'm looking forward to Brazil vs. Colombia tomorrow - just afraid Colombia will be violent and will injure our players. I hope we beat them something like 3-0.
That goal was the most beautiful one so far, both tournaments considered (Copa America + Euro). It's pretty much the only thing Colombia has done so far in offense, but wow!
yeah, that was a total beauty. Meanwhile youth coaches worldwide are screaming "play to the whistle!"
En el momento que vi ese gol con los colombianos distraídos y el manitos de manteca de Ospina, supe que se venía otra pecheada cafetera para la sumar a la larga lista. Brazilians have just so much more stamina compared to the players of all other teams. They could walk to the final scoring just in the last 20 minutes if needed. It will take a massive performance from Argentina to beat them (no other team has midfielders and forwards with enough skill to hold some decent possession against them). But Argentina has to make the final first, of course.
Gabriel Jesus terrible tonight. The team improved once he was subbed out. Neymar almost got killed at the end, with the Colombians chasing him around trying to violently foul him. I was thinking, Tite should sub him out before he got hurt. Well, Tite didn't, so Neymar still got the assist for Casemiro's winning goal. There is a lot of bad blood between Brazil and Colombia so this game predictably got ugly, with a weak ref who allowed the players to dissent for too long and didn't have the guts to give a straight red to Cuellar. While Brazil played poorly for at least half of the game (too many attempts through the left flank ended in anemic attempts at dribbling or crosses that the very tall Yerry Mina cleared out; right flank not working; attempts through the middle had passes that were either too short or too long), as usual they played better and better in second half especially the last 20 minutes. It seems like they are better conditionally physically than other teams; they always explode in the second half. Overall, the stats did favor Brazil a lot, with 66% possession and six times more attempts than Colombia. Brazil did dominate the game although at times it wasn't clearly apparent. In the end, their superior quality prevailed (especially after some substitutions) and they deserved the 2-1 win. Brazil now has clinched 1st place in Group B. They will play their quarterfinal on July 2nd at 6 PM ET, against the 4th placed team in Group A, which is currently Uruguay (but this could change given that Uruguay has a game in hand). Brazil and Colombia have advanced. Despite Colombia's loss, there is no combination of results that would make them drop below 4th place. In Group A, Argentina and Chile have advanced. Bolivia is in bad shape and should be the eliminated one, while in Group B Venezuela is at a bigger risk of missing out but it's not as clear-cut as in Group A. If Brazil beats Ecuador as expected, Venezuela would advance with a draw against Peru, and Ecuador would be the eliminated one.
Typo - I meant "better conditioned physically." Firmino coming in made a big difference, too. The Argentinian press bashed the referee for being pro-Brazil... called the VAR, Var-sil. Well, they forgot to mention one inconvenient detail: the refs for this game were from Argentina. LOL This ref was the one who did the 2018 FIFA World Cup final, but nevertheless, he seemed weak, allowing too much dissent from players without taking control and showing yellow cards for dissent. Also, Cuellar's assault on Neymar should have been a straight red. Regarding the rule that play should stop if the ball hits the ref, this is optional. It's not a must. The ref has the final decision if he doesn't think that the ball hitting him conferred an advantage to a team. In this case it didn't; the ball didn't change possession.
You can be argentinian and also be pro-brazil, it's not necessarily opposed... Anyway, the goal decision was correct.
Neymar is a fukin moron and will never learn . He knows end of game the way things happened Colombians were going to be pissed . What does he do ? Hold the ball . This guy likes to get hit and deserves it if he gets injured . Plain and simple .
Neymar played the first two games in a more mature way. But against Colombia he can't help, it's the bad blood, since they broke his vertebra in 2014. So he wants to humiliate them and provoke them. Also, part of Brazil's offensive troubles yesterday was due to Neymar being a ball hog and always trying to dribble another Colombian defender (again, to humiliate them) thus finally losing the ball, instead of passing it like he did more often in the first two games. Sure, Neymar is a fukin moron and more of a grown kid than an adult. But he is also extremely talented, especially when he decides to play the ball rather than engaging in theatrics. If Neymar finishes his career without a World Cup to his name, he will be remembered as wasted potential, as someone who could have been one of the greatest players to ever play the game, if only he had a more congenial and mature personality (like Messy, who should be a role model for Neymar).
Generally I agree, but as long as Neymar doesn't get injured, what's wrong with taking advantage of the Colombian's well known stupidity and propensity for violence (see the game against England at Russia 2018).
I disagree with your last paragraph. Neymar may very well finish his career without a World Cup title, but that will not make him wasted potential. Zico, Sócrates, Falcão... that’s just for Brazil. Then many world-class players from other countries, many of whom reached club glory in Europe and in South America, who did not reach World Cup glory. They were not wasted potential. The argument that you make is that if Neymar turned into Kaká in terms of conduct, he would both likely win the World Cup and be one of the greatest ever. That’s a flawed argument. In any sport, many of the best players were not nice guys and talked trash aplenty. And likewise, well-behaved players fell short of title glory. No one questions that Jeremy Lin is far more congenial and self-controlled than the majority of the players he went up against, but that had nothing to do with how far Lin made it in the NBA. South American soccer alone has plenty of names of not-so-very-humble-players who were by no means congenial, but who made it to the top. Romário – he wasn’t the way Neymar is, but he was no Boy Scout. Yet he embodies the 1994 World Cup title triumph. As for the World Cup itself – it is exceedingly difficult to win. Even if a team has the talent and the experience, if that team has a bad day on a knockout stage match, or if just one pass is missed, 4 years of work end in the most abrupt and painful manner. The pressure is high – it’s only once in 4 years. Brazil, for all of its talent and experience in building winning teams, may still fail. If Brazil wins it next year, it will have taken 20 years since the last one; if Brazil doesn’t win it, and wins it in 2026, it will be the same drought between 1970 and 1994 – which to Brazilians was an overwhelmingly long time. Neymar may play at the highest possible level next year, with Tite making the best possible personnel selections and tactical deployments – and Brazil may still fall short in Qatar. That will by no means mean Neymar is “wasted potential.”