Most of the Brazil players called up for the friendly only have one match this week. Some have two with Cup matches, and Andrey has 3! since Vasco's semi-final starts tomorrow. The biggest amtch of course is the clásico in Spain on Sunday. Weverton x Ituano, Saturday Ederson x Leipzig (CL), Wednesday (note, Man City plays the FA Cup on Saturday, but usually Ederson does not play FA Cup matches) Mycael x Maringá, Sunday (not sure if Mycael is on the bench or plays for the youth team) Arthur x Santa Cruz, Tuesday (Copa do Brasil), x Cruzeiro, Saturday Emerson at Southampton, Saturday Eder Militão Ibañez at Real Sociedad (EL), Thursday, at Lazio, Sunday Marquinhos x Rennes, Sunday (MArquinhos will probably be unavailable due to injury but back for the national team) Robert Renan x Dynamo Moscow (Russian Cup), Wednesday, at CSKA Moscow, Sunday Alex Telles at Fenerbahce (EL), Thursday, at Getafe, Sunday Renan Lodi x Newcastle, Friday André x Volta Redonda, Saturday Andrey at Flamengo, Monday, x ABC (Copa do Brasil), Thursday, x Flamengo, Saturday Casemiro at Real Betis (EL), Thursday, x Fulham (FA Cup), Sunday João Gomes x Leeds, Saturday Paquetá x AEK Larnaca (EL), Thursday Raphael Veiga x Ituano, Saturday Antony at Real Betis (EL), Thursday, x Fulham (FA Cup), Sunday Richarlison at Southampton, Saturday Rodrygo x Liverpool (CL), Wednesday, at Barcelona, Sunday Rony x Ituano, Saturday Vini Jr. x Liverpool (CL), Wednesday, at Barcelona, Sunday Vitor Roque x Maringá, Sunday (the second leg of this semi-final is March 26, so he will miss it)
Moroccan squad for the friendly (they will also face Peru after the match with Brazil): GOLEIROS: Bono (Sevilla), Munir El Kajoui (Al Wehda-ARA), Reda Tagnaouti (Wydad Casablanca), Mehdi Benabid (FUS Rabat) DEFENSORES: Hakimi (PSG), Nayef Aguerd (West Ham), Saïss (Besiktas), Mazraoui (Bayern de Munique), Chadi Riad (Barcelona), Achraf Dari (Brest), Jawad El Yamiq (Valladolid), Abqar (Alavés), Attiat Allah (Wydad Casablanca), Amraoui (Nice) MEIO-CAMPISTAS: Amrabat (Fiorentina), Sabiri (Sampdoria), Ounahi (Olympique de Marselha), Bouchouari (Saint-Étienne), Bilal El Khannous (Genk), Imran Louza (Watford), Kechta (Le Havre) ATACANTES: Ziyech (Chelsea), Ezzalzouli (Osasuna), Aboukhlal (Toulouse), En-Nesyri (Sevilla), Zaroury (Burnley), Cheddira (Bari), Hamdallah (Al Ittihad-ARA), Boufal (Al Rayyan-CAT), Ibrahim Salah (Rennes)
This will be a good test for post-2022 World Cup Brazil. The 4-year cycle between each World Cup always seems renovation and rebuilding. I'll have to get used to whoever the new coach is. Speaking of which, I still hold out some hope CBF will invite Abel Ferreira as technical coordinator Ricardo Gomes said he no longer considers Abel to be a foreign coach given he's been in Brazil for a few years, knows the soccer culture well, and has been successful within Brazil's domestic play. I speculate that Portugal's historic relationship with Brazil and the fact Abel by default is a native speaker of Portuguese influenced both Abel's transition to Brazil (although not every Portuguese manager has been successful) and Gomes' view of Abel. As for the current cycle, the 2026 World Cup qualifying fixtures have been announced. The "todo mundo contra todo mundo duas vezes" template remains in place, with two matches in each fixture. There will be substantial pauses; after the three iniial rounds (September, October, and November of this year), WCQ will only resume in September 2024. Brazil's first match will be at home vs. Bolivia. There will be an alternation of home and away matches; therefore, Brazil's schedule in 2023 will be: Bolivia, at Peru, Venezuela, at Uruguay, at Colombia, Argentina.
In addition to the news about WCQ, there are details on the March 2024 international window: https://ge.globo.com/futebol/futebo...peus-de-primeiro-nivel-em-marco-de-2024.ghtml UEFA and CONMEBOL have agreed to schedule friendlies between their nations for that window. The top 6 teams in CONMEBOL will get to choose opponents from Nations League first division, the other 4 will have to play European teams from Nations League second division. Matches will be in Europe. This looks like the outcome of earlier rumors/attempts to get a joint Nations League going. After World Cup 2026, the big change is that while the same number of matches will happen, the September and October window will be merged so we will have 4 matches in one international break. As it stands, those would be WCQ matches if the same format is kept.
Marquinhos and Richarlison are out due to injury. Marquinhos has not recovered from the back injury that kept him out of the CL return leg. Richarlison left today's league match with a pulled hamstring after appearing to tweak it in warm-ups and playing only 5 minutes. The comissão técnica is traveling to Morocco and will decide on replacement call-ups after they arrive.
Bremer and Yuri Alberto have bene chosen to replace them: https://www.cbf.com.br/selecao-bras...to-estao-convocados-para-a-selecao-brasileira It will be interesting to see how starts at 9, since the back-up is Vitor Roque from the U20. Would be cool to see him start. I suppose it could also be Yuri Alberto, they're both here for the first time, but it could also be Rodrygo (with Antony on the right) or even Rony, even though those were seen primarily as options for the wide areas.
https://ge.globo.com/futebol/seleca...esenta-a-selecao-brasileira-no-marrocos.ghtml Staff and some players are in Morocco already. With the conclusion of the América-MG and Palmeiras games today, those players will probably be among the last ones to join the team. Training every day starting tomorrow and ending on Friday. Match is Saturday.
Vitor Roque and André were the press conference attendees today: https://ge.globo.com/futebol/seleca...idolos-na-selecao-so-via-pela-televisao.ghtml https://ge.globo.com/futebol/seleca...-ausencia-de-neymar-na-selecao-e-o-cara.ghtml Weverton, Raphael Veiga, Rony and Andrey Santos arrived late today and Arthur will arrive tomorrow: https://ge.globo.com/futebol/seleca...-treino-para-amistoso-contra-o-marrocos.ghtml
10 new players, will be interesting to see. What an opportunity for these youngsters that can't even believe it themselves. A delegation from CBF is on its way to Europe to resume negotiations with Ancelotti. We shall see.
Ancelotti again chokes against Barca who were missing their main midfield player (Pedri). Game could have gone any way as Madrid had a winning goal called back by VAR by a close offsides. But what's glaring is that that needing a goal, Madrid looked incapable of coming up with something for most of the 2nd half as the game was tied. It's not like Barca were camping back this time around. Perhaps Madrid are showing their age in some spots (Kroos, Modric, Carvajal) and lack quality FBs , but I think he rode Bezema's uncommon ability to make something out of nothing last year and Vin Jr's brilliant moments.
Madrid this year are suffering because Benz is not in form; neither are goals coming from Valverde or Rodrygo. With some of the talent Brazil has up front, unlike Real Madrid, scoring should not be an issue for Ancelotti. Madrid still plays more attractive football than Barca; that type of football will suit Brazil very well. Subs are a problem with him, as was the case with Tite. Scolari had the Midas touch here.
Not sure about that. Benzema is slumping, but do we really have a striker up front that can score consistently ? Richarlison isn't really exactly that prolific and he isn't even playing striker for Spurs. Raphinha and Anthony don't inspire me any confidence. Martinelli is doing well and I hope he keeps improving, but he plays on the same side as Vin Jr. We still gonna count on Neymar ?
Gabriel Jesus doesn't score many either. Nevertheless, Brazil have options up front who can put the ball in the net from time to time, unlike Real Madrid (Alvaro Rodriguez seems promising for Real though). With regard to Brazil, let's hope for the best with Vitor Roque.
Speaking of Vitor Roque, with Richarlison's injury it looks like he will start at the number 9 position: https://ge.globo.com/futebol/seleca...-esboca-brasil-com-andrey-e-vitor-roque.ghtml Ederson (Weverton); Emerson Royal, Éder Militão, Ibañez, Alex Telles; Casemiro, Andrey, Lucas Paquetá (Raphael Veiga); Rodrygo (Antony), Vini Júnior, Vitor Roque.
Top 5 from my sources in Brasil, in order of preference: Ancelotti , Jose Mourinho , Jorge Jesus, Abel Ferreira, Fernando Diniz
I haven't searched for news on him, but it seems that Tite has gone into complete hibernation after the WC exit. He said that the 2018 elimination hit him hard. Looks like this one may have hit him harder.
Galvão is going to be calling the Seleção game on his YT channel .... dude didn't really retire, he wont let off that bone ...
I posted this in the old thread, but I'll post it here too since it came up: https://ge.globo.com/futebol/seleca...23-e-estuda-ingles-por-chance-na-europa.ghtml I can't stand Galvão Bueno at this stage. Cléber Machado also was let go by Globo today. Both are excellent narradores in their own right, but both are more prone to rambling and missing goals today than calling a good match. But nostalgia means that people associate certain voices with the national team or big matches in general and so once that connection is established it's hard to bring in someone new. I'm sure Galvão's broadcast will be a success but I'm very curious about the numbers as the internet, as big as it seems to us, is a different world compared to a Rede Globo when it comes to reach and ratings.
I couldn't stop laughing when I saw Ramon Menezes' selections for this friendly match against Morocco. America-MG? Vasco? No Flamengo player? Obviously a call made by agents to sell players. Ramon Menezes wouldn't even have the autonomy to say NO. They put him there, and said, these are the names. Who can blame him? The chance to coach Brazil NT, even for a day, in exchange for the names having already been chosen by the agents
I know we love our conspiracy theories and one of the favorites in Brazilian soccer is the idea that agents make these call-ups, but really? If this were about making money they'd be playing two friendlies, they'd have renewed the contract with Pitch or found another partner and the list would probably be more coherent, not as random as it seems. This kind of post doesn't add much to the conversation, but just for a quick rebuttal: He called five players from his U20 team. That was expected. The guy from Vasco was already a Chelsea player. The guy from América-MG plays the position with the least depth and had an excellent U20 tournament. To pick another one, Vitor Roque is basically expected to go to Barcelona. He's the most marketable of the young ones, but he's already on everyone's radar. The 21 year-old guys: João Gomes (who was with Flamengo until January) and André were both on Tite's expanded list and were expected to be part of this cycle. Two of the new call-ups are from Palmeiras, so while Flamengo aren't represented, it's not like the top teams were ignored.
The coverage of Rony and his role in training is demonstrating one of the pluses of this call-up: how fans in Brazil are a little more invested in this friendly than they might be otherwise because they are closer to these players. Training today included a few more variations: https://ge.globo.com/futebol/seleca...eirenses-e-indica-duvidas-para-amistoso.ghtml The starting line-up in training though seems like a safe bet for the match: Ederson, Emerson Royal, Militão, Ibañez, Alex Telles; Casemiro, Andrey Santos, Lucas Paquetá; Rony, Rodrygo, Vini Junior