Two quick points: • Tardelli did more in 70 minutes than Fred in all the WC games. • Much, much better midfield without Oscar (not a starter material, IMO)/with Coutinho, Éverton Ribeiro.
lol what the hell is Pekerman teaching these Colombians? Maybe he could take up a career as a MMA trainer. On a serious note, good start....very good start. I always hated Dunga as a coach and still think his last run was a failure but he could prove me wrong this time. I'm willing to give him another chance and see what he could do this time. I think he got it right with his call ups, except I think Robinho's time with the NT is done.
Barcelona could be his team, but only if Messi were to have an extreme downgrade of form and would force the team to shift main men. But I think this season will be better regardless. I trust Enrique and he seems to have given Neymar a more central free role on the team even playing alongside Messi.
Friendlies with rival Conmebol teams are never really friendlies. The tackles tend to fly a bit during those meetings. Neymar is majority of the time on the receiving too. Those extra rolls by Neymar was hilarious though.
Fell asleep right after Cuadrado was red-carded. Surprised to see divergence on whether it was a deserved foul. SporTv's livestream prompted me to laugh when one guy said "we should ask Arnaldo in the broadcast booth next to ours if it was a yellow card foul." (Arnaldo David Cézar Coelho; retired referee who works alongside Galvão Bueno in Globo TV broadcasts, and who refereed West Germany vs. Italy at the 1982 World Cup final) Based on what I saw, it's a fair beginning to a new cycle. We have another friendly against Ecuador in a few days, the Superclássico das Américas on October 11 (in China, one match only, with ALL players eligible), Japan on October 14, and Turkey on November 12 in Istanbul. Dunga will probably deploy a different XI than the ones we saw last night and the ones we'll see against Ecuador when he faces Argentina, and while that game is a glorified friendly, as we won the last two, this will be important for us to win. Japan and Turkey will serve to observe and further fine-tune the team. I was unable to watch the Cruzeiro players. How did they do? Glad to see former SPFC full-back Miranda as a starter. He would've been useful during the World Cup. I'm so glad Fred is gone, and nothing personal, mas espero que ele não volte nunca mais.
Yep, Neymar could have rolled back to Brazil all the way through Central America with the yardage he got in those rolls, LOL.