Pre-match: AMISTOSO: Rússia X Brasil, 23 de Março de 2018

IVO ! · Mar 25, 2018

Century's Best said: ↑

vs.

Location: Luzhniki Stadium, Moscow, Russian Federation

Brazil roster:
Goleiros
Alisson (Roma)
Neto (Valencia)
Ederson (Manchester City)

Laterais
Daniel Alves (PSG)
Fagner (Corinthians)
Marcelo (Real Madrid)
Filipe Luís (Juventus)

Zagueiros
Miranda (Inter de Milão)
Marquinhos (PSG)
Thiago Silva (PSG)
Pedro Geromel (Grêmio)
Rodrigo Caio (São Paulo)

Meias
Casemiro (Real Madrid)
Fernandinho (Manchester City)
Fred (Shaktar Donetsk)
Paulinho (Barcelona)
Renato Augusto (Beijing Guoan)
Talisca (Besitkas)
Philippe Coutinho (Barcelona)
Willian (Chelsea)

Atacantes
Douglas Costa (Juventus)
Taison (Shakhtar Donetsk)
Gabriel Jesus (Manchester City)
Roberto Firmino (Liverpool)
William José (Real Sociedad)

The Brazilian National Team starts its 2018 season with a mixture of urgency, excitement, and pressure as it visits the host country of this year's World Cup. With the tournament on June 17th, Tite's Brazil will have an interesting (if not necessarily the most demanding) exam as it squares off against the hosts Russia.

If in Wembley, Brazil visited one of the most historic stadiums in the history of football, by visiting Luzhniki, Brazil will visit a different type of history. It was here that the Soviet Union hosted the 1980 Summer Olympics - a sporting event marred by politics and boycotts (Brazil did not boycott). And whereas 38 years ago a drab and archaic stadium greeted visiting delegations, it will be a modern and reformed stadium - with the largest seating capacity in Russia and one of Europe's largest at 81k - that will receive Brazil.

Unlike its men's ice hockey counterpart, which just won Olympic gold in PyeongChang and which remained competitive in the post-Soviet era (annual IIHF World Championship: gold in 1993, no medals until silver in 2002, with 11 podium appearances in 16 tournaments and 4 of them being gold), the Russian men's national soccer team has failed to live up to the high standards set by its Soviet predecessor. Whereas the old USSR, other than 1974 and 1978, was a team to be reckoned with in the World Cup, reaching usually the quarterfinals early in the Cold War and tapering off in more recent editions, the Russian side has never made it out of the group stage after the breakup of the Soviet Union. In fact, Russia failed to advance out of the group stage in last year's Confederations Cup - on home ground.

In the European Championship, older Russian fans are likely to be nostalgic for the Soviet era as well. The USSR won the inaugural tournament in 1960, won second place 3 times and 4th place once. Russia in contrast has again failed to get out of the group stage, with the notable exception of 2008, where the Russians advanced to the semifinals (where they were defeated by Spain, the eventual champion - this was the first of Spain's triple crown of 2008, 2010, and 2012).

Olympic soccer is again another area where Russia underperforms vs. the USSR. The latter won Olympic gold in 1956 and in 1988 (to the chagrin of Brazilians, who were up 1-0 thanks to Romário before the Soviets scored two). The former in contrast has never participated in Olympic soccer.

As hosts, Russia were exempted from qualification, but it was nonetheless busy in 2017. It played a total of 11 matches, with 3 wins, 4 draws, and 4 losses. Russia's best result in 2017 was probably a 3-3 draw with Spain on home ground - likewise at home, the Russians drew with Chile (1-1), Belgium (3-3), and Iran (1-1). The Russian's couldn't handle Portugal (0-1) in the Confederations Cup, and they barely lost to a lackluster Argentina by the same scoreline.

I personally expect Russia to outperform South Africa in 2010. The latter did not make it out of the group stage, but with Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Uruguay as opponents, the hosts should be able to finish at least in 2nd place. But these expectations will be affected by however well the Russians perform against Brazil.

With a few months having elapsed since the goalless draw vs. England, Brazil is ranked 2nd by FIFA as of mid-February 2018, and manager Tite has already begun to finalize the roster which he will take to this same country in the summer. Mainstays from the Tite era - Alisson, Daniel Alves, Marquinhos, Miranda, Marcelo, Casemiro, Renato Augusto, Paulinho, Coutinho, Neymar, Firmino, Thiago Silva, Fernandinho, Gabriel Jesus, and Willian - have been publicly declared as guaranteed in the final 23.

I personally believe Brazil will win, and while most if not all of Brazil's players are acclimated to European winters and therefore not likely to be negatively impacted by the Russian temperatures, my perspective now other than fine-tuning the team further is to avoid injuries. With only a few months to go before the World Cup, every precaution is necessary.

With Neymar out for several weeks due to a foot injury, Tite will have an opportunity and the obligation to test formations which will lose none of the competitiveness and efficacy Brazil has shown with Neymar during the Tite era. In the 8 years since Neymar has been on the national team, Brazil has had him on the field in 83 matches and won 56 - a winning percentage of 67%. Without Neymar, Brazil has played 20 matches and won 13 (65%). Under Tite, Brazil has a 75% winning percentage in matches without Neymar - albeit in a far smaller number of games (4 matches, 3 win, 1 loss).

Manager Stanislav Cherchesov opted not to select naturalized Russian citizens Mário Fernandes and Guilherme, who were born in Brazil. The former plays at CSKA and suffered a muscle injury. The latter was part of Russia's roster in the 2016 European Championship and in the 2017 Confederations Cup, but has lately been ignored by Cherchesov.

The following is Russia's roster:

Goleiros: Igor Akinfeev, Vladimir Gabulov, Andrei Lunev e Alexander Selikhov.

Defensores: Vladimir Granat, Fedor Kudryashov, Yuri Zhirkov, Igor Smolnikov, Vladislav Ignatiev, Dmitry Kombarov, Ilya Kutepov, Roman Neustetter, Konstantin Raush e Andrey Semenov.

Meias: Denis Glushakov, Roman Zobnin, Alexander Samedov, Alexander Golovin, Alan Dzagoev, Alexander Erokhin, Daler Kuzyaev, Anton Miranchuk, Denis Cheryshev e Anton Shvet.

Atacantes: Anton Zabolotny, Alexander Kokorin, Alexei Miranchuk e Fedor Smolov.

Brazil head-to-head vs. Russia:
6/20/1994: 2-0, Romário, Raí (World Cup)
8/28/1996: 2-2, Donizete, Ronaldo (friendly)
11/18/1998: 5-1, Élber, Amoroso, Rivaldo, Marcos Assunção, Oleg Kornaukhov, Amoroso (friendly)
3/1/2006: 1-0, Ronaldo (friendly)
3/23/2013: 1-1, Viktor Fayzulin, Fred (friendly)

Brazil head-to-head vs. the Soviet Union:
6/15/1958: 2-0, Vavá, Vavá (World Cup)
7/4/1965: 3-0, Pelé, Flávio, Pelé (friendly)
11/21/1965: 2-2, Gérson, Pelé, Anatoliy Banishevskiy, Slava Metreveli (friendly)
6/21/1973: 1-0, Jairzinho (friendly)
12/1/1976: 2-0, Falcão, Zico (friendly)
6/15/1980: 1-2, Nunes, Fedor Cherenkov, Serhiy Andreev (friendly)
6/14/1982: 2-1, Andriy Bal, Sócrates, Éder (World Cup)
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Jesus, how long did it take you to write all that?

Century's Best · Mar 26, 2018

IVO ! said: ↑

Jesus, how long did it take you to write all that?
Click to expand...

You haven't seen anything yet. Check out the Germany vs. Brazil thread.