Brasil x Portugal Friday, June 25th at 11:00am Eastern Time, 08:00am Pacific Time, Sexta-feira, 25 de junho, 12:00 no Brasil Match 45, Durban Ladies and Gentlemen, this is the pre-match thread. The game is one week and a few hours away. You know the drill - check our rules and posting suggestions, this thread will be heavily moderated. Some things I will highlight - stay on topic, do not post without reading first and don't post "thank you" or other short messages to posters - use the PM system instead. Also do not engage posters in personal battles, talk about the game. You can also discuss this game in the Official World Cup forums Keep in mind the moderation there is also strict and unlike this forum you will find a lot more neutral and rival posters - so once again don't make things personal, talk about the game, not about personal arguments.
very intrigued to see who dunga will start in kaka's place. i guess we'll get some hints tomorrow in the training session. surprised to see that CBF have not yet lodged a complaint over Kaka's second yellow card. wonder if they'll even bother.
I don't think you can appeal that. What they should be doing is reminding FIFA that Rivaldo was fined in 2002 and therefore Keita should be fined here. I'll be surprised if we don't start Julio Baptista against Portugal.
i thought you can appeal yellows? portugal tried doing that with ronaldo's yellow. didn't work. im thinking it could be baptista or nilmar slotting into robinho's spot with robinho taking the kaka role. both are good options i think. i'd probably go with nilmar to combat the speedy portuguese.
If Elano can play, I put him in Kaka position and play Alves at right midfield. I also would like to see Thiago Silva, Nilmar and Ramires play.
I don't know how to use the formation buttons , so i will have to do it the hard way ( if anyone could kindly teach me, it would be very welcomed): I liked our team during the last minutes against NK: -------------------------Julio César------------------------- ------Maicon---------Lúcio---------Juan-------Michel Bastos -----------------------G.Silva----F.Melo--------------------- -------------Daniel Alves-----------------Robinho---------- ------------------------Luis Fabiano------------Nilmar------ Elano over Daniel Alves is obviously okay too, and more likely to happen. Lots of movement in the attack, Luis fabiano doesn't get too isolated if Robinho tracks back to get the ball.
******** me thats still a fantastic squad. The game is going to be really intrigueing, but i think Brazil will come out on top. The patience and pragmatic approacjh seen against the Ivory Coast was wonderful, and the inexperience of Coentrao(who has been great up till now) might show this time against maicon/daniel alves combo. Also alves is a real quality centreback, but his lack of pace can really be exposed by fabiano/robinho/nilmar CRonaldo might also be rested due to his yellow card. I expect Portugal to go with: ---------------------Eduardo------------------ -----------Carvalho------------Alves------------ Miguel---------------------------------Coentrao -----------------Pepe/Mendes---------------------- ------Tiago--------------------Meireles-------------- Simao------------Almeida----------------Danny Deco and Ronaldo as supersubs to try to keep the score respectable(Brazil thrashed a better portugal team with bosingwa, maniche, deco still in decent form etc 6-2)
These stats for Brazil are pretty interesting... http://colunas.sportv.globo.com/marcelobarreto/2010/06/21/449/ A lot of bloggers and journalists love to talk about passing stats for some reason. I heard critiques that Brazil werent passing well against Ivory Coast -- as if that mattered anyways -- and well, what do you know? Brazil through two games has completed 92% of their passes. And ironically enough, our best passer has been Melo.
I'm not surprised at all. We missed a few passes in the offensive third during the first half. These instances stood out--and were noticed--because they were rare for us. In the second half, our passing improved markedly. As I said in the other thread, watch minutes 59-62, 68:30, and 77. People may say that we lack a passing game because it isn't the Brazilian style, and never was, to one-touch pass just for the hell of it (ala Spain or the Argies). Generally, we pass, run or hold the ball, then pass again. The one touch passing usually takes the form of a tabela in front of the area or on the lateral. Only occasionally does it appear elsewhere (see esp. min 77).
I think a lot of the passing specially in the 2nd game has been between the mids and the backs. We have been very patient in choosing the right time to attack.
Probable starting team on Friday (from training): Júlio César; Maicon, Lúcio, Juan e Michel Bastos; Gilberto Silva, Felipe Melo, Daniel Alves e Júlio Baptista; Robinho e Luís Fabiano. Elano has been released from the medical staff and started training today but complained about pain in his ankle. There is a good chance he will be saved for R16.
That was true, generally, but these instances I mentioned above are cases where we went forward. Check them out if you have a video of the second half.
Lancenet said we might see: Júlio César; Maicon, Lúcio, Juan e Michel Bastos; Gilberto Silva, Felipe Melo, Daniel Alves e Robinho; Nilmar e Luís Fabiano.
I understand and I think I know which instances you are talking about. But I think the passing % is hugely influenced by the safer passes in the back. That's my impression from the first 2 games. Not to mention that neither IC or NK pressured us on our field. They both dropped 9/10 back into their half almost every time we had the ball.
Very interesting. I honestly think JB will play. My lineup came from Gazeta Esportiva. We'll see what Dunga does.
I really like this Let's see if it works, at least on paper it's a great formation. I'm excited for this game, because we are playing with a lot less pressure since we advanced to the next stage already, this formation may bring some useful material for Dunga. The pressure from the GLOBO-lised fans is still big tho, I guess that they won't be happy if we don't win by at least the same margin as in the friendly... Actually, they won't be happy, no matter the result What Globo is doing is quite ridiculous, they recently aired a show about how Maradona evolved as a person, how happy and free his players are, in comparison to the "tyranic grumpy Dunga that binds his players with chains of anti-football and offended our journalist "... What Dunga did wasn't right, okay, but that only seems like a convenient reason for them to vent more of their frustration from losing privileges that they should not ever have to begin with.
What Dunga did wasn't right but how tadeu Schmidt reacted was like a spoiled kid who has a rich dad and thinks its his right to call on Dad to beat up on the guy he doesn't agree with. Sadly Globo acted like a rich kid's dad who spoils his kid instead of giving him good advice about dropping this particular issue. For a short while they obliged very directly with the editorial on Fantastico. They since removed themselves with a statement about the issue, but this Maradona x Dunga comparison is just a petty thing, pathetic behavior on both sides in the end but Globo are the big boys who should know better. EDIT: A lot of the attitude also reveals the prejudice you sometimes see towards "uneducated" people and how unconsciously but very often reporters see themselves as better or smarter than footballers because of their perceived roles in society. Can you imagine what 2014 is going to be like if the coach is someone the media isn't a huge fan of?
It will be hell. I'm afraid of seeing a team called by the media, not the coach... Dunga's sucessor ( well he said that he would leave after the Wc right?) has to be a very brave man, since the pressure will increase exponentially. Our 2014 performance has to be FLAWLESS, and even then we will hear 'fans' wishing for us to lose since being different is trendy and cool.
Globo's ego is too huge. Honestly, I was quite happy with what Dunga did, even if it came off as unprofessional. Of course Dunga's is as well, but some of the editorials from Globo bloggers are just miserable. "if he was on a desert island, he would curse out coconut trees." or "dunga can never be happy - he has to hate." crap like that. honestly, it makes it just as unprofessional as dunga's tirade.
it's either going to be dunga or felipao. if we win here (hope fully we do ), dunga will have a decision to make. he may very well stay. or we could see felipao, but i dont know how comfortable i am in seeing a coach return to the team after a long absence. we havent had the best luck in that regard (zagello and parreira could not win again, for example).
Felipao has already signed with Palmeiras. So he won't be Dunga's immediate successor. And wouldn't really count on Dunga staying.
One thing I don't really wish for but acknowledge could take pressure off of the WC coach is if the coach hired after 2010 is fired for a certain failure. Sort of like 2002 - the pressure on the new coach is much smaller relative to what it would be after growing for 4 years. Again, it's not something I would plan for and even wish, but who knows how things will play out over the next four years. Hey this is a Brazil x Portugal thread though! Back on-topic!
i know felipao loves palmeiras, but he would step down. i would imagine, after the season. dunga probably would only leave once a successor is found. he seems to be on the fence lately as to whether he will remain.
On another note, getting first place here is big because we play in Jo'burg again. And if everything goes to plan, we would face either Switzerland or Chile, both of whom are yet to play in Jo'burg. don't know how much of a factor the altitude will affect the swiss. maybe the chileans though. who knows.