Game is at 8:30pm in Brazil, 6:30pm EST and 3:30pm Pacific (for those of you on the west coast, like me). @Century's Best feel free to add your intro if you would like to. I decided to open this thread now after catching up on today's news from training. Fabinho will replace Casemiro due to the yellow card, as expected. But the line-up in practice included two other changes as well: Alisson; Danilo, Éder Militão, Marquinhos, Alex Sandro; Fabinho, Fred, Lucas Paquetá; Raphinha, Matheus Cunha, Neymar I think both of those are very positive changes not only for the Argentina match specifically, but for finding our 2022 line-up too. I can imagine some pundits will be quite surprised if Gabriel Jesus isn't in the starting line-up. (Edit: fixed times)
@Ombak thanks. Marquinhos will be captain and Edenílson was capped to replace the suspended Casemiro. Argentina had several players with one yellow card but none was sanctioned against Uruguay which means the host team will be at full strength. It's always a meaningful match when these two teams meet. It's Tite's first match in Argentina - during 2018 WCQ, Brazil visited Argentina very early on but Dunga was in charge of the Brazil team that came back from a 0-1 deficit to draw it at 1-1 for what was the final score. Tite has defeated Argentina a number of times, most notably in the 2019 Copa América semifinal by 2-0 and in the November 2016 WCQ match held in Belo Horizonte (3-0 for Brazil). For us, it's a chance at a second WCQ win in Argentina (following the 1-3 Brazil earned under Dunga vs. Maradona's team in Rosario in 2009 - interestingly, as is the case with tomorrow's match, AFA moved the match far from Buenos Aires). It's worth noting Brazil sealed a spot in South Africa with that victory. Tomorrow, if Argentina wins and if there are number of other results, it will be them who will seal a spot in Qatar. They want to defeat us for a number of reasons, and one of them is that Argentina has a long streak of unbeaten matches (26). The last team to defeat Argentina was and is precisely.... Brazil (the aforementioned semifinal). Argentina would hate for that streak to end, all the more against Brazil and on home soil. Regardless of the result tomorrow, the fate of the September match is pending. Barring a FIFA decision ordering a replay of the match, these two teams will not play again for some time - the Superclássico das Américas was last played in 2019 and while it may be scheduled for 2021 after a pause in 2020, with the packed calendar, the tightened schedules due to match postponements resulting from the pandemic, and the possibility of that rematch as per FIFA, it's unlikely there will be a 2021 Superclássico. Without a a 2021 Superclássico and without a replay of the September game, this will be it for both teams in 2021. January will see a resumption of WCQ, but Brazil is already qualified and if Argentina isn't qualified by then, it's improbable it won't qualify given the points it has. As such, preparation for the 2022 World Cup will take over as the main priority, and both teams will likely seek friendly matches against strong UEFA teams because other than UEFA, no federation can offer teams which can challenge either Brazil or Argentina. And unless the two teams meet in the 2022 World Cup, tomorrow's game may be the last meeting in quite a while indeed - this will be a break from the high frequency of meetings in recent years. By my count, 108 matches were to have taken place. I exclude the September match; there was a Superclássico to be held in Resistencia in Argentina on October 3, 2012 which was cancelled; and, there was the 8th match on October 9, 1920 in Buenos Aires, which saw Brazilian players walk off due to racist drawings in a local newspaper. Brazil has won 43 times vs. 39 by the Argentines.
Neymar is out due to injury tomorrow. So the big question now is... Coutinho??? Or will Vini Jr. start, for example.
What is your source? This website here lists those 108 matches as well but seemingly shows that it's 42 to 41 for Brazil: https://www.promiedos.com.ar/historialsel.php?equipo1=785&equipo2=801&modo=todos
I did miss the 2021 match and the 2017 Melbourne friendly but from what I see here, it's still 43-41 Brazil.
I checked both promiedos and english wiki and found a divergence: wiki counts a 1922 match in Brazil that Brazil won but does not register a 1956 match that Argentina won. Promiedos does the opposite. I remember FIFA used to have some years ago a database of head to head on their website but cannot find it now.
Afa website even more confusing... they count just 102 games with 39-38 advantage to Brazil: https://www.afa.com.ar/es/posts/historial-entre-argentina-y-brasil-el-gran-duelo-del-futbol-mundial
So your team is definitely behind! Neymar is out tomorrow. This should help your team - theoretically.
I agree this is a good starting IX, but I do wonder what happens now that Neymar is out. @celito This is for you:
What else is new. Neymar is made of glass now. We better have a Plan B next year. I wonder if RA will be too old next year (34). I'd take him over Coutinho every day of the week even at his age. His injury really messed us up in 2018.
He is. He won so much respect, including from rival teams' fans, after he turned down a very tempting offer by Arsenal. Few would turn down a hefty salary in GBP to stay in one's home country for love of club. Even corintianos respect the guy. That's how seriously admired Marcos is.
Would be hilarious if Coutinho started tomorrow and it resulted in a great overall performance and win. I'm with you on RA though. It seems Tite was the last member of the coaching staff to give up on him after he went to China. I could see him calling RA up and keeping him as an option for the 23rd spot or an option in case a Neymar or Paquetá are injured. (Just one more reason for Tite to call in more than 23 players - he could reintegrate his outside options without sacrificing a spot in the line-up or on the bench).
I see Argentina making a statement defeating Brazil 1-0. People will start to realise that this Argentina team is for real and among the top three favourites for glory in Qatar next year.
Game means basically nothing for both countries except for the rivalry and obvious bragging rights. I don't expect both teams not to give anything less than 100% as is usual from an official game or a meaningless friendly. Argentina obviously doesn't want to lose at home and wants to prove that the CA final wasn't an accident. I have to say, they've improved a bit over the past year. We will want to erase the memory from the CA final. We come from 2 straight 1 x 0 losses to them (the other being a friendly). Amazingly we hadn't lost 2 straight games to them since 59-60. But not winning away here wouldn't be the end of the world. I am more interested in seeing how we behave without Neymar and these new pieces up front. I am really bummed Casemiro is out though. Dito isso, seria cortar as asinhas deles em sua casa porque eles já estão todos se achando a ultima bolacha do pacote depois da final da CA.
I don't see why Paqueta has to press up high past Matheus Cunha when they come out with the ball. Leaves a gap in the midfield.