Pre-match: ELIMINATÓRIAS, R15: Brasil x Equador, 08/31/17

vs.

Location: Arena do Grêmio, Porto Alegre​

​

Brazil roster:
Goleiros:
Alisson (Roma-ITA)
Cassio (Corinthians)
Ederson (Manchester City-ING)

Defensores:
Daniel Alves (Paris-Saint-Germain-FRA)
Fagner (Corinthians)
Filipe Luís (Atlético de Madrid-ESP)
Marcelo (Real Madrid-ESP)
Marquinhos (Paris Saint-Germain-FRA)
Miranda (Internazionale-ITA)
Rodrigo Caio (São Paulo)
Thiago Silva (Paris Saint-Germain-FRA)

Meio-campistas:
Casemiro (Real Madrid-ESP)
Fernandinho (Manchester City-ING)
Giuliano (Zenit-RUS)
Luan (Grêmio)
Paulinho (Guangzhou Evergrande-CHN)
Philippe Coutinho (Liverpool-ING)
Renato Augusto (Beijing Guam-CHN)
Willian (Chelsea-ING)

Atacantes:
Roberto Firmino (Liverpool-ING)
Gabriel Jesus (Manchester City-ING)
Neymar (Paris Saint-Germain-FRA)
Taison (Shakhtar Donetsk-UCR)

Brazil, the top team in CONMEBOL, with a record-breaking 8 straight WCQ wins and the first team in the world outside of hosts Russia to qualify for the 2018 World Cup, returns to home turf for its next-to-last domestic match in the current qualification, as it hosts Ecuador.

After two summertime friendly matches against Argentina and Australia, Brazil has rightfully earned the #1 position in FIFA’s (largely symbolic and much disputed) ranking. And now, Brazil guns for a 9th consecutive WCQ win.

Manager Tite will have a homecoming of sorts as a former manager of Grêmio, a major club in the country and one of Porto Alegre’s two main teams. Tite led Grêmio to the 2001 Campeonato Gaúcho and the 2001 Copa do Brasil, and older Grêmio fans are likely to remember these accomplishments as they welcome the national squad into their new, state-of-the-art venue. Local fans will certainly be pleased if Tite starts Luan, who is the top Brazilian scorer in the current Copa Libertadores (asides from Fred, whose Atlético Mineiro side has already been ousted) with 5 goals and who has been the subject of speculation regarding a possible transfer to UEFA teams.

Gabriel Jesus is back after missing March’s fixtures, and the potential of his partnership with Neymar – now no longer at Barcelona and Paris Saint-Germain’s newest (and fantastically expensive) star – up front is yet untapped.

It is speculated that Tite will continue what he did earlier this summer – to test other players as he fine-tunes the team en route to next year’s World Cup.

Ecuador, currently in 6th place, has disappointed its fans as it started WCQ with all guns on fire, scoring a historic 2-0 win in Argentina. Ecuador has since fallen on hard times and odds for 3 points are not good as Ecuador has lost all its 3 games in Brazil in the era this current format has been in use. Brazil won their last WCQ match in Brazil 10 years ago by a score of 5-0. Additionally, Ecuador has not done well in recent Copa América competition, and only in 2008, through Liga Deportiva Quito’s 2008 Libertadores win, did Ecuadorian soccer reach international glory.

Tite’s first priority – the building of a team and a direct spot in Russia – have been accomplished. It is now Tite’s job to further shape and mold his team and to keep his players from becoming overconfident, as the “já ganhou” mentality led Brazil to humiliation in the past.

These are the 4 times Brazil hosted Ecuador in WCQ:
10/17/2007 - Brazil 5, Ecuador 0
9/10/2003 - Brazil 1, Ecuador 0
4/26/2000 - Brazil 3, Ecuador 2
8/22/1993 - Brazil 2, Ecuador 0

 

Mods please change the title ...

 

I haven't seen him write here in 3-4 years.

That guy had the unique ability to write post after post after post on WR. He tangled with Mexicans, Americans, and even entered convos on Israel vs. Iran (soccer). In fact, he may well have written more posts on WR alone than all other historically significant Brasil forum members combined.

He often talked about Uruguayans and Argentines as "castelhanos" and "correntinos" and said that he'd had plenty of fights with them in his youth in part due to their dirty play in neighborhood games, and he once said he knew he had not yet had his last fight with them.

He also sure had a sharp mouth. A long-gone poster mocked Internacional on the day it lost to Mazembe, and CG responded angrily. The poster's name included the word "amazonense" and CG said something to the effect, "An amazonense guy talking about soccer? Listen pal, they took stole your land; they ripped away your culture; they forced you to speak their language... take off that halter, you colonized."

If one didn't provoke him, he'd reply politely enough. He was fiery in his support of our national team, but sometimes the way he showed that support angered a lot of non-Brazilian BigSoccer posters.

Kinda funny how posters which were at one point regulars vanish and do not return for years... if ever.

 

Tpmazembe

Ombak

Celito

Mengão86

Old Carioca in NY

NotreDameFlamengo

Neovox

Leônidas

AcesHigh

Redshift

Ribo_2006

SoccerScout

Colorado_Gaucho

Century's Best (I've been here over a decade)

There was also this guy who was once a moderator who used to write frequent anti-Argentina threads. He was the one person I really never got a long with - this became evident when this website still allowed positive and negative reps which allowed posters to write "commentary" with the reps. SoccerScout wasn't a bad guy but he brought Internacional into every single damn discussion, even in FIFA World Cup threads when Internacional was not even participating. I recall once a non-Brazilian mod told him to stop doing it.

 

Heheheheh, my bad... I always forget somebody...

 

Paulinho came close.