the usual suspects are... forwards: Adriano(Inter), Ronaldo(Real), Fabiano(Porto), Robinho(Santos/Benfica), Franca(Leverkusen) midfielders: Ronaldinho(Barca), Kaka(ACMilan), Diego(Porto), Juninho(Lyon), Edu(Arsenal), Kleberson, Ze Roberto, Gilberto Silva, Serginho, Baptista, Renato defenders: Luisao, Roberto Carlos, Cafu, Roque Junior, Lucio, Maicon keepers: duda, etc That is scary. They could field 2 teams and both would meet in the finals.
Ah, no. The second team of Brazilians would not reach the final. There would serious questions about a holding mid, a left midfielder, another striker, and certainly wingbacks. In fact, the biggest question for Brazil in 2006 is going to be how the wingbacks hold up. Cafu and Roberto Carlos have always been offense first backs, and if their speed deserts them..............
A 2nd brazilian team wouldnt reach the final. It would be a pretty good team, but not good enough to beat the Czechs, Argentina, Portugal, etc..
living in brazil i have seen sao paulo based teams and rio based teams beat the biggest and the best. So, Brazil has by far the biggest and best player pool in the world. A home based team could compete well in the world cup, with the right coach.
Brazil B team beat Argentina in the Copa America final. And if Greece could beat Portugal in a final at Portuguese soil I don't think why Brazil B couldn't do it in Germany. Czech Republic? Where have they been lately?
Brazil has far more depth now than they did in 2002 but they're not without faults. Many fans think it is still a mystery as to why Parreira hasn't called in the likes of Anderson Polga or Ricardinho... having said that, the "B" team actually did beat Argentina and won the regional title. The only way this team could be undone (other than the obvious - being beaten by someone better), would be Parreira's inabiolity to trust the unknown. I could see him keeping Roberto Carlos beyond his well worth. Same with Cafu. But there are players in the wait that could fit in adequately... or Parreira could re-shuffle the lineup - some options Scolari didn't have in 2002. Oddly... Franca may never be called into the CBF team unless there's a major injury crisis at striker. Seems like the Selecao is adamant about not calling in strikers based in Germany. No Ewerthon, no Marcelinho, no Luisao (back then), never Ailton, no Elber (and he never should be), and the list goes on. You'd see Ricardo Oliveira before Franca. Meanwhile Luis Fabiano has been rather disappointing at Porto, and Diego hasn't made the fans forget Deco... another Brazilian. I also have a feeling that Edu may be on borrowed time as well. Kaka... until his last match, he had been playing poorly in qualifying. Also - Alex definitely deserves a spot on the team - it's just a matter of figuring out what way to best use him. It will be interesting to see how the Selecao shapes up going into 2006. Hopefully the team will be injury free. But then again... some say that Emerson's injury just prior to 2002 was one of the keys to them actually winning the cup. So who knows?
To be fair, it was Brazil's B+ team that beat Argentina's A- team in the Copa. And the Copa is not treated as seriously, and it was also damn close. They won that tournament on the back of Adriano, who's no longer a reserve player. As for a second Brazilians side getting to the final........come on. Make me a second Brazil side, and then you'll see problems in multiple positions. Not gaping holes, but problems. Who plays on the right if not Juninho Pernambucano? On the left if not Ze Roberto? The back up wingbacks are questionable, as are the starting ones, a bit. A strike force of Luis Fabiano and Franca doesn't scare me at all. They're all excellent backups, but as starters? Meh.
To be fair, Argentina looked like the better team in the entire final match until they got cocky and blew it in the end. Alex and Adriano made them pay for it. IT wasn't the best of teams but it did have players that are especially now viewed more seriously than before, namely Adriano, Juan and Gustavo Nery who I still think was a bit underrated when at Sao Paulo. A Brazil second team probably would struggle to make it past the first knock-out stage of the cup (round of 16), let alone the finals of the World Cup. But - the players on that team are important to the first team because they provide a great deal of flexibility should the need arise to fill in certain gaps. Many fans see a weakness in the midfield without Gilberto Silva there... Renato has disappointed. I've even seen some fans say to bring back Emerson. I think many fans look at the Selecao and can of course name the great offensive players but when it comes to doing the dirty work or filling in the gaps of the defense/holding midfield/wings, that's where it gets a bit tricky. Granted, a player like Robinho could even slide into the wings IMO and that would be something I'd be VERY interested in seeing. But who knows.
I as a Brazil fan want to see us blowing away top ranked NT's by at least 2 goals, before we get so carried away. To me there have been a few dominant eras like this in football (France 1998-2000), (Dutch 1974) (W.Germany, 1966 - 1974 roughly) (Brazil from 1958 & 1962 and 1970) (Hungarians of the early 50's). Yes we have a great squad on paper, but we've been far from convincing like the aforementioned teams. I don't think any other side in the world has the depth of talent we do, but as we've seen in the past few years, catenaccio like tactics have been used against superior teams with good success. We've been efficient, not overly dominant. Just doing enough to win, not blasting teams away like a team with our calibre of talent should be doing.
I started this thread...but I think Brazil has lots of talented players. But they are beatable. We've seen in at Euro with Greece...and in Korea/Japan at the last world's with France not even advancing past first round. Argentina and Portugal also played poorly. And, there are teams out there that can field 11 players that can hold their own against Brazil...alas Argentina, Spain, France, Portugal, Italy, England, Netherlands, and you can't count out Germany or the czechs on their day. As far as depth goes..no one touches Brazil. But as far as head-to-head match ups...soccer isn't only about scoring.
No one touches them offensively, but that isn't the problem. It is in defense that they lack quality depth. That is what will always hurt Brazil should they get any injuries/suspensions.
brazil have more quality defenders than most people know. Lucio, Juan, Alex (psv), Cris, Luisao, Edmilson, Belletti, Gustavo Nery, Maicon, Roberto Carlos, Cafu, Daniel Alves Gilberto & Mancini are all strong players. note: i didn't put Roque Junior in there.
here's an oddball Brazilian XI: GK: Jefferson (botafogo) Centrebacks: Alex (psv), Luisão (Benfica) Fullbacks: Daniel Alves (sevilla), Adriano Correia (cortitiba) central Mids: Renato (sevilla), Dudu Cearence (rennes), Elano (santos) forward wings: Nilmar (lyon) Robinho(Santos) centre forward: Ilan (sochoux)