News: Seleção General Discussion 2023 [R]

He was mentioned during March as an injured player who would otherwise have been in consideration for the call up.

 

https://ge.globo.com/futebol/seleca...is-visando-convocacao-para-copa-america.ghtml

Details on the staff's visit to Europe. This time they will be covering Italy as well (as I speculated when the last call up came out without some names).

The article indicates only 23 players will be called up for the friendlies. In total, the team will be together for 3 weeks before the first match of Copa America.

UEFA is expanding the Euro rosters to 26. I haven't seen any indication CONMEBOL will do the same, but I think it would be a positive.

 

Most players that were injured long term, or just not available in March, are back in action.

Even Caio Henrique, who hasn't played yet, has been available off the bench in the last couple of Monaco matches.

But it looks like Ederson is injured again and might be out for the remainder of the season for Man City, pending confirmation. He left today's match with his arm in a sling.

Obviously Militão and Alisson will be part of the convocação. Wouldn't be surprised to see Vanderson as a new name that wasn't available in March. Besides those, who knows. I hope Caio Henrique gets called, but other positions are much deeper so even players who were specifically mentioned by Dorival might not have a spot.

 

Caio Henrique, who I mentioned has been back for a couple of weeks, got subbed in today in the 90th minute. I think that's his first match since injury.

Joelinton is also back from injury and got about 15 minutes as a sub.

Andres Perreira left injured today. Hopefully nothing too serious.

Biggest games of course are the upcoming CL semi final second legs. Real Madrid rested starters today with Vini just getting some late minutes.

 

Convocação tomorrow. Since it's for Copa America I'll post here first:

https://www.bigsoccer.com/threads/copa-america-2024-usa.2124465/#post-42205650

 

Two notes from UOL articles about the upcoming call-up:

Gabriel Jesus and Martinelli are unlikely. Jesus makes sense to me. He's had quite a drop off and used mostly as a sub recently. At first I thought Martinelli should at least have a much better chance, but objectively he's kind of in the same place. Lately he's been a sub and hasn't had the impact he did before.

I still think he would be a good call-up, but it's understandable. Another consideration is if Dorival moves towards 2 up front there might be fewer spots for forwards.

The other article says that the staff met with Rodinei specifically. It doesn't go so far as to say he will be on the list, but does lead you to believe the meeting might be a sign.

Personally I don't think I'd pick him ahead of Vanderson or Yan Couto, and I'd still want Danilo as my starter for now. Though who knows. Maybe he'll give Danilo a break and be more experimental.

We'll find out tomorrow.

 

I haven't had the bandwidth to keep a close eye on this call up, and it's at least a week earlier than I expected. But I still have a few notes or thoughts to share before tomorrow:

• I'll be very surprised if GK is anyone besides Alisson, Ederson, Bento
• I do think Vanderson deserves a recall at right-back. If the squad has 26 names, I'd like one to be an extra left or right-back
• Arana is playing really well under Milito. If Dorival wants that kind of left-back I expect him to be called up, but I also want to see Caio Henrique and Carlos Augusto. None of those 3 were there last time. Very curious to see who he picks.
• Everyone is available for central defense right now. We could see the "expected" top 4 of Militão, Marquinhos, Gabriel, Bremer... but Fabricio Bruno did well last time and Beraldo did ok. And there are tons of other options... Murillo and Murilo included. Can't really go wrong here, but what direction will he go in.
• I don't expect many changes to midfield. André is injured right now and I don't expect Pablo Maia, so maybe there's an opening for a new call-up like Ederson (Atalanta) or a return for Joelinton if he's in Dorival's plans
• And up front I don't see much space for new options. Granted he mentioned Matheus Cunha and João Pedro last time, so maybe one of those sneaks in as a backup to the false nine or Rodrygo spot centralized. I can see a surprise like Savio or Paulinho making it but not both.

So, TLDR, I think GK, midfield and forwards will remain mostly the same, defense will depend on what direction he wants to go as everyone is available and as always lately full-back is anyone's guess.

Some pundits and fans have called for Estevao but I don't see that happening for Copa America. Maybe if he had two separate call-ups for the friendlies and the tournament, but even then it would be premature.

Who knows. Maybe they've decided CA will be much more experimental. Then all bets are off. But I think the expectation is for something close to his best 23 (or 26) so that's what I based these on.

 

Discussion in the Copa America thread:

https://www.bigsoccer.com/threads/copa-america-2024-usa.2124465/page-2#post-42207119

List:

GK: Alisson, Bento, Ederson

RB: Danilo, Yan Couto

CD: Beraldo, Eder Militao, Gabriel, Marquinhos

LB: Arana, Wendel

MID: Andreas Pereira, Bruno Guimaraes, Douglas Luiz, Joao Gomes, Lucas Paqueta

FWD: Endrick, Evanilson, Gabriel Martinelli, Raphinha, Rodrygo, Savinho, Vini Jr.

 

🚨🇧🇷 SELEÇÃO BRASILEIRA CONVOCADA PARA A COPA AMÉRICA! Esses são os 23 jogadores que vão em busca da taça pro Brasil! E aí, curtiu as escolhas do Dorival? 👀 pic.twitter.com/UcOvslgFTK

— TNT Sports BR (@TNTSportsBR) May 10, 2024

 

And if Bento is sold early in the transfer window he'll go straight from Copa America to Europe. (Inter reportedly likely to make a move for him).

 

This is not good news:

https://ge.globo.com/futebol/futebo...ostas-em-quatro-jogos-da-premier-league.ghtml

(Also see: )

Paqueta has been formally accused by the FA over the betting allegations that kept him out of the national team last year.

I wrongly assumed that no news was good news back in October when the last piece of evidence was filed. Turns out it was just the FA quietly doing their work.

Paqueta's infraction is considered the worst kind. Worst than Tonali and Toney for example, who recently had significant suspensions.

The penalty, if he is found guilty, varies form 6 months to a lifetime ban. This probably won't affect Copa America from the standpoint of the FA and FIFA, as it will take time for the process to move along, but the question for us is whether CBF will pre-emptively suspend or remove him.

Obviously they did that in September, when this first came to light. In the end I think they will remove him again, the only difference is it will be a more organized and clear process with Rodrigo Caetano and the new national team structure setting out the standard for removal and timeline for him to return. Of course, they may also decide that the best way to handle this is wait until he is judged in which case he will likely play Copa America and be only suspended (or banned) when the FA's accusations have been litigated after which they would petition FIFA to make the ban apply worldwide.

 

I had some fun earlier this year playing FM 2024 and managing Brazil from 2024 through the World Cup. Decided to play another one today.

In all, I played 5 campaigns, won all of them, but that's not too surprising considering how the game works. Still, there were plenty of fun things in each playthrough, and even some interesting consistencies and differences.

In every game, Endrick started off not really being in the national team picture, not being good enough yet (keep in mind this version of the game was released last year) but every time he was one of the best players on the squad by 2026. The player ratings in the game are based on real scouting, so basically what it's saying is that everyone sees him as a sure thing. In every one of my playthroughs he scored World Cup goals. In one of them he had 7, including 2 in the semi and 1 in the final.

90% of the roster was the same every time. Goalkeepers were always Alisson, Ederson and usually Bento. Though one time Andrew moved to Sporting and was better than Bento by the time the World Cup started, so I took him.

Central defense was always the same four players: Marquinhos, Militão, Gabriel, Bremer. I always called up other defenders during the qualifiers to prepare, like Murilo, Beraldo, Natan, etc. but none of them moved ahead of the top 4 by World Cup 2026. Morato was one name that almost made it.

I took Casemiro in most cases, but always as a backup. André, Joelinton and most of the current Copa roster were basically the options I had. Although, in 2/5 games Moscardo was solid enough to get called up by the time the 2026 World Cup came around.

On offense I always took Vini, Rodrygo, Martinelli, Endrick. Usually Raphinha. Sometimes Richarlison, Gabriel Jesus, Savio. I guess there was more variation here. One time I took Estêvão, who the game also sees as almost a sure thing. His potential was as high as Endrick's when I took him (even though this was released last year).

Not surprisingly, left-back and right-back didn't have many options. I almost always took Danilo, Yan Couto AND Vanderson (since it was a 26 man roster) with Dodo and Emerson as the only other options I tested a few times, but they never made it to the WC. The good news is that both Vanderson and Yan Couto were rated consistently and highly enough that they always improved in the two years before the World Cup and were always above average players on the squad.

On the other hand, while left-back had 4 regular options (Arana, Caio Henrique, Carlos Augusto, Samuel Lino) only one was ever above average, and that was Samuel Lino. Based on the game's ratings, Wendell was only sometimes an option.

Obviously this is all for fun and while real scouting goes into the game ratings, once you start playing and take control, things play out differently each time. I would love to see the right-backs pan out like they did in the game, but who knows.

Anyways, on to the results. Italy was a team I played in 4 out of 5 attempts. Once in the final. One time I actually advanced in second place in the group (Croatia took first place on goal difference after we tied 0x0!)

Three Copa America finals were against Argentina. One was against Ecuador and one against Uruguay (the game does a random draw, so the groups are not the same as in real life).

Some of the most unusual results: 7x3 over Tunisia in a third round match (we were up 5x0, then they scored 3 goals before we closed it out!). 6x6 against the USA in a pre-World Cup friendly! Beat Germany 6x0 in a group match! The "easiest" final of all 5 was against France, we won 4x1! The least expected team I ended up playing in the final was Sweden. Also played Mexico in a semi once which certainly doesn't seem likely today. Also faced the other hosts, Canada and the USA, in different playthroughs at different stages. Oh, and in one Copa America Casemiro got two red cards! That time I did not take Casemiro to the World Cup.

Rarely faced CONMEBOL teams. In 5 playthroughs I faced CONMEBOL only twice. Once I faced Argentina in the second round, and once I face Uruguay in the second round and Argentina in the quarters.

Here are the 5 finals I played:
Brazil 2x0 England
Brazil 3x1 Sweden
Brazil 4x1 France
Brazil 1x0 Italy
Brazil 3x2 England

(England is usually rated quite highly in the game, not surprisingly considering the game is made by a developer in the UK.)

I usually played in a 4-4-2 with Neymar or Rodrygo behind the two forwards. Usually Vini + 1 forward. Sometimes Paquetá and even Andreas Pereira played the 10 role depending on the match or after subs.

I might try some more playthroughs throughout the year, but I don't think I'll see much more variation as far as rosters go. One thing that was annoying (just like in real life) was being forced to call-up only 23 players most time, even though the tournaments had 26 player rosters.

 

News about the upcoming qualifiers that came out during this pre-Copa America window:

https://ge.globo.com/futebol/seleca...inatorias-para-porto-alegre-em-setembro.ghtml

CBF wants to host Brazil x Ecuador, our September home friendly, in Porto Alegre.
The stadium will re-open soon for a Copa do Brasil match between Inter and Juventude. But there are of course lots of other logistics issues with the city and whether it's ready to host.

 

You know me, I'm already looking ahead to the next national team matches.

With Copa América over for us, we know the next 12 matches we will play, from September this year through to September of 2025 (6 this year and 6 next). They are all World Cup qualifiers. After that there will be time for 4 friendlies in late 2025, 2 in March 2026 and potentially 2 more pre-World Cup.

Next matches:

Brazil x Ecuador (probably in Porto Alegre), September 5 or 6
Paraguay x Brazil (in Assuncion), September 10

Call up will probably be on August 16 or 23, 6 or 7 weeks from now.

After that: September 20 call-up for matches in Chile on October 10/11 and versus Peru on the 15th. October 25 call-up for matches in Venezuela on November 14/15 and versus Uruguay on the 19th.

As always, I wish we'd see more players called up, but it will probably 23 as usual.

Wishlist:

• Offensive improvement and at least 4 wins during this stretch.
• More full-backs called up, specifically some of Vanderson, Caio Henrique, Carlos Augusto, Samuel Lino, possibly some options from Brazil
• More tactical variety, even if just a 4-4-2
• Better game management by Dorival

 

A decent video, in my opinion, though I think for most on this forum it's preaching to the choir.