https://ge.globo.com/futebol/seleca...uritiba-para-partidas-das-eliminatorias.ghtml Players arriving in Curitiba
Going to be honest, this call-up has turned me completely off of the Selecao. Dorival isn't the answer and will not be the answer in 2026.
You all know I'm Mr. Optimism most of the time and always looking forward here, but I will say I'm not enthusiastic right now. Some of my pet peeves aren't Dorival issues though: calling up only 23 players and preferring local players for last minute call-ups is just how every Brazilian coach would operate. There does need to be a change in approach overall. But Dorival's promise is that things will click soon. OK, well, I guess I'll wait and see. In the meantime, let's start accumulating points. That's not very exciting, just pragmatic and what we need to do, but unless Vini or Endrick catch fire in these two matches, or Estevao has a dream debut people aren't going to be excited in general. Hopefully we move in the right direction though.
Up front I am a bit excited to see something different. The midfield worries me a bit. I don't follow players in lower European leagues so I am not sure what other options there are for Dorival to call. I know Raphinha has turned into an interesting story as he has been really good floating around the middle instead of being pinned on the right. I think Flick has found the best way to use him.
It's too bad Raphinha is out considering the form he has hit. But part of the problem is that Barca gets him in behind defenders better (or gets other players in for him to feed). If we could do that with Raphinha and Vini, we'd get more out if them.
Yep. Those are my thoughts as well. At least in the last 3 games it seems that Barca have fixed some of their problems and they have quality passing in the midfield. So it doesn't mean we'd be able to replicate that.
For those of us in the US I believe the Friday match x Ecuador will be on Telemundo (maybe TuDN?) Whereas the Paraguay match will be on pay-per-view only.
Raphinha having a hot few games doesn't really move me when it comes to the NT. Vini was insane last season then had a terrible Copa America. I don't except him to do much this break. Rodrygo continues to be a boring option. Not the superstar we thought he'd be both for club and NT level. The midfield is actually worse than the Copa America squad. I don't get how Andreas Periera could be excluded. I think Douglas Luiz is a lot better than what he was allowed to show but for me he seems like he'll be a fringe player for the foreseeable future. Can't talk to much about Gerson and Andre. The quality of players Dorival continues to call up is just shocking to me. Just feels like mediocrity continues to get rewarded.
Apparently Pedro was suppose to start but had a "knock" this morning and Endrick took his spot. Sadly its an ACL injury.
I am still not a big fan of Raphinha ... but the point I was making is that he is actually being used differently now which has improved his performance by quite a bit. True, it could be just a few games and I really don't expect him to play that way for the NT .. but if he were to figure again the team, I'd only want to see him play a more roaming role. Even if it's just a sub.
João Pedro has been called in to replace Pedro. A couple of thoughts: a lot of people like him cause of his PL numbers. But when he and Endrick played last year he was very uninspiring despite playing most of one match, while Endrick seemed more dangerous despite getting only some minutes near the end. He's a good system forward for the typical pressing PL setup and positional play. He has to show more than that for the national team. I said about other recent replacements that often last-minute replacements are picked from among players in Brazil. I guess the forward options there were so far down the pecking order they were ok bringing in someone from Europe at the last minute.
Expected line-up: Alisson; Danilo, Éder Militão, Gabriel Magalhães, Guilherme Arana; André, Bruno Guimarães, Lucas Paquetá; Rodrygo, Vini Júnior, Endrick Marquinhos and João Gomes out for Gabriel and André. Arana preferred over Wendell, and Rodrygo on the right with Endrick starting in the middle are the basic changes form the average Copa America starting line-ups if this holds.
Post-training update today: Militao is out injured and Luiz Henrique was among the starters. Line-up: Alisson; Danilo, Marquinhos, Gabriel Magalhães, Guilherme Arana; André, Bruno Guimarães, Lucas Paquetá; Luiz Henrique, Rodrygo, Vini Júnior.
Match thread for tonight's match https://www.bigsoccer.com/threads/e...sil-x-equador-9-6-2024.2132453/#post-42508488
Fabricio Bruno has been called in to replace Militão due to his injury. Makes sense to call him in since there's only one match left. Bremer should have been in from the start though.
I put this in the Neymar thread, but it belongs here too: https://ge.globo.com/futebol/futebo...-meses-de-tratamento-diz-jornal-saudita.ghtml Reportedly Neymar will need two more months of recovery after failing his physicals on his return to Al-Hilal. This rules him out of October and probably November too.
Only one change in training so far for tomorrow's match: Endrick is in, and Luiz Henrique is out (Rodrygo moves to the right). Alisson; Danilo, Marquinhos, Gabriel Magalhães, Guilherme Arana; André, Bruno Guimarães, Lucas Paquetá; Rodrygo, Endrick, Vini Júnior https://ge.globo.com/futebol/seleca...l-com-endrick-para-enfrentar-o-paraguai.ghtml
Neymar still leads Brazil in goal contributions in these Qualifiers. Vini needs to get going. They didn't take away the World Cup from Russia or Qatar, so they are not going to take it away from Spain either no matter what he says.
Match thread for tomorrow's game. https://www.bigsoccer.com/threads/eliminatÓrias-copa-2026-r8-paraguay-x-brasil-9-10-2024.2132486/
Dorival Jr. is a manager I respect, not the least as a São Paulo fan. But he said yesterday "podem me cobrar, estaremos na decisão da Copa do Mundo (de 2026). Reaching the World Cup final is exceedingly difficult; Brazil went that far 7 out of 22 times and under current cirumstances, it's quite a stretch. If Brazil loses tonight, he'll definitely be called out at the postgame for saying Brazil will reach the final (which would require defeating top UEFA teams) when it can't even defeat Paraguay.