There is probably no greater evidence of how deep Brazil is as a football nation that three starters for their Lusofone cousin, Portugal got their start in the game in Brazil and are naturalized Portuguese citizens: Pepe, Deco and Liedson. Germany has also naturalized a Brazilian, Cacau.
Brazil’s only drawback will be the heavy weight of expectations. I often joke with my wife that Brazil’s greatest problem is that it has some 180 million coaches. Felipe Scolari was roundly – and in my opinion wrongly – criticized for not putting Romario in the squad in 2002. Winning the cup that year silenced the critics and if they can pull it off again this year, it will silence the myriad critics. My personal feeling that winning the game is a lot more important than jogo bonito (the beautiful game) and I believe that is largely shared by the coach, Carlos Caetano Bledorn Verri, aka Dunga.
If anyone saw this year’s Champions League semifinal and final, they know that Brazil has a first rate keeper in Júlio César. The skill in defense doesn’t end there. Lúcio and Juan are excellent and experienced center backs; the former skilled in initiating the attack and deadly in the air on set pieces (he scored the winning goal against the US in last year’s Confederations Cup final off a corner) and the latter one of the few bright spots for Brazil in the 2006 WC. At fullback they have a bit of dilemma: Brazil has two of the best right backs in the world in Dani Alves and Maicon. Expect Maicon to start; more on Alves in a moment. Michel Bastos will probably be the left back.
In midfield, Gilberto Silva and Felipe Melo will be the defenders and Kaká and Elano will probably round out the offensive midfield, with Kaká almost like a withdrawn forward and given his distribution skills, speed and feel for the game, a playmaker to be reckoned with. Melo will need to remember to keep a cool head. If it were up to me, I would put Dani Alves in for Elano. Alves often comes up on the attack in Barcelona, while tracking back pretty well on defense, which would be a good rule when Maicon goes forward. His skills on free kicks are not something you want to leave on the bench.
Luis Fabiano, an excellent target man (look how he took the wind out of the US sails in the Confederations Cup at the start of the second half) and Robinho will be the forwards. Am I the only one who isn’t exactly sold on Robinho? I would prefer Nilmar complementing Luis Fabiano.
Given that I don’t see the Portuguese League that often outside the major teams such as Benfica, Porto and Sporting Lisbon, I have never seen Eduardo, Portugal’s number one keeper play. His club football is with Braga and to his credit they had their best finish ever as runner-ups to Benfica, surrendering only 20 goals in 30 league matches. Bruno Alves and Ricardo Carvalho will figure as center-backs with Alves’ threat on set pieces (he scored six goals for Porto last season and two in WC qualification for Portugal) a nice bonus. I would imagine that given his recent injuries, Pepe willbe brought in as a substitute when needed. Paulo Ferreira and either Miguel or Duda will figure as fullbacks, no doubt leaving coach Carlos Queiroz wishing José Bosingwa was healthy. In midfield Deco and Simão should figure in the attack, but in my mind the heart and soul of their midfield is Raúl Meireles, a versatile player who can do it all: defend, distribute and on occasion, score.
The team received a body blow to their offense with the announcement yesterday that the winger, Nani, who had a dream season at Manchester United, has broken his collarbone and will miss the World Cup. I don’t know much about his replacement, Ruben Amorim, but I’m sure their fans were practically drooling with the thought of Nani and Cristiano Ronaldo as wingers with Liedson as a target man in the middle. I don’t know how they’ll adapt, but I believe that with Ronaldo, they’re still a potent threat. Love him or hate him, his speed, skill on the ball and dangerous free kicks are the real deal.
While everyone is wondering if Didier Drogba will play, precious little attention is being given to their weakness in goal. I have not seen Boubacar Barry play, but whatever I have been able to read about him is not encouraging. He will have some good defenders in front of him. Although Kolo Touré is not nearly the same player at his peak with Arsenal, he still has a fairly good head for the game and is a hard worker. Paired with the imposing Souleymane Bamba, they’ll be the central defenders. Emmanuel Eboué and Siaka Tiéné provide skill and pace at left and right back, but whereas Eboué’s disciplinary record at Arsenal has improved over the years, Tiéné has drawn 21 yellow and three red cards for Valenciennes. That could be a serious problem in an opening round.
Dididier Zakora and Yaya Touré (Kolo’s brother) also provide Barry with some protection as topnotch midfielders, but Zakora again had disciplinary issues with Sevilla, some of which could be blamed on his transition from the English Premier League to La Liga in Spain, a tougher league on fouls, to be sure. I really don’t know who will be helming the midfield offense.
As for Drogba, everyone is waiting. Drogba along with strike partner Salmon Kalou would, in my opinion, be the best strike partnership of any of the African teams. If Drogba can’t play, who will replace him? Gervinho, perhaps? Aruna Dindane?
If there is a team I know next to zero about it’s North Korea. One of their players, Jong Tae-Se, nicknamed the People’s Wayne Rooney plays in Japan. Another, Hong Yong-Jo plays in Russia. the rest all play in North Korea. Expect them to be an hors d’œuvre for the other teams in this group. Trust me: there will not be a repeat of 1966. Enough said.
So, who goes to the next round? Brazil and Portugal. If Didier Drogba can play, Ivory Coast may challenge, but I expect an all-Lusofone move to the next stage. If you live in or near Newark, NJ or Somerville, MA, the morning of June 25th will be fun. Portugal and Brazil play each other. These two communities, with large immigrant populations from both countries, will be rocking.
Here are my comments on Group A, Group B, Group C, Group D, Group E and Group F.
Cross-posted at Beautiful Horizons.
r€nato
The best group, perhaps? North Korea won’t be competitive of course, but I’m very curious to see how DPRK plays the game… this is the one group which I could watch every match.
Steeplejack
Random poll at the Big Box Bookstore: When I have someone checking out with soccer books or magazines, I ask them who they are pulling for in the World Cup. Overwhelming favorite so far: Italy. Go figure.
Bort
Portugal!!! My wife is Portuguese so I’ll be rooting for them. The only question is how tough those North Koreans will be.
Football, as many of you know, was actually invented by Kim Il Sung when he was constructing a rugby ball but accidentally created a perfect sphere.
Punchy
Really apologize for thread-jacking, but just what the fuck is going on with the Big12? ESPN pretty much said it’s dead, with NE going to the B10 and 6 Big12 skools likely to bolt to the PAC10. Holy mother Jeebus will that fuck KU, KSU, ISU, Baylor, and especially MU. MU was convinced it had a B10 invite in the bag. They’re as jilted as one could be.
Argentina and Messi will win the WC. He’s just too fucking good.
Mark S.
This is the closest this World Cup has to a Group of Death. I feel sorry for Ivory Coast because they probably have the best African team and they’re stuck with Brazil and Portugal. Oh, what the hell, I’ll say Brazil wins it and Ivory Coast second.
Tattoosydney
Being in Portugal during the last World Cup was one of the coolest experiences of my life.
All football, all the time, and the Portuguese get particularly excited given that, for all practical nationalistic purposes, they have two teams in the competition.
In Lisbon, it was always easy to tell whether Portugal or Brazil was playing next – if it was Portugal, every single building, every window, every space where something could be hung in the entire city would be bedecked with the red and green.
Then, like magic, the next morning, all of those flags had vanished, and had been replaced with the Brazilian version.
During the game, every bar in the city had their tv on loud, as people wandered from tiny bar to tiny bar laughing and drinking and shouting.
In every town we visited, now matter how small, bars had dragged their flat screen tvs into the town square, and it seemed like every person in town was sitting, glued to the game, and happily drinking like there was no tomorrow.
Man, can those people party.
Roberto
North Korea is a huge underdog. Therefore, I have no choice but to cheer for them, despite their success meaning nothing but support for Kim Jong-Il’s boner.
wobblybits
Eu sou brasileiro,
Com muito orgulho,
Com muito amor!
Go Brasil!!!
(I’m also rooting for U.S., Germany and Cameroon)
I will be blasting Que bonito é in preparation for the matches.
Tattoosydney
@wobblybits:
Boa sorte!
wengler
I would say that Man City fans are also not sold on Robinho(though he sure did cost an awful lot).
Am I only one that thinks that Brazil are underrated going into this World Cup? There are plenty of people picking them, but the sentiment is mostly that they aren’t overwhelming favorites to win. I just can’t see anyone in this tournament stopping this team.
As for Portugal, I am hoping that Cristiano Renaldo mimics the astonishment his countryman Figo showed after getting dismantled by the US in 2002. Portugal had to go through knockouts to qualify and even had trouble making it into second in their group. While seeing it through did take resilience, they will get pushed down to third on goal differential on the final group day in the finals.
I think Ivory Coast even with Drogba is usually overrated by analysts, but in this case I think Portugal is even more so. The African side will squeeze through.
North Korea will have an impact on the final results. They will not be so easily tossed aside by Portugal and Ivory Coast. The Brazilians of course will thrash them. Watch North Korea versus the other two sides though and you will see who advances into the round of 16.
wobblybits
@Tattoosydney: brigada :)
Tattoosydney
@wobblybits:
nada
MikeJ
I’m cheering for Côte d’Ivoire. They’ll get past Portugal.
BTW, you know what the English name for Côte d’Ivoire is? Côte d’Ivoire. They don’t translate it.
jp2
Debating whether or not Didier Dropba’s arm injury will have him diving more or less.
The best diver in the world and therefore my least favorite player in the world.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FAATMG91KUU&feature=related
Cacti
I’m glad Brazil’s coach this time around appears to want to field the best team possible, rather than the team with the most star power.
Ronaldo, Cafu and Roberto Carlos had no business pulling the minutes that they did in 2006.
wobblybits
@Cacti: True. Back in Brasil, they were referring to Ronaldo as gordinho. A team of inflated egos that didn’t play well together.
Cacti
@wobblybits:
Yeah, the 2006 squad was a bust. The most disappointing was how poorly Ronaldinho played at a time when he was at the top of his game.
The 2010 team is full of younger, hungrier, new faces.
Progressive Elitist
This is certainly the group of death when you figure that the 2nd place team will be facing Spain in the 2nd round.
Anne Laurie
Since ArguingwithSignposts is not in this thread, I will pass on his earlier notification that Of Zen and Computing has a list of networks that will be live-streaming the World Cup online.
r€nato
Thanks Anne. Livesoccertv.com seems to have a pretty decent list of viewing options for WC games wherever you find yourself around the world.
Some immigrant guy
Portugal sneaked in to the finals, but I agree with you that they look a decent bet to go through with Brazil. Still it is likely to be a close fought group, Ivory Coast definitely look the strongest of the African nations.
Goal difference could be a factor as well, which suggests that the North Korea matches could be pretty entertaining as the opponents try to run up a basketball score.
Thlayli
It was like a drinking game during Euro 2008: “Spot the Brazilian”. Marcos Senna, Mehmet Aurelio, etc.
(Granted, the US squad has a Brazilian native as well, in Benny Feilhaber.)
***
He was their top scorer in 08-09, in fact the top non-“Big Four” scorer in the league. But the fans, in typical English fashion, declared him “lazy” for his failure to run around like a headless chicken.
Funkhauser
There are three concerns here at the moment in the Country of the Future:
1. Júlio César’s back problems
2. Júlio César’s back problems
3. Júlio César’s back problems.
Anteontem (two days ago). the concern was why exactly they gave up one goal to Tanzania, and what could be done about the right defense.
Randy Paul
@wobblybits: Perhaps you might want to try Ponta De Lança Africano (Umbabarauma) by Jorge Ben.
Estou torcendo pro Brasil, também. Minha esposa seria feliz se Brasil ganhar!
Boa sorte!
wobblybits
@Randy Paul: adoro essa canção! se ganhar? Brasil VAI ganhar :)
Randy Paul
@Funkhauser: No worries. See here.
mem from somerville
Heh:
Thanks for the heads-up. I remember what the neighborhood was like when Brazil won the whole thing (I’m told it was 2002). People drove around with giant flags, car horns ablaze, whooping and hollering. It was raucous and fun.