Brazil News Archives

Five time World Cup champion Brazil announced Tuesday that it will play two football friendlies on US soil later this year.

The Brazilians have booked matches against Canada in Seattle on May 31 and Venezuela on June 6 at Foxboro, Massachusetts, as part of a twin-bill with Major League Soccer’s New England Revolution facing FC Dallas.

Brazil first appeared at Foxboro last September when a record crowd of 67,684 watched the South Americans beat Mexico 2-1. Brazil defeated a US all-star squad 2-0 in Seattle in 1976.

It will be the first appearance for the Canadians at Seattle since 2005 when they lost 2-0 to the US team during the CONCACAF Gold Cup.

Comparisons can be a pain in the backside. My dad says that nobody was ever better than Tom Finney or Puskas, my older brother says George Best and Pele have no equals, I believe Maradona to be the best ever and my son says that Cristiano Ronaldo has more than the lot of them put together.

It has always been this way. We always think that the top players of ‘our generation’ are the best of all time. It is impossible to compare these great players because they are all from a different place and time. Of course George Best wouldn’t be as quick, as fit or strong enough to play in today’s Premiership and Ronaldo would have been even more of a phenomenon than he is now if you transported him back thirty or forty years.

You can only judge them by how good they were amongst their contemporaries. It is no good listening to anecdotal evidence because the fans of each player will only tell you why their particular favourite is the best of all time. The only way to judge this fairly is to look at the facts and figures. So let’s do it:

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Droplets of rain seeped through the roof onto my laptop in the familiar surroundings of Craven Cottage. Just for a brief moment, I could have been watching an English league match. The pitch in front of me was water-sodden, the journalist sitting next to me had a dulcet cockney accent and I could barely feel my feet, given the cold winds blowing through the Johnny Haynes Stand. But this was where the similarities ended, on a very different night of football action in the capital.

As I ventured to west London for Wednesday’s international between Ghana and Mexico, Brazil and Sweden fans were travelling in the opposite direction on the Piccadilly Line, bound for their game at the Emirates Stadium. Amidst the rush hour throng of suits, were face-painted groups representing the four nations. Flags were being waved, whistles blown and various chants were livening up the usually sombre experience of travelling by London Underground. Many supporters were ex-pats revelling in a rare opportunity to watch their native country play live for the first time, adding to the excitement.

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Brazil 1-0 Sweden
19:45 GMT, Wednesday, 26 March 2008, Emirates Stadium (Arsenal)

Brazil beat Sweden 1-0 thanks to a 72nd minute goal by Pato to win the 50th anniversary of the ‘58 WC clash between the two sides.

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Two international matches take place in London next Wednesday - but neither fixture involves England. While the Three Lions play France in Paris, Arsenal’s Emirates Stadium hosts an encounter between Brazil and Sweden and Fulham’s Craven Cottage sees Ghana take on Mexico. The prospect of watching the likes of Ronaldinho, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Michael Essien and Giovani dos Santos in the flesh will have London’s football fans torn. Do they swap sofa for a stadium, England for Ghana or Gerrard for Kaka for just one night?

We London-based fans are thoroughly spoilt. Not only do we have 13 professional clubs based here (more than in any other city in the world), we now have a host of national sides playing on our doorsteps on a regular basis. This time last year, four internationals were played in the big smoke on one night, including a clash between Brazil and Portugal along with Nigeria v Ghana, Greece v South Korea and Australia v Denmark. The likes of Trinidad and Tobago and Jamaica have also found the capital to be an excellent home-away-from-home over the past few years.

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Instead of churning out another David Beckham soccer academy, Goldenballs has decided to go bigger and better with the creation of David Beckham’s World of Sport, set to be complete by 2010.

The location this time is in Brazil and the setting is luxury resort Cabo São Roque, located 20 miles north of Natal, the capital of Rio Grande do Norte. The digs are basically the standard trimmings for luxury resorts (indoor/outdoor pools, two golf courses, tennis courts) but Brand Beckham adds a special tourism niche.

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In today’s video roundup we look at yesterday’s friendlies.

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The “Emperor” is back. Back in Brazil that is, and back to scoring some goals. Adriano Leite Ribeiro has hit some pretty rough patches these past few months, but since he was loaned out to Brazilian club São Paulo by Inter Milan, he seems to be doing a lot better. He’s doing so good in that on Thursday, on his first official match with his new colours, the lad got a double under his belt. Kinda to remind everyone why many people still call him O Imperador back in Brazil. It’s just been one good match though… is it fair to talk about “Adriano’s rebirth”?

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Ronaldo certainly picked a fine time to make his return from injury, but he was the elder statesman on Sunday as AC Milan took on Napoli at home in their first match of the new year.

On the day that wonderkid striker Alexander Pato made his debut for the Rossoneri, the fans who packed the San Siro got the chance to watch the past (though he’s still got something left in him, as he showed), the present, and the potential future of Brazilian football on display for the home side, and playing the biggest parts in Milan finally, finally getting a home win in Serie A.

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For six and a half years he has lived the almost impossible dream of being one of European football’s top strikers. For six and a half years he has hissed terror into the heart of every defender. For six and a half years he has walked the tightrope of celebrity life. But not anymore. He has now tumbled spectacularly from the tightrope and fallen with a massive thud on the bottomless abyss. The saddest fragment of the whole ghastly saga is that there’s no one to sympathise with him.

For Adriano Leite Ribeiro life that was once a symphony is now a broken song whose lyrics lack coherence and are littered with wailings. Just one and a half seasons back, the 25-year old Brazilian football star was one of the most feared strikers in the Italian Serie A, one was practically indispensable for his club Internazionale FC. But now he is a degenerating liability who can be disposed of and actually has been disposed of.

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21st November 2007: the half-time whistle in the 2010 World Cup qualifying game between Brazil and Uruguay is met with a cacophony of boos from the Maracanã crowd, disenchanted with the performance of their side, despite Luis Fabiano’s equaliser just before the break. Although Brazil went on the win the game 2-1 with a second from Fabiano, the growing disillusionment with the national side was plain to see and it has prompted many to analyse just where they are going wrong.

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Edson Arantes do Nascimento (Pele as he would later be known around the world) was often rated as the best player in the world. Only he and fellow legend Diego Armando Maradona, have received the honours by FIFA with the awards of officially being dubbed the greatest players in the history of the game. An ongoing debate among football fans to this day remains, who was better?

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Soccerlens is very pleased to welcome Mr. Ruben Olthuis, who is the creator of one of the largest football player databases in the world, Bestplayersdirectory.com, along with a site dedicated to Brazilian football. The player database, as of today, contains 899 players from 75 different countries. It has links to 1230 web sites, blogs, official player sites, and fan pages. The Brazilian project has fan web sites, club sites, links to Futsal (indoor football), and the National Team (Seleçao). Let us not forget that Mr. Olthuis is from the Netherlands, and not Samba land!

Bestplayersdirectory.com
The no. 1 directory on player websites.
http://footballplayers.mine.nu

Brazilian Football Websites
http://brazilianfootballplayers.50webs.com/brazilian-football-websites.htm

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There have been at least 8 people killed this week-end, towards the end of a league match after part of a Brazilian stadium collapsed. The accident, which took place at the Fonte Nova stadium in Salvador, occurred after some of the concrete stand fell away with 10 minutes remaining in the game between Bahia and Vila Nova, a team from the nearby state of Goias. Several fans fell through the large hole that was created from one of the highest stands, plummeting around 40 metres. The fans had been celebrating the side’s promotion to the second division. It’s been reported that around 60,000 fans were in the stadium at the time and many were unaware of the tragedy until after the final whistle.

Salvador is in contention to be one of the cities to stage the World Cup in 2014 after Brazil were confirmed as the hosts last month. Upon hearing this news I started wondering – is Brazil going to be safe enough to host the World Cup?

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It’s that time of the year again. The time when a random (ok, let’s call it ‘well-respected’ if you prefer) football publication makes an “All Time Best” ranking that never fails to create controversy and offend a few people.

FourFourTwo did one of those last month, this time it’s the turn of the ‘Association of Football Statisticians’ to make its Top 100, after studying every fact and figure from the beautiful game over the past 100 years.

Points are given for goals scored by forwards and clean sheets for defenders. Players also get awarded marks for trophies won, captaincy and the level they played at throughout their career.

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So with Brazil confirmed last week as the official hosts of the World Cup 2014, unsurprisingly seeing as they were the only bidders, attention has already started to turn to World Cup 2018.

Several countries have put themselves forward for potentially hosting the World Cup in 11 years’ time, including England, the United States, China, Australia, Russia, Benelux (joint bidding between Belgium and Holland), and possibly Canada and Mexico.

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President Bill Clinton and Pelé during a 1997 visit to Rio de Janeiro.

Many years ago, someone stopped me as I was walking in the main entrance of my apartment building in Washington, D.C. I had a football under my arm. “Hey, soccer man, wait a minute.” A Brazilian man, Salvador, introduced himself to me. He also lived in the building with his wife and baby son. He said that we needed to get together and play sometime. A few weeks later, the opportunity presented itself.

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From Alemao’s coin throwing incident to Rivaldo’s acting in the World Cup, up to Dida’s Oscar winning performance of Wednesday in Glasgow: these are three stories of three Brazilians, all worthy of a role in a Latin Telenovela (Spanish soap opera). I picked up this piece from Gazzetta dello Sport, but I thought I’d share it with you here.

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On September 9, 2007 the United States will take on #1 ranked and 5 time World Cup champion Brazil. US head coach Bob Bradley announced his roster and it is not short of what would be playing in any World Cup if it were to happen today, and Brazil is bringing their first team as well. Here’s how they match up:

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I have been, traditionally, a Brazil fan. I don’t remember since when, but I still did occasionally like Argentina. Although that was more due to a certain Diego Maradona. But ever since the departure of that colourful Argentinian my loyalties became pretty much concrete - with the Selecao.

Until this tournament.

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Well I have to say its good that I’m suffering from insomnia these days, it has allowed me to catch the Copa America on satellite. At two o’clock in the morning I tuned in to watch a a Chilean squad that just wouldn’t go down; a match that would have been much forgotten if Nelson Acosta’s side hadn’t recorded a magnificent 3-2 comeback victory in what has been so far the best match of the competition as drama dominated day two of the tournament.

Oh! … and did i mention that Brazil were outclassed by Mexico?

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The club vs country debate

The ongoing dispute between Brazil and Real Madrid (the two most successful sides at international and club level), recently resolved in Real Madrid’s favor, has once again brought this issue into the spotlight.

With the G14 suing the organizing bodies, and clubs in several countries demanding compensation for players severely injured while on international duty, sooner or later steps will be taken, either jointly or unilaterally to resolve this once and for all.

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