Quick facts

Sorry about the disappearance over the last couple of months. Lots of changes in my offline life, and not as much time as I'd have liked to keep the blog updated. I might have to change the style of the blog over the next while, with shorter entries and not that much info in regards to upcoming games, but at least I'll try to show up more regularly. Let's see if that works.

What have I missed these last few weeks? Well, for one Sao Paulo ran away with the Brazilian title, successfully defending its championship from a year ago. The battle in the remaining rounds is for the Libertadores spots and against relegation.

The Brazilian National team tied Colombia away in its debut at the qualifiers for the 2010 World Cup, and then went back home and trounced Ecuador at the Maracana Stadium. Another away game saw the team tie Peru in Lima last Sunday, and there's only hope the team can at least improve against Uruguay tonight, in Sao Paulo. The team should have no trouble qualifying for South Africa, but fans would definitely appreciate if the squad coached by Dunga could show more consistency, especially on the road.

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Update: Brazil came back from an early 1-0 deficit to beat Uruguay 2-1, on two goals by forward Luis Fabiano.

Brazil beats Argelia 2-0

Brazil beat Argelia 2-0 on Wednesday, on a friendly match played at Montpellier, France. The Brazilian National Team did not play well, but was competent enough to score two goals in the second half, when star players Ronaldinho Gaucho and Kaka joined the team from the bench. Ronaldinho took a free kick and Maicon headed the ball for the first goal. The second goal was scored by Ronaldinho himself, on a rebound from a shot by Diego. The match didn't mean much, and the display on the pitch probably won't help Dunga much in determining what the future holds for the team. But at least Kaka and Ronaldinho have shown they can't be seriously kept off the team when it matters.

Dunga calls players for friendly against Algeria

Brazilian National coach Dunga announced the name of the 22 players for the friendly against Algeria, on August 22, in Montpellier, France. Kaka and Ronaldinho, who were not in last month's Copa America team, were included in the list. The coach had not been happy by both players' request to be left out of the team that played in the competition, ultimately won by Brazil. Here are the names of the players called up by Dunga:

GOALKEEPERS - Doni (Roma), Julio Cesar (Inter Milan)

DEFENDERS - Maicon (Inter Milan), Daniel Alves (Sevilla), Gilberto (Hertha Berlim), Kleber (Santos), Juan (Roma), Alex Silva (Sao Paulo), Lucio (Bayern Munich), Naldo (Werder Bremem)

MIDFIELDERS - Josue (Sao Paulo), Mineiro (Hertha Berlim), Fernando (Bordeaux), Lucas (Liverpool), Elano (Manchester City), Julio Baptista (Real Madrid), Diego (Werder Bremem), Kaka (Milan)

FORWARDS - Robinho (Real Madrid), Ronaldinho (Barcelona), Rafael Sobis (Betis), Vagner Love (CSKA Moscow)

Brazilian players got drunk during the World Cup

According to an article on the Estado de Sao Paulo newspaper, the president of the Brazilian Footbal Confederation (CBF) admitted some of the players in the National squad were involved in heavy drinking during the 2006 World Cup, played in Germany. Mr. Ricardo Teixeira explained to the newspaper some of the reasons why he thought the team played so poorly during the competition. As the defending world champions and with top players like Ronaldinho Gaucho, Kaka and Robinho on the team, Brazil failed to live up to the high expectations placed on the team.

During an informal talk with the newspaper, Mr. Teixeira allegedly said that some players arrived between 4 and 6am on the team's hotel, completely drunk. He failed to give out any names, but also criticized the atmosphere created around the hotels where the team stayed, with several fans paying $100 just to watch the team train - and training sessions sometimes consisting of players only jogging around the pitch.

He admitted there was a lack of command and discipline, and confessed this was one of the reasons he may have chosen new coach Dunga to replace Carlos Alberto Parreira after the fiasco in Germany. Famous for his strong character on the pitch, the captain of the 1994 World Cup championship team had never coached a team prior to this assignment. Last month he helped Brazil win the Copa America, defeating Argentina 3-0 on the final match.

When winning is all that matters

For the duration of this year's Copa America, Brazil has been criticized at home and abroad for not playing up to par with what has generally been perceived as the traditional Brazilian way of playing football. The 'jogo bonito', or beautiful game, style of play made Brazilians famous, with a controlled pace given to the game so as to entertain fans, dominate the opposing team and ultimately - if it came to it - win titles.

It worked superbly in a different era, when Brazil had the talent to play like this and almost always emerge victorious in the end. The team would surrender quite a few goals for deciding to play an open game filled with flair. But it would inevitably score more, and the team would generally come away with the win. When the quality of Brazilian players would decline, so would the rate of success of this type of strategy. Other teams learned to adapt and neutralize this kind of football too, and soon it was evident that Brazil would need to adapt if it was willing to keep on winning.

What followed was a total departure from that old game, and the beautiful game gave way to the game of results. It didn't matter how the game was won, all it mattered was the win. This is how Brazil barely managed to win its fourth World Cup title, in 1994. Captained by Dunga, the team was more concerned about defending first, and only then attacking. With sub-standard opponents in what was considered a weak World Cup, Brazil beat Italy in the final on a penalty shootout. Italy would have to wait another 12 years before it finally won its fourth World Cup title - curiously enough, in another poor World Cup, decided on penalty kicks.

Following Italy's win in 2006, Brazil's old captain, Dunga, was brought in to get Brazil back on track with a results-oriented philosophy. Giving too much attention to flair and players who worried too much about the 'jogo bonito', it seemed, had cost the country the chance to win the last world Cup. Instead of worrying about the team, each player seemed more concerned about his own future and personal contracts.

Concentrating on the end result would bring championships back to Brazil, and prima-donnas would no longer be tolerated. Instead, a hard-working team would give the country its best shot at winning. The first months of the new Dunga era saw alternating good and bad results, as the new coach tried several new faces. Slowly, the team started being shaped in the way Dunga wanted the game to be played. The way he played. Defending first and worrying about the attack later.

This is an approach which is as dangerous as the flamboyant style adopted earlier by Brazil. By taking this stance, Dunga ultimately levels down the field, and the Brazilians start playing similarly to other less-talented teams, which would not have a different option other than taking a defensive approach.

The Copa America showed how poorly Brazil can play when adopting this new style of play. But the effort of all players and the collective posture of the team as a unit first, and not a group of individuals, also showed how strong this mindset can be. A 2-0 loss to Mexico, a weak win over Ecuador, two good wins over Chile and a lucky one over Uruguay had put Brazil in the final of the competition against the heavily favoured Argentines.

A mixture of strength, commitment, some luck, and lots of effort gave Brazil its most remarkable performance of the Cup, when it mattered the most. By defending first, and cancelling Argentina's main plays - even if to do that the team had to commit a series of fouls to stop the opponents - the team was allowed to explore counterattacks and patiently build a 3-0 win.

To the Brazilians, this is the new 'jogo bonito'. If they can mix that kind of commitment and effort with the talent and flow of their flamboyant game, it will become even more beautiful.

Brazil beats Argentina 3-0

It didn't take long to see that this was a different Brazilian team than the one that had played a mostly lacklustre competition. Brazil started the final against the powerful Argentines taking some chances in attack, and patiently controlling the ball in midfield. Before the game was five minutes old, Julio Baptista received the ball inside the penalty box on the left wing, quickly cutting it towards the centre of the pitch past an opponent, and then perfectly placing it to the left of goalkeeper Abbondazieri.

Argentina couldn't create much, with the Brazilians crowding the midfield and stopping creative Riquelme with fouls whenever he tried to take more than a few steps with the ball. But the white-and-blues slowly tried to move forward, and almost tied the game in the 10th minute, when Riquelme took a great shot from 15 metres to hit the right post of the goal guarded by Doni. The Argentines seemed to patiently wait for their chances, which would definitely arise later in the game.

Or so they thought. Brazil still managed to create a few scoring opportunities of its own, and in one of those chances, defender Ayala deflected a cross from the right wing into his own net, in the 41st minute, to make it 2-0 for the defending champions. Argentina lost its patience, and came back to the second half desperately trying to tie the game.

With Argentina going forward and leaving more spaces back on defence, Brazil waited for the right opportunities to create a few chances in counterattacks. A two-goal lead was not enough to guarantee any kind of relief though, since everyone on the team knew how dangerously a 2-0 lead could turn around late in a game. In the 69th minute, Robinho found Vagner Love, who quickly moved up the field and passed to Daniel Alves on the right side of the penalty box. Alves shot the ball across the box into the lower right corner of Abbodanzieri's goal, and the game was all but over.

As Brazilians celebrated during the last few minutes of the game, Argentina was left to wonder how it lost yet again in a competition final, after dominating most of the tournament with clearly the best football of all competitors. For Brazil, it didn't matter, as a mostly discredited team rose to the occasion and beat their arch-rivals with an unquestionable 3-0 win.

Just enough

Brazil defeated Ecuador 1-0 on Wednesday, guaranteeing a spot in the 2007 Copa America quarterfinals. In an extremely poor match, with few scoring chances and just a handful of good plays, the Brazilians did just enough to prevent going home early. The lone goal was scored by Robinho, on a penalty kick, early in the second half. It was his fourth goal in three games in the tournament. The Real Madrid forward has scored all goals for the Brazilians in this year's Copa America.

After a 2-0 loss in its first match, against Mexico, Brazil recovered with two straight wins, 3-0 over Chile and 1-0 over Ecuador. Even then, however, the team still failed to display the high quality football that made it famous worldwide. Coach Dunga seems to be confirming the fans' worst fears that all he cares about is the end result, no matter how it's attained. In a way, he's a new Carlos Alberto Parreira. And a poor man's Parreira at that.

In a weird development thanks to the brilliance of the South American Confederation, Brazil - which finished in second on Group B - will get the chance to play a third-placed team, Chile, in the quarterfinals. Meanwhile, first-placed Mexico will face a second-placed team, either Paraguay or Argentina.

Curiously enough, Chile and Brazil have already played in the first round. After a 3-0 win in that match, Brazil is the clear favourite in this game. However, onemust remember that if not for Robinho, the final result of that game could have been a lot different. Once again, it seems the team will depend on his inspiration to advance.

Two wins in two matches

Brazil beat Chile 4-0 and Ghana 1-0 in two friendlies played this week in Sweden. After a good display on Saturday against their fellow South Americans, the Brazilians played quite poorly against the Africans on Tuesday, settling for a tight victory against an opponent that pressed forward at times and gave too many spaces in defence - precisely like what had happened last year during the game between the two sides in the World Cup.

In the end, at least coach Dunga can celebrate two more victories for his resume, and fans can at least hope that the coach keeps Kaka, Ronaldinho and Robinho together in the team for future games. They obviously showed a better display against Chile, but were still decent during the game on Tuesday.

With the Copa America and 2010 World Cup Qualifying games later this year, Dunga must now concentrate on trying to consolidate his base squad for the two competitions. He may still try out a few players that excel at the club level, but most spots in the team must be defined for these two tournaments.

Dunga calls up players for friendlies

Brazilian National coach Dunga named his team for the upcoming friendlies against Chile and Ghana, to be played in Sweden at the end of March. Five new players from the squad that lost 2-0 to Portugal last month were included in the list. Three of these players are from Brazilian teams: Ilsinho and Josue (Sao Paulo) and Kleber (Santos). Mineiro (who joined Hertha Berlin from Sao Paulo at the end of the January transfer window) and Vagner Love (from CSKA) are the other new faces.

Here's the full list of players called up by Dunga:

Goalkeepers - Helton (Porto) and Julio Cesar (Inter Milan)

Defenders - Daniel Alves (Sevilla), Gilberto (Hertha Berlim), Ilsinho (Sao Paulo), Kleber (Santos), Alex (PSV Eindhoven), Juan (Bayer Leverkusen), Lucio (Bayern Munich) and Luisao (Benfica)

Midfielders - Diego (Werder Bremen), Dudu Cearense (CSKA Moscow), Elano (Shakhtar Donetsk), Gilberto Silva (Arsenal), Kaka (AC Milan), Josue (Sao Paulo), Mineiro (Hertha Berlim) and Ronaldinho (Barcelona)

Forwards - Fred (Lyon), Rafael Sobis (Betis), Robinho (Real Madrid) and Vagner Love (CSKA Moscow)