The final countdown: Thoughts on Luiz Felipe Scolari's plans ahead of World Cup squad announcement

In just over a month, Luiz Felipe Scolari will name his provisional squad for the 2014 World Cup. On June 2, he will whittle the group down to 23 men, who will be handed the task of discharging what has come to be seen as a national obligation: winning the thing on home soil.

Brazil awaits the decision with bated breath. Every man, woman and child will have their say in the coming weeks. As bossa nova pioneer Tom Jobim once remarked, “You need balls of steel to be a football manager in a country that has 150 million of them.”

Happily for the Seleção, Felipão is not a man to doubt his convictions. Read the rest of this piece on the Yahoo! Eurosport website here.