Brazil vs Mexico head-to-head for @unibet: Seleção starting to build some momentum https://t.co/WyzKkjqrYg pic.twitter.com/TaW9vB35qO— Jack Lang (@jacklang) July 1, 2018
Saturday, 30 June 2018
Brazil vs Mexico head-to-head: Seleção building momentum and eyeing quarter-final berth
Wednesday, 27 June 2018
Brazil vs Serbia head-to-head: Seleção can profit from White Eagles' attacking outlook
Their World Cup campaign is still relatively young, but already Brazil seem determined to do things the hard way.
After huffing and puffing their way to a point against Switzerland, the Seleção suffered again against Costa Rica, only managing to turn their dominance of possession into goals in injury time. In a few days' time, the national sigh of relief will probably be felt in Europe as a gale-force wind off the Atlantic.
The positive for Tite was that the performance in that second game was better than the result. Brazil created enough chances to bury Los Ticos three times over, and rarely looked troubled at the back.
But Neymar's histrionics will be a concern, as will the form of Willian, Paulinho and Gabriel Jesus, none of whom has really come to the party yet.
I did the Brazil bits in Unibet's head-to-head preview of the game against Serbia.
After huffing and puffing their way to a point against Switzerland, the Seleção suffered again against Costa Rica, only managing to turn their dominance of possession into goals in injury time. In a few days' time, the national sigh of relief will probably be felt in Europe as a gale-force wind off the Atlantic.
The positive for Tite was that the performance in that second game was better than the result. Brazil created enough chances to bury Los Ticos three times over, and rarely looked troubled at the back.
But Neymar's histrionics will be a concern, as will the form of Willian, Paulinho and Gabriel Jesus, none of whom has really come to the party yet.
I did the Brazil bits in Unibet's head-to-head preview of the game against Serbia.
Tuesday, 26 June 2018
What's eating Neymar Júnior?
The fact that Neymar is under significant pressure is undeniable. Nowhere are football fans more expectant than Brazil, and the 26-year-old, for all the improvement since Tite’s arrival as coach, remains absolutely central to the Seleção's chances of glory this summer. This is the fate of the craque, or star player: with great power comes great responsibility.
With Neymar, though, there are extra layers to the player-public relationship. If he represents the best of the Brazilian game—that untrainable, off-the-cuff sorcery of the street footballer—he has often been accused of personifying the worst of it, too: the play-acting, the individualism, the egomania.
“We’re creating a monster,” was one coach’s memorable remark after an unsavory incident during his time at Santos (Neymar swore at his manager, who was sacked shortly thereafter), and while he has ironed out some of the more galling kinks in his personality, others remain.
Read the rest of this piece on The Athletic. You'll need a subscription, but there's loads of great stuff on there and you can enjoy a free seven-day trial to see whether it's for you.
With Neymar, though, there are extra layers to the player-public relationship. If he represents the best of the Brazilian game—that untrainable, off-the-cuff sorcery of the street footballer—he has often been accused of personifying the worst of it, too: the play-acting, the individualism, the egomania.
“We’re creating a monster,” was one coach’s memorable remark after an unsavory incident during his time at Santos (Neymar swore at his manager, who was sacked shortly thereafter), and while he has ironed out some of the more galling kinks in his personality, others remain.
Read the rest of this piece on The Athletic. You'll need a subscription, but there's loads of great stuff on there and you can enjoy a free seven-day trial to see whether it's for you.
Sunday, 24 June 2018
Roberto Carlos: Neymar's tears don't concern me – he needed to let the emotion out after a tough time
"Neymar played well against Costa Rica, and took his goal nicely.
"He’s not at top speed yet – you can see that he’s clearly still trying to forget about the pain he’s had in his foot over the last few months. But he’s getting there, building up his fitness. We’re going to see him at his best when the knockout stages get underway.
"What I like about Neymar is that he’s always desperate to help the team, even when he’s not firing on all cylinders. We all know about his ability, but there’s also a collective spirit there; he thinks about the group, not just himself."
That's the latest Roberto Carlos column, which you can read on the Mirror website.
"He’s not at top speed yet – you can see that he’s clearly still trying to forget about the pain he’s had in his foot over the last few months. But he’s getting there, building up his fitness. We’re going to see him at his best when the knockout stages get underway.
"What I like about Neymar is that he’s always desperate to help the team, even when he’s not firing on all cylinders. We all know about his ability, but there’s also a collective spirit there; he thinks about the group, not just himself."
That's the latest Roberto Carlos column, which you can read on the Mirror website.
Thursday, 21 June 2018
The blame game: Why complaints from Brazil's football federation jar with Tite's calls for accountability
Not for the first time, Galvão Bueno spoke for the more excitable, more parochial subsection of Brazil's fanbase. The 67-year-old commentator, still rolled out like heavy artillery for big games by the all-powerful Globo network, has always been a bellwether when it comes to the national team, his yelps both reflecting and shaping public opinion.
Of the 56 million Brazilian TV sets tuned in to the Seleção's game against Switzerland on Sunday, 79% were set to Globo. That is a sizeable constituency even before you consider the whole-families-crowding-round-one-screen factor, and so when Galvão (he's big enough a star to be known mostly by his first name) began to steam over Steven Zuber's equalising goal, the national temperature rose in kind.
"Video refereeing is going to mess up this World Cup," he hollered, before flirting with cheap conspiracy theory: "They've already helped France and now they've disadvantaged Brazil." In no time at all, some of the neurotic corners of Brazilian Twitter were buzzing with talk of 'robbery' and anti-South-American bias.
Read my latest piece for The Athletic, on the chasm between Brazil's coach and his federation, here.
Of the 56 million Brazilian TV sets tuned in to the Seleção's game against Switzerland on Sunday, 79% were set to Globo. That is a sizeable constituency even before you consider the whole-families-crowding-round-one-screen factor, and so when Galvão (he's big enough a star to be known mostly by his first name) began to steam over Steven Zuber's equalising goal, the national temperature rose in kind.
"Video refereeing is going to mess up this World Cup," he hollered, before flirting with cheap conspiracy theory: "They've already helped France and now they've disadvantaged Brazil." In no time at all, some of the neurotic corners of Brazilian Twitter were buzzing with talk of 'robbery' and anti-South-American bias.
Read my latest piece for The Athletic, on the chasm between Brazil's coach and his federation, here.
Wednesday, 20 June 2018
Rivaldo interview: I don't want to see Brazil players crying during the national anthem – it's a sign of weakness
Rivaldo doesn't want to talk about tactics.
"The team is in good shape," he says of the current Brazil side, but that's about the limit of the analysis as far as Tite's system is concerned.
What Rivaldo really wants to get into is the mental side of being at a World Cup: the business of coping with pressure, overcoming difficulties, writing a new story for oneself.
These are subjects the current crop of Brazil players would do well to confront head on as they seek to bounce back from the seismic shock of the 7-1 semifinal defeat to Germany in 2014. And Rivaldo, who still looks like he could do a job for the Selecao at the age of 46, is well qualified to hold forth on them.
Read my two-part interview with the Seleção legend on the ESPNFC website, here and here.
"The team is in good shape," he says of the current Brazil side, but that's about the limit of the analysis as far as Tite's system is concerned.
What Rivaldo really wants to get into is the mental side of being at a World Cup: the business of coping with pressure, overcoming difficulties, writing a new story for oneself.
These are subjects the current crop of Brazil players would do well to confront head on as they seek to bounce back from the seismic shock of the 7-1 semifinal defeat to Germany in 2014. And Rivaldo, who still looks like he could do a job for the Selecao at the age of 46, is well qualified to hold forth on them.
Read my two-part interview with the Seleção legend on the ESPNFC website, here and here.
Tuesday, 19 June 2018
Everyone's a leader, baby: On Tite's policy of captaincy and its potential benefits for Brazil in Russia
Traditionalists will no doubt squirm at the very idea. They will tell you that the captain's armband holds some arcane folk power, handed down through the generations like an heirloom.
Think about Bobby Moore’s frictionless authority, Terry Butcher bleeding for the cause, John Terry captaining and leadering and legending…and that’s before you even leave the realm of the English-pub conversationscape where these imagined naysayers dwell. It’s the captaincy, for heaven’s sake; it’s sacred.
Not for Brazil coach Tite, it isn’t. He’s given the armband to the pillars of his side (Marcelo, Neymar, Dani Alves, Miranda), but also to squad players (Filipe Luís), fading veterans (Robinho) and even, in the pre-World-Cup friendly against Croatia, 21-year-old striker Gabriel Jesus. And if the latter admitted to being “very surprised” at the decision, the look on his face said he was bloody happy about it, too.
I'm writing about Brazil for US sports website The Athletic all World Cup. My first dispatch, on Brazil's captaincy rotation, is here. (NB – requires subscription.)
Think about Bobby Moore’s frictionless authority, Terry Butcher bleeding for the cause, John Terry captaining and leadering and legending…and that’s before you even leave the realm of the English-pub conversationscape where these imagined naysayers dwell. It’s the captaincy, for heaven’s sake; it’s sacred.
Not for Brazil coach Tite, it isn’t. He’s given the armband to the pillars of his side (Marcelo, Neymar, Dani Alves, Miranda), but also to squad players (Filipe Luís), fading veterans (Robinho) and even, in the pre-World-Cup friendly against Croatia, 21-year-old striker Gabriel Jesus. And if the latter admitted to being “very surprised” at the decision, the look on his face said he was bloody happy about it, too.
I'm writing about Brazil for US sports website The Athletic all World Cup. My first dispatch, on Brazil's captaincy rotation, is here. (NB – requires subscription.)
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