What can we say about Brazil that hasn’t already been said? They’re the reigning champions, they’re ranked number 1 in the FIFA world rankings, they’re the favourites to win this tournament, they’ve won the World Cup five times in total and are the only team to have appeared in every single World Cup finals. Their qualifying standings saw them top of the South American pile but they only beat Argentina their on goal difference. However, they scored the most goals as well as conceding the fewest and losing the least amount of games. In short, their road to the world cup has been unsurprisingly easy.
Qualifying Group Details
The ten team South American qualifying table saw Brazil doing the expected by winning their group. Perhaps the only real surprise was how close Argentina came to topping the group. Both teams finished on 34 points from a possible 54 with Argentina actually managing one more win. However, don’t be fooled into thinking that they didn’t deserve the top spot. 11 players scored a cumulative total of 35 goals in 18 games. Ronaldo, Kaka and Adriano all scored 5 or more with a comparatively off form Ronaldo finishing top scorer for the group with ten goals. Their biggest victory was a resounding five nil thumping of Chile in which Adriano scored three of his total six goals.
Key Players Of Note
The entire Brazilian squad reads like a who’s who of the world’s best footballers. The team sheet shows current world player of the year, former world players of the year and probably future world players of the year. Probably the most notable is Ronaldinho, world player of the year twice, but Ronaldo will be looking to be top scorer in the competition. There really are too many top world-class players to mention.
Missing Players
The only notable exclusion at the moment is Edmilson (right knee) who has been ruled out of the tournament thanks to a training ground injury. He has been released from the squad and is likely to be replaced by Mineiro of Sao Paulo in the squad. Ronaldo is back from injury and claim he is just as fit as the rest of his team despite not having played since April.
Tournament Expectations
Putting national loyalties aside, it’s fair to say that a vast majority of people expect Brazil to win the World Cup with ease. Winning two tournaments in a row is no easy task but they have done it before so are well practiced. The whole of the Brazilian nation expects to be celebrating their national side lifting yet another world cup and barring any upsets it does look likely. Even losing in the final would be seen as complete failure for the Brazilians so the pressure is on.
Group F sees Brazil taking on Australia, Croatia and Japan. There really is unlikely to be anything there that will cause the Brazilians a scare.
News Of Interest
The biggest controversy, if it can really be called that, surrounding Brazil is that they will have only played one warm up match before the world cup against New Zealand. 4th June will see this one and only practice game. Other news includes the training ground injury to Edmilson and the fact that Ronaldo is fit again.
Official Squad
1 Nelson Dida GK AC Milan, Italy 2 Marcos Cafu DEF AC Milan, Italy 3 Ferreira Lucio DEF Bayern Munich, Germany 4 Silveira Juan DEF Bayer Leverkusen, Germany 5 Fereira da Rosa Emerson MID Juventus, Italy 6 Roberto Carlos DEF Real Madrid, Spain 7 Leite Adriano STR Inter Milan, Italy 8 Ricardo Kaka MID AC Milan, Italy 9 Luiz Ronaldo STR Real Madrid, Spain 10 Gaucho Ronaldinho STR Barcelona, Spain 11 Jose Ze Roberto MID Bayern Munich, Germany 12 Ceni Rogerio GK Sao Paulo, Brazil 13 Joao Cicinho DEF Real Madrid, Spain 14 Anderson Luisao DEF Benfica, Portugal 15 Cristiano Cris DEF Olympique Lyon, France 16 Da Silva Gilberto DEF Hertha Berlin, Germany 17 Gilberto Silva MID Arsenal, England 18 Jose Gomes Edmilson MID Barcelona, Spain 19 Pernambucano Juninho MID Olympique Lyon, France 20 Luis Ricardinho MID Corinthians, Brazil 21 Chaves Fred STR Olympique Lyon, France 22 Soares Julio Cesar GK Inter Milan, Italy 23 De Souza Robinho STR Real Madrid, Spain
World Cup Group Fixtures
Sunday June 18th
Brazil v Australia
Kaiserlslautern, Germany
Thursday June 22nd
Japan v Brazil
Dortmund, Germany
Tuesday June 13th
Brazil v Croatia
Berlin, Germany
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