Monday, May 28, 2007

Watching our rivals: DUNGA names 34 for Copa

With the aim set in the Copa America and with a completely different set of players named for their friendly against England at Wembley, Brazil manager DUNGA, have pre-selected 34 players from which the list of 22 for the Copa America will come from.

Surprises?

No DIDA. No Roberto CARLOS. No KAKÁ nor RONALDINHO (not so shocking as we all know they asked for vacations instead of playing for Brazil). No ADRIANO. No RONALDO.

It sure will look like a very different Brazil from what we are used to see.

I have to admit that, after what happened in the last Copa America, where Argentina had the game under control (2-1 up) and suffered a last-minute Adriano goal before losing eventually in the penalty shoot-out, I won't say that we have the upper hand because they are not bringing the best they have.

They are Brazil, people! They are stronger than many, even if they field their "B Team". That was what happened in 2004. A lot of "reserves" played that tournament and they still got away with the trophy.

DUNGA surprises in a move that could be comparable to what Alfio BASILE is doing with Argentina, as he called up a lot of players still competing in the Brazilian league. The difference is that COCO is training week in, week out with the local players, whether DUNGA didn't do that work.

The list is as follows (with the name of the club where they play).

Goalkeepers:

DONI - Roma
HELTON - Porto
DIEGO - Atlético Mineiro

Defenders:

MAICON - Internazionale
CICINHO - Real Madrid
Daniel ALVES - Sevilla
KLEBER - Santos
MARCELO - Real Madrid
GILBERTO - Hertha Berim
Alex SILVA - São Paulo
ALEX - PSV
NALDO - Werder Bremen
Thiago SILVA - Fluminense
Edu DRACENA - Fenerbahçe
JUAN - Bayer Leverkusen

Midfielders:

EDMILSON - Barcelona
Julio BAPTISTA - Arsenal
LINCOLN - Schalke 04
MINEIRO - Hertha Berlim
ZE ROBERTO - Santos
JOSUÉ - São Paulo
MORAIS - Vasco da Gama
ANDERSON - Porto
DIEGO - Werder Bremen
ELANO - Shakhtar Donetsk
FERNANDO - Bordeaux
Gilberto SILVA - Arsenal

Forwards:

FRED - Lyon
AFONSO - Heerenveen
ROBINHO - Real Madrid
Carlos EDUARDO - Grêmio
- CSKA Moscow
Rafael SOBIS - Betis
Vagner LOVE - CSKA Moscow

So...what do you say?

Are you scared of Brazil?

2 comments:

John said...

Of course the feeling will be better if we had the chance to play against their best in the final and beat them this time!!! But Brazil is still Brazil, regardless who is wearing the yellow shirt and therefore we have to be extra cautions, should we play against them.

johnny said...

I agree with John. Brazil is always dangerous, even without some of their headline players. Less dangerous without Kaka however.