Ronaldinho in Switzerland.

The Brazilian team is training in Weggis, Switzerland.
Few people remember that Ronaldinho not only spent some time in Switzerland, but could also have started his career there.

In 1992, Ronaldinho's brother, Assis, arrived in Switzerland to play with Sion Football Club, the most popular team in the French part of the country. Assis brought his young brother, Ronaldinho, to help him forget the accident of 1989, when their father died in the swimming pool of their new house, given by Grêmio as part of the contract.

Mr. Christian Constantin, President of Sion, says that he invited all the family to accompany Assis, but his mother and sister didn't want to come. During the time that Assis stayed in Sion, the team was champion of the League and the Cup of Switzerland.

Mr. Constantin still remembers when he met the young boy, aged 12; "Ronaldinho was enchanted when he saw snow for the fist time in his life", he says. "Ronaldinho was already doing those things with a ball that is shown on television today. Anyone watching him could see that he would be a great football player".
Sion tried to sign a contract with Ronaldinho, to have both brothers playing in the team. However, Ronaldinho, too young, was missing his mother and friends, and Assis returned to Brazil.

Mr. Constantin met Ronaldinho and Assis again, a few weeks ago, before the match against Chelsea, final of the European Cup. "We remembered the old days, and had good laughs", he said.

Brazilian banks to change opening hours

During the Cup, many Brazilians change their routines to watch the matches of Brazil; this includes not only businesses, but also public service, schools, universities, etc.

The banks were the first ones to officially announce a change in shift:

when Brazil plays at noon (Brasilia time), banks in the capitals will open from 8:30 am to 11:30am and from 2:30pm to 4pm; banks in the interior cities will open open from 8:30am to 11:30 am and from 2:30pm to 3:30 pm

when Brazil plays at 3pm (Brasilia time), all banks will open from 9:30am to 2:30pm.

Of course, shifts must be adjusted to take into account the time zones (continental Brazil has three different time zones).

Journalist says: "Brazil is ready for failure"

Today, it is almost unanimous among Brazilian journalists to say that Brazil is the favorite to win the Cup; few journalists dare to say the opposite.

Guilherme Fiuza writes a weekly chronicle for on-line magazine No Mínimo (which translates as "At the Very Least").
Probably because Fiuza is not a sports journalist (he usually writes about Politics), he was one of the few to write a negative criticism of the Brazilian team so far.
His column is not archived, so, here goes a rough translation (political references to President Lula were removed):

"Good bye, Hexa

Roberto Carlos took his jersey to the President, before going to Germany. There is not a trace of humbleness in the behavior of the players of the Brazilian team. Formerly, the visit to the Palace took place, if ever, when the team returned with the Championship. Nowadays, the battle is just a detail. Many Brazilians are saying that winning the Cup is not enough, it is necessary to perform a show. And there go the green-yellow Globetrotters with a perfect recipe for failure.

Millionaires and bored, the Brazilian players asked, for the first time ever, to stay in individual rooms during the Cup. No more of that routine of sharing space with underwears and snoring of a comrade. They are all celebrities, owners of foundations, highly profitable commercial products, true mobile NGOs. It makes no sense for their highnesses to travel the World in helicopters and jet planes and, when the Cup comes, have to share a room like in a scouts camp.

Cafu, the worst right-defense of a Brazilian team which became champion, is candidate to his fourth World Cup final. The achievement is indeed impressing, but it only matters to Cafu himself, to Cafu's family, Cafu's NGO and the sports almanacs. The presences in the team of Cafu and Roberto Carlos, who paid a premature visit to the President, are unsolvable misteries. They haven't played well for their teams for a long time, they don't have to win anything else, still they don't 'let the bone out' (a Brazilian slang, meaning someone who, like a dog who chews a bone long after the meat is finished, still tries to benefit from something).

Carlos Alberto Parreira, the coach, is fed up too. He already won a Cup, money, the World. All he wants is quietness. No quarrels, a roster without polemics, the team according to what the people want. But, as the team is convinced that they are going to Germany for a parade of celebrities, Parreira came up with a fashion team.

The team going to Germany is arranged very badly. Cafu and Roberto Carlos can't catch up with anyone, and in the midfield there is only one defensive player, the ancient Emerson. From there on, just jugglers. The so called Magic Square - Kaká, Ronaldinho, Ronaldo and Adriano - are used to run and score, with little ability to envision the plays. Clearly, an unbalanced team. But is going against the oba-oba (slang for 'excessive euphoria')?

Football is neither circus nor fashion parade. History shows that the beautiful football is the efficient football - remeber Zico, Rivelino, Maradona and Pelé. Magistral players, who never diverted one inch from objectivity. They always went for the straightest path to the goal, and the spectacular thing was the way how they opened the path.

But Brazil, the Penta, is fed up. The Trophy is not enough. Brazilians want to see Robinho cycling backwars, Roberto Carlos in deadly jumps, Ronaldinho looking one way and kicking the other. Like a Parreira Fashion Week.

The recipe of failure is cooking."

Roberto Carlos visits President Lula

Yesterday, Roberto Carlos, the left defense of the Brazilian team, was admitted into the Palace of Alvorada, residence of the President of the Republic.

Roberto Carlos presented the President with a jersey.
Joking, Lula, who is a declared fan of football, said that he would give Roberto Carlos the tips on how to win the Cup.

Asked whether it wouldn't be aethical to use the Brazilian team to promote his campaign to re-election later this year, Lula said: "I don't know if I will run for Presidency again". Of course, nobody believed him.

Everything ready in Weggis

The Weggis Hotel, in Weggis, Switzeland, is ready to welcome the Brazilian team.
The hotel even prepared an artificial beach, by the Lake Lucern, which borders the hotel. The beach is small (only 15 meters long) and of black sand; the Brazilian Comission already warned the team that foot-volley is forbidden.

All 43 rooms of the hotel were booked by the Brazilian staff.
Travel sites like Tripadvisor inform that the average price of a room in he Weggis Hotel is around US$ 407.

Besides the hotel, the Brazilian team will use the structure of the Scheizer Paraplegiker Zentrum, the best center for rehabilitation of handicapped people in the world. All Brazilian players will go through medical tests on Tuesday and Wednesday, before starting physical activities.

Romário: the quest for the 1000th goal

Romário is one of the greatest players in History of Brazilian football.
In 1990, he went to Italy but, injured, didn't play much.
In 1994,, he was the greatest star of the Brazilian team.
In 1998, injured, he went to France. The doctors tried to get him recovered but, a few days before deadline, against his will, he was dismissed.
In 2002, he had a personal clash with coach Scolari and, against the will of the majority of Brazilians, he was also dismissed.

Today, aged 40 (he was born on January 29th 1966), Romário is pursuing an achievement: to score his 1000th goal. According to FIFA, in early 2006 he had 950 goals (other non-official statistics give him more than that).
If Romário manages to score the 1000th goal, he will be the third one to do it; only Pelé and Frienderich, both Brazilians, have done it; for comparison: Maradona score 375 goals.

Until last year, Romário was playing with Vasco da Gama. To help Romário, Vasco attempted to set up friendly (but official) matches against weaker teams, so that Romário could score a few extra goals.
This year, Romário is playing in Miami FC, in Florida, USA. On Friday 12th May, he scored two goals. See some of Romario's goals.

Go for it, Romário.

The Brazilian Staff

Besides the 23 players, the Brazilian staff in the World Cup includes:

Head of staff: Marco Polo del Nero

Supervisor: Americo Faria (the man with moustache, always beside Parreira in interviews, rarely says anything)

Coach: Carlos Alberto Parreira

Technical coordinator: Mario Jorge Lobo Zagallo. It works like this: Parreira and Zagallo talk to each other and to the players all the time; the final word about tactics, who plays or not, etc, is Parreira's, though. Also, diplomatic talks rest with Parreira, whereas emotional talks rest with Zagallo.

Technical assistants: Jairo Leal and Julio Cesar Leal (main job: observing the adversaries)

Physical training: Moracy Santana

Doctors: José Luis Runco (the same doctor from 2002; he gained reputation after his important role in the final recovery of Ronaldo), Serafim Borges and Rodrigo Lasmar

Trainer of goalkeepers: Wendel Ramalho (one of the goalkeepers who had been in the 1974 Germany World Cup).

Physiotherapist: Odir Souza

Security chief: Haroldo Castelo Branco

Relations with Press: Rodrigo Paiva

Guys who take care of uniforms: Antonio Assis and Rogelson Barreto

Masseur: Denir Silva

Brazilian team to fly this Sunday

The Brazilian team will take flight Varig RG 8772, São Paulo - Munich, this Sunday.
Exceptionally, the flight will stop over in Rio de Janeiro (to pick up players and staff who live there) and Zurich (where the team will drop off).

It is a commercial flight; some lucky passengers will have the chance to travel alongside Brazilian players.
In past years, when the Brazilian team met in Brazil before going to the Cup, the Brazilian Confederation used to rent a plane. This year, as most players are already in Europe, CBF decided to purchase individual tickets.

BTW, Brazilian television informed yesterday that the first team to arrive in Germany for the World Cup was Togo.

Brazilians are champions in Europe

Yesterday, Barcelona won Arsenal and became European Champion 2006. Barcelona has Ronaldinho, Edmilson and Belletti, who scored the second goal. Had Arsenal won, Brazilian midfielder Gilberto Silva would be a champion.

In most countries in Europe, the champion team in 2006 has Brazilian players (exception is Chelsea, in England).

Barcelona has Ronaldinho, Edmilson and Belletti.

Juventus has Emerson.

Porto has Adriano (not to be confused with Adriano - Inter Milan).

Lyon, in France, has Juninho Pernambucano, Cris and Fred (Juninho arrived in Lyon five years ago, and has been champion five times).

Bayern Munich has Lucio and Zé Roberto.

Galatasaray (Turkey) has Alex; while in Brazil, Alex always was called to the National Team; after he went away, he lost exposition and his place in the team.

Olympiakos has Rivaldo, that same one who scored a few goals in the World Cup 2002.

Are Brazilians happy with the roster?

Jornal dos Sports is one of the most traditional sports journal in Brazil, both in paper and online.

JS conducted a survey online, starting a few weeks before the roster was officially announced, asking the surfers which players they would include.

The results are summarized below; the original data are here. The first figure, in bold, is the percentage of people who agreed, and the second figure is of those who disagree with the inclusion of the player.

Dida - 85.89 - 14.11
Julio Cesar - 72.17 - 27.83
Rogério Cenni - 78.49 - 21.51

Cafu - 83.40 - 16.60
Cicinho - 96.02 - 3.98
Roberto Carlos - 88.85 - 11.15
Gilberto - 57.83 - 42.17
Lucio - 83.94 - 16.06
Luisão - 68.82 - 31.18
Juan - 91.97 - 8.03

Emerson - 82.23 - 17.77
Edmilson - 88.62 - 11.38
Kaká - 98.83 - 1.17
Ronaldinho - 99.38 - 0.62
Zé Roberto - 88.70 - 11.30
Juninho Pernambucano - 96.50 - 3.50
Ricardinho - 28.04 - 71.96

Adriano - 95.72 - 4.28
Ronaldo - 95.17 - 4.83
Robinho - 94.24 - 5.76
Fred - 75.39 - 24.61

A few comments:

Two players of the roster are not showing in the above survey: Cris and Gilberto Silva. It looks like Jornal dos Sports didn't believe they even had a chance.

Ronaldinho was the favorite of the crowd, followed closely by Kaká; Ronaldo, Adriano and Cicinho also scored more than 95%.

Ricardinho was the least voted, with only 28.04%; there is some bias involved, as Ricardinho always played in São Paulo, and never in Rio, where Jornal dos Sports is published. Ricardinho and Rogério Cenni are the only ones who currently play in Brazil.

Julio Batista, from Real Madrid, with 60.95%, was considered a certain presence (but lost his place to Ricardinho).

Cafu and Emerson are preferred by coach Parreira, but Cicinho and Juninho Pernambucano are preferred by the fans.

Based on this survey, the line-up of Brazil against Croatia on June 9th should be: Dida, Cicinho, Lucio, Juan and Roberto Carlos; Juninho Pernambucano, Zé Roberto, Kaká and Ronaldinho; Ronaldo and Adriano.

Swiss have to queue up to watch Brazil

Brazilian newspaper O Globo published a note today reporting that citizens in Swiss had to face a queue of up to six hours (something unusual in Switzerland) to buy the tickets to watch the trainings and matches of Brazil in Weggis, where the team will finish the preparation (read here).

At the box office, tickets costed SFr 20 (about US$ 17) for the trainings and SFr 75 (US$ 63) for the matches, against the team of Lucern and the National team of New Zealand. The demand was so big that the tickets sold out in less than 24 hours.
The tickets were sold by a company called Kentaro, which paid US$ 1 million to CBF, the Brazilian Federation, for the merchandising rights during the sojourn in Switzerland. Philippe Huber, Kentaro's President, said he had never seen such a demand; "the tickets sold faster than in a show of the Rolling Stones".

World Cup and violence in São Paulo

The State of São Paulo was taken by a concerted wave of violence last weekend, which left more than 100 dead; read here.

The violence was commanded by leaders of a gang called Primeiro Comando da Capital (First Command of Capital) which congregates most convicts in São Paulo penitentiaries.

This note brings an interesting, official information: the convicts were applying pressure on the administration, to allow them to watch the World Cup inside the prisons. According to the note, the PCC purchased 60 TV sets, probably with plasma screen, which should be installed in the common areas of the prisons.

The rebelions were sparkled when the Administration transferred the leaders of PCC to high security prisons (were, of course, TVs are not allowed).
Rumors say that the gang leaders were very upset, and this may have one reason of the rebellions.
After the violence eased, the note says, the Administration allowed the 60 TVs to be installed.

Other Brazilians in the World Cup

Other players who have double nationality or who have naturalized in other countries will also be in Germany.

Marcos Senna, who defends Villarreal, will be with the Spanish team.

Alex, naturalized Japanese, will be in the uncorfortable position of defending Japan against Brazil, on June 22nd. Japan's coach is also Brazilian, Zico.

In Portugal, also a player, Deco (who defends Barcelona) and the coach, Luiz Felipe Scolari (world champion in 2002, coaching Brazil), are Brazilians.

Sinha, playing for Mexico, and Francileudo, playing for Tunisia, are also Brazilians.

In Costa Rica, the coach, Alexandre Guimarães, is Brazilian.

Other Brazilians who had chances to go to the Cup in Germany but will not: Kuranyi, in Germany; Clayton, in Tunisia, and Eduardo Silva, in Croatia.

Repercussion and interview

The biggest surprise was Gilberto. Gilberto played only eight matches in the Brazilian team. He will be substitute for Roberto Carlos.

Marcos, excellent goalkeeper in the World Cup 2002, and Roque Júnior, also a principal in that Cup, are recovering from lesions, and were substituted by Júlio César and Cris. Other players had been considered, such as Júlio Batista (Real Madrid) and Renato (Sevilla), but the ones chosen by Parreira (Ricardinho and Juninho Pernambucano) were not surprising.

Only two players are currently defending Brazilian teams: goalkeeper Rogério Cenni, from São Paulo (excellent free kicker, who recently set a new record for highest number of goals scored by a goalkeeper) and middle-field Ricardinho, from Corinthians (in 2002, Ricardinho was called at last minute to the Cup, to replace Emerson, who got injured training in Korea).


In the interview, Parreira confirmed that his intention is to play with the "magic square": Ronaldinho, Kaká, Ronaldo and Adriano.
So, the probable team to start the first match against Croatia on June 13th is: Dida, Cafu, Lucio, Juan and Roberto Carlos; Emerson, Zé Roberto, Kaká and Ronaldinho; Ronaldo and Adriano.
Except for Adriano, all the other players of the principal team had been in Korea/Japan; this will be the Brazilian team with the highest average age in the past 8 World Cups.

Parreira admitted that Brazil is the favorite to win the Cup. However, he recalled that the Cup is very short, and any surprise is possible. Parreira also reminded that France and Argentina arrived in Japan as favorites, but didn't get past the first stage. Zagallo, who is known for his long tongue, mentioned that "even Backenbauer and Platini already said that this Brazilian team is the biggest favorite of all World Cups".

Brazil defines the team for the World Cup

Brazilian coach Carlos Alberto Parreira and his advisor Mário Jorge Lobo Zagallo announced today the list of 23 players who will be in the World Cup 2006 in Germany.

The names and the respective jacket numeration:

Goalkeepers: 1 - Dida (Milan/IT), 12 - Rogério Cenni (São Paulo/BR) and 22 - Júlio César (Internazionale/IT);

Defenders: 2 - Cafu (Milan/IT), 13 - Cicinho (Barcelona/SP), 6 - Roberto Carlos (Real Madrid/SP), 16 - Gilberto (Hertha Berlin/GE), 3 - Lucio (Bayern Munich/GE), 4 - Juan (Bayern Leverkusen/GE), 15 - Cris (Lyon/FR) and 14 - Luisão (Benfica/PO);

Midfielders: 5 - Emerson (Juventus/IT), 11 - Zé Roberto (Bayern Munich/GE), 17 - Gilberto Silva (Arsenal/EN), 20 - Ricardinho (Corinthians/BR), 19 - Juninho Pernambucano (Lyon/FR) and 10 - Ronaldinho Gaúcho (Barcelona/SP) and 18 - Edmilson (Barcelona/SP);


Forward: 8 - Kaká (Milan/IT), 9 - Ronaldo (Real Madrid/SP), 7 - Adriano (Internazionale/IT), 23 - Robinho(Real Madrid/SP) and 21 - Fred (Lyon/FR).

Brazil in the World Cup 2006

Hi,
I will use this blog to post news about how Brazilians are seeing the World Cup in Germany.
I will to try post relevant facts in Brazil concerning the Cup, the opinions of important players and analysts, funny and curious news, etc.