International Friendly Preview: Brazil - Algeria

What: International Friendly, Brazil - Algeria

When: Wednesday 22/08/07, 18:30 (Paris Time)

Where: Stade de la Masson, Montpellier, France

Background
It’s time for Dunga’s Brazil to swing into action for the first time since the conquest of the Copa América in Venezuela a little over a month ago (15/07/07). The testy tactician has been vindicated with the win and has surprised many by being able to tough out the storm of criticism that hit his footballing philosophy. The question now is if Dunga is able to blend the stars that begged out of Venezuela back into the mix.

The Canarinha (Canary Yellow) rivals are Les Fennecs (The Desert Foxes) of Algeria who are currently battling it out for a place in the sun in Group 8 of the CAN (African Nations Cup) along with Guinea, Gambia and Cape Verde. Corsican Coach Jean-Michel Cavalli (ex-Créteil, Gazélec Ajaccio, Al-Riyadh, Lille OSC and Al Nasr) will be demanding the most of his men against Brazil.

Team News
BRAZIL

To refresh memories of the last match played by Brazil it was a tasty 3-0 gutting of arch-rivals Argentina. The Albiceleste came to the table as firm favourites after a string of flowing wins that oozed classy football but were torn apart by a Brazil that eschewed the finer points of technique in favour of grit and solidity. The line-up (with the defensive-minded midfield that so irritated Brazilians back home) was as follows:

BRAZIL (4-4-2): 12 - Doni; 2 - Maicon; 3 - Alex; 4 - Juan and 6 - Gilberto; 17 - Josué, 5 - Mineiro, 7 - Elano, (13 - Daniel Alves) and 19 - Júlio Baptista; 11 - Robinho (10 - Diego) and 9 - Vágner Love (18 - Fernando)Coach: Dunga, Assistant Coach: Jorginho

In the afterglow of the triumph Dunga made it clear that he will be basing his future line-ups on the men he trusted in Venezuela, although he also extended a possible forgiving hand towards ‘renegade’ duo Ronaldinho Gaúcho and Kaká. Dunga has dribbled any outright affirmation of who’ll be fielded in Montpellier, including the twosome who refused the call-ups to rest their bones after long club seasons.

"The person who calls up is the Coach but the person who decides who plays is each individual player with his performance in training", explained Dunga before embarking for France at Guarulhos international airport in São Paulo, although he repeated his desire to reward those who exchanged time on a beach for time serving Brazil in Venezuela; "we want to give continuity to the work we started", he added.

A setback to such continuity is that the Coach has had to cut four defenders from his original call-up list due to injuries. Three centre-backs – Juan, Luisão and Lúcio – as well as left-back Gilberto. The centre-backs have been replaced by young Brazil-based players Alex Silva (São Paulo FC – Luisão’s ‘little’ brother), Thiago Silva (Fluminense – no relation to Luisão or Alex Silva) and Miranda (São Paulo FC, on loan from Sochaux, France.).

With Alex (Chelsea) out of the list that immediately means that the only regular face from Venezuela – apart from goalkeeper Doni – in the Brazilian rearguard is Maicon (Internazionale). In midfield Dunga can – if he should choose to – repeat the winning combo of Josué, Mineiro, Elano, and Júlio Baptista; the line-up that was slammed as being ‘un-Brazilian’ and over-defensive but worked a treat against Argentina.

The only ‘but’ is that such a choice would see the star duo of Ronaldinho Gaúcho and Kaká benched simultaneously: something that CBF (Confederação Brasileira de Futebol – Brazilian Football Confederation) chief Ricardo Teixeira isn’t exactly fond of seeing despite his public stance as the Swiss third party that now organises (and pays hard currency for) the friendlies wants to see media-friendly faces on the field.

Up front it looks likely that Brazil will field the familiar partnership of Robinho and Vágner Love, Ronaldo Fenômeno still apparently persona-non-grata despite his rebirth at AC Milan. The leaking of a report saying that he suffers from a thyroid problem that would mean that his pre-World Cup ballooning wasn’t due to gluttony and arrogance didn’t make a difference.