Archive for the ‘Brazil’ Category

SLUG-ME/SP/CUP--DATE-6/2/2002--LOCATION-Summers Restaurant,

By Jack Lang

And so, after five months queuing in the cold, nibbling upon the most meagre of bar snacks, we are shown to our seats. The Restaurante Campeonato Brasileiro is not the easiest place at which to get a booking these days, attracting a global clientele as never before and yet continuing to confound with its pioneering mix of exoticism and local stodge.

A swift glance at the occupants of the tables around us (your intrepid writer is accompanied by a mysterious partner, whose occasional bons mots should serve to break up the monotony of this poorly-conceived restaurant analogy) highlights one of the most unique features of the Brasileiro – its enormous geographical reach. See they guy with the mopey face? He represents Náutico, a city in the Nordeste. He’ll have to make two round trips of 6000 kilometres before the season is out. That’s over a quarter of the way round the world. No wonder he’s ordering another whiskey.

A waiter – our waiter, apparently – bumbles over to our table, knocking over a coat rack as he goes. He, in case you hadn’t clocked it yet, is not only a waiter but also a metaphor for the clumsiness of the organisational side of the restaurant/football league I’m supposed to be previewing in this article.

“Pssst,” my partner chimes in. “The thing at the start with the five-month wait in the cold was an allegory for the increasingly outmoded Brazilian football calendar.”

“Oh,” I reply.

The waiter, we discover, only really knuckles down to seating people after the evening’s soap opera and has a tendency to focus on clients from Rio and São Paulo at the expense of others. This year, he’s taking a holiday (he mentions something about a Confederations Cup) in the middle of the year, meaning the restaurant will pretty much be double booked from July to mid-December. He does have extremely shiny hair though.

He tells us about the staff. The Brasileiro is famous for its career-bookend roster of chefs: there are a few young guys everyone seems to be talking about (some kid called Bernard is apparently a shoo-in for a Michelin star) and a bunch of veterans enjoying one last hurrah. The former tend to trade in individualistic flair (think gelatine and Earl Grey-flavoured smoke) while the latter prefer to recreate their best dishes of the past.

Recently, though, there has been a trend of importing swanky foreign cooks and repatriating local talent, which has raised the overall level of the Brasileiro. While the fare, if we’re being truly honest, still pales in comparison to the offerings of refined European eateries, the gap is getting smaller by the year. “Slow progress is progress nonetheless,” my partner quips.

Let’s take a quick tour of the room, shall we? (We shall.) See the two guys at either end of the top table? That’s Corinthians coach Tite and his Atlético Mineiro counterpart, Cuca. They’ve been here longer than anyone and have the bellies to prove it. (My partner splutters something about silverware between glugs of red.) The Atlético guys do look to be having a little more fun – Ronaldinho is sharing out some of his home-baked madeleines – but Corinthians aren’t to be taken lightly. Some Italian guy is whispering in the ear of star midfielder Paulinho though, which could be a worry.

At the next table are the Fluminense crowd. Yep, that’s Fred chatting up a waitress. They did well last year but look to be fading somewhat. They shared a lift here with Botafogo, who, by comparison, are chomping at the bit. With Clarence Seedorf in the midst of an Indian summer, the Glorious One (modesty gets you nowhere) could be in the mix. But the less said about neighbours Flamengo and Vasco da Gama, the better. It’s only 8.30 and they’re already scratching around in their wallets to figure out if they can afford another beer.

Cruzeiro have been in fine fettle this season, as have Internacional. Both will feel they are due a title challenge, having passed out before dessert last time they were here. The latter’s Porto Alegre rivals, Grêmio, will hope that Vanderlei Luxemburgo (one of Brazil’s most notable power eaters) and a spate of promising signings will put a disappointing exit from the Libertadores behind them to trouble the favourites.

“Uff! Let me…”

We swivel in our seats to watch a kerfuffle by the entrance. Is that… Neymar? It is, you know! He’s being bundled out the door and into a Catalan’s van? The maître d’ acts swiftly, demoting Muricy Ramalho and his miserable-looking Santos diners to a tiny table by the toilets. They won’t be having much fun tonight. On the table to the left, São Paulo don’t look quite so crestfallen but you do wish they’d keep their kids on a leash; Luís Fabiano hasn’t stopped insulting the bar staff since we entered.

On the communal table, Coritiba, Vitória, Ponte Preta, Atlético-PR, Goiás and Portuguesa are scrapping away for every last bite of a steak. A couple of them will probably exceed expectations in 2013; my money is on the first two. That self-conscious man in the corner is Chrissy “Criciúma” Uma. He’s used to eating in much more modest joints. And the screaming noise you can hear is coming from assorted members of the Bahia squad and board, who are currently having a catfight out in the rain. There’s always one.

“When you chose this restaurant scheme,” my partner sighs, “I assumed it would be partly to avoid having to go through every team. Now you’ve bored me in two distinct ways.”

My partner is right, of course. (S)He always is. I tuck my napkin into my collar and exhale, semi-contentedly. At least the meal will be better than the preamble.

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Quite literally, apparently:

Jack Lang at Snap! Kaka and Pop has the full list here. It’s who’s not on the list that has caused a stir in Brazil and around the football world. No Kaka. No Ronaldinho. No Ramires. No Coutinho. And no Rafael. This might be an expression of depth, but it’s also a sign of different thinking under Felipe Scolari:

To that end though, it’s an intriguing list. Lucas Moura made the cut, as did Oscar and Hermanes. There are a lot of defenders too. In the end, it’s the Confederations Cup. Despite the considerable allure, it’s a test run, a friendly tournament. Some intense playing minutes together in 2013 doesn’t set anything in stone for 2014. It strengthens Brazil’s considerable depth. No need to panic.

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By Gustavo Vieira

We should all give reverence to the two most victorious national sides on the planet when they face each other, even for a friendly. Rubbing their combined nine World Cup titles in everyone else’s faces, Brazil and Italy contested a lively match in Geneva last night.

It was reassuring to see the continuation of Cesare Prandelli’s work with the azzurri still paying off. They dominated Brazil for most of the match and probably deserved to win. The never-aging Andrea Pirlo and the man of the match, (Super) Mario Balotelli, elevated QPR’s keeper Julio Cesar to the best Brazilian on the pitch.

On the other bench, Luiz Felipe Scolari, a.k.a. Big Phil, got yet another reminder that he’s a long way from having a proper team for Brazil 2014, not to mention the looming Confederations Cup at home in June. As usual, however, even when teamwork is missing altogether, Brazil fills the gap with its endless slate of individually talented players. The Italians should know better, but if there is one lesson in football, it is this: don’t underestimate Brazil.

In the 33rd minute, the still-in-the-rough diamond that is Neymar put a precise pass to the left of the box. The ball eventually found Filipe Luis, whose cross reached a cold-blooded Fred. He poked it into Buffon’s net without a bounce to open the scoring for Brazil. Even if Julio Cesar continued to save Brazil left and right, their unjust advantage widened in the 41st minute. A lethal counterattack carried by Neymar from Brazil’s defence all the way across the pitch ended with a sweet pass to serve Oscar in the box. The Chelsea prodigy effortlessly slipped it past Buffon to score Brazil’s second.
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Graeme Le Saux still has “it,” and the FA wants you to know about it.

Just a word on the tackling: I’m no “ra ra Three Lions it’s all gone soft with Johnny Foreigner” type, but the only word that comes to mind watching those tackles is sumptuous.

The South American Youth Championship—that scouts’ paradise—didn’t go exactly as planned for Brazil last month. Having finished in the top four in each of the biennial tournaments since 1977 they wound up bottom of their group at the 2013 instalment, with just one win and four goals scored in four matches.

It was a performance that fell well short of recent standards, in particular the 2011 side that lost just once en route to the title and hammered Uruguay 6-0 in the final. That side, which also graduated a handful of players to the squad that would win the FIFA U-20 World Cup six months later, was stacked with players who would become stars at club level, and others who already were.

Up front there was Neymar, Lucas Moura and Willian José; in defense Juan Jesus and Danilo. Alan Patrick and Oscar made things happen in the centre of the park, and holding it all together was an 18-year-old named Casemiro—an elegant, box-to-box midfielder with a penchant for playmaking who the previous season had broken into the first team at São Paulo.

At the time Casemiro was among the best central midfielders in his age category in Brazil, if not the best—a reputation that made him destined for a big-money move to big European club, should São Paulo have been unable to resist the offers tabled.

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It seems appropriate that on the day before Christmas I’m writing about yet another Neymar transfer rumour. Despite his oft-repeated intention to stay at Santos—at least for the time being—the 20-year-old nevertheless remains atop the wishlist of almost every European club that can afford him.

For three years talent scouts have been dispatched to the Vila with care, in hopes that Neymar soon would be theirs.

Manchester City’s Txiki Begiristain is just the latest club official to have made the pilgrimage to Santos, where he is thought to have spent two days making overtures to the São Paulo side and the player’s other rights-holders regarding a move to Eastlands at the end of the Premier League season.

City are by no means the only club with designs on prying Neymar from the Vila Belmiro before the 2014 World Cup, which is widely understood to be the point in time when the world’s best footballer not currently playing in Europe will most seriously entertain offers from the other side of the Atlantic. But their interest did find its way into the English press, and while that in and of itself doesn’t make such rumours worth addressing, the resulting commotion and potential misunderstanding of the situation probably warrants a brief response.

So here it is.

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Fresh concerns over 2014 World Cup security were sparked when the second leg of the Copa Sudamericana final between São Paulo and Tigre came to a violent, premature end at the Brazilian city’s Morumbi stadium on Wednesday.

After players from the two sides clashed as they made their way toward the tunnel following a ferocious first half, reports of a brawl in the Tigre dressing room began filtering through to the media. Tigre manager Néstor Gorosito told Fox Deportes that stadium security had threatened his players with firearms—an allegation that was supported by left-back Lucas Orban, who stated that a security officer had put a gun to goalkeeper Damian Albil’s chest.

Tigre, saying the security of their players could not be guaranteed, refused to come out for the second period, and referee Enrique Osses awarded the match, and the trophy by default, to São Paulo.

Not surprisingly, the international press were quick to link the incident to the upcoming World Cup, which will be held in Brazil 18 months from now. The supposed possession of guns among stadium security—and their apparent willingness to un-holster those guns—unleashed a cavalcade of worry, and many of the familiar, redundant platitudes were subsequently provided for readers who had neither seen the match in question nor had any grasp of the context.

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