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Top 10 youngsters playing in Brazil

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Colo-Colo v Santos - Copa Santander Libertadores 2011

And the winner is.... (photo: Getty Images)

I have finally finished the most complex piece of work in this blog’s history: a list of the top 10 youngsters playing in Brazil. In order to compile the list, I have followed countless rumours and leads, gone through player dossiers, match reports, television footage, trawled the state championships, lower leagues and youth divisions up and down the country, interviewing coaches, fans and scouts alike. All in the hope of finding the best up-and-coming talent in Brazil in order to report to you, this blog’s readers. Continue reading →

Another Brazilian Cup surprize: São Paulo out

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Lucas' São Paulo are out of the Brazilian Cup (Luiz Pires - VIPCOMM)

One day after Coritiba and Ceará progressed at the expense of Palmeiras and Flamengo, São Paulo are the latest big name to be knocked out of the Brazilian Cup by supposedly inferior opposition. They lost to Avaí­ in Florianópolis 3-1 (3-2 on aggregate). Vasco are the only ‘big name’ left and are through to the semi finals after beating Atlético Paranaense on away goals. The semi final first legs will be played next week.

In other news, Neymar is going to be a father for the first time and São Paulo is not going to be a host city in the 2013 Confederations Cup. The five cities that will be hosting the competition are: Rio de Janeiro, Belo Horizonte, Porto Alegre, Brasilia and Salvador.

Santos take first leg lead to Brazil in Libertadores quarter final

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Alan Patrick (Getty Images)

Santos beat Once Caldas in Colombia 1-0 thanks to a goal from Alan Patrick who only played due to the injury to Ganso. Zé Eduardo was once again utterly useless up front for Santos. Watch out Genoa fans: you have signed a donkey! Continue reading →

Ceará dump Flamengo out of Brazilian Cup

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Photo during the first leg in Rio

A kick in the teeth? (Alexandre Loureiro/VIPCOMM)

Ceará, the team from the state of… you guessed it… Ceará, beat Flamengo in the Brazilian Cup to reach the semi-final of the competition. They drew 2-2 on the night but progress thanks their 2-1 win in Rio last week. Pretty big upset this considering the difference in the size and cost of the two teams. They will play Coritiba in the semi-final, after they also caused an upset by beat Palmeiras 6-2 on aggregate. They won the first leg 6-0 last week. Continue reading →

State Champs: stuck with the wrong match

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Grêmio and Leandro (left) got the better of Internacional (Jefferson Bernardes, VIPCOMM)

The afternoon got off to a terrible start with the news that Corinthians would be wearing jerseys with their mothers’ names on the back as a Mother’s Day tribute. I needed to call on all my powers of concentration to get this shockingly lame marketing gimmick out of my head and focus on the important afternoon of football ahead, starting 16:00 local time. And what an afternoon it promised to be: Corinthians vs. Santos, Internacional vs. Grêmio and Atlético Mineiro vs. Cruzeiro to name just a few of the mouth-watering ties. Continue reading →

Brazilian Copa (it’s a disgrace) Libertadores disaster

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Internacional vs. Peí±arol

Not even Guií±azu could save Inter (Lucas Uebel/VIPCOMM)

Four Brazilian clubs were dumped out of the Copa Libertadores in spectacular fashion last night. Going into the evening’s games, only Grêmio had a difficult first leg score to overturn. Internacional lost 2-1 (3-2 agg) at home to Peí±arol,  Cruzeiro lost 2-0 (3-2 on agg) at home to Once Caldas and Fluminense were humiliated 3-0 (4-3 agg) against Libertad in Paraguay. Grêmio lost their away match against Universidad Católica from Chile 1-0 and 3-1 on aggregate. Continue reading →

Libertadores: Santos scrape through to quarter finals

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America (MEX) v Santos (BRA) - Santander Libertadores Cup 2011

Teflon-hands Rafael had a good game (Getty Images)

Santos put in all-hands-to-the-pump performance and clung on to their first leg lead in tense and dramatic fashion to beat América from Mexico 1-0 on aggregate. They now progress to quarter finals of the competition where they will probably face Cruzeiro and their deadly marksman and intimidatingly named…… Wallyson. Continue reading →

Derby day decided by penalties

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Thiago Neves scores the winner for Flamengo (Maurí­cio Val/VIPCOMM)

After three months of mind numbing State Championships, nearly all of the 24 odd Brazilian State Championships kicked into life yesterday as their reached their finale with a number of historic derby matches deciding trophies and finalists. All of the three main derby matches played on Sunday (Palmeiras x Corinthians, Internacional x Grêmio and Flamengo x Vasco) were decided on penalties while a day earlier Santos beat São Paulo 2-0 away from home to reach the São Paulo State final. Continue reading →

Libertadores: Can anybody stop Cruzeiro?

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Another Libertadores win for Cuca, Cruzeiro and co (Washington Alves/VIPCOMM)

It’s hard to keep up with Brazilian and South American football these days with the games coming thick and fast. The Libertadores knock out phase is upon us at the same time as the State Championships are coming to a conclusion. Not to mention the Brazilian Cup which is reaching its later stages too. But that’s no excuse so let me give you a quick rundown of the Libertadores action so far this week. Continue reading →