Former Barcelona star Rivaldo has passionately urged Brazil to swiftly seal the deal and secure Carlo Ancelotti as their new head coach. Reports from AS reveal that the Selecao are highly interested in appointing Ancelotti as the long-term successor to Tite, who resigned following Brazil’s quarterfinal departure from the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar.
With Rivaldo’s endorsement and Ancelotti’s proven track record as a top-class manager, the Brazilian national team could potentially witness a revitalized era under the guidance of the highly respected and experienced Italian tactician.
The senior team is under the interim management of Ramon Menezes. Regarding Ancelotti’s likely selection to lead Brazil, Rivaldo said, “Ancelotti to Brazil? It will be historic. I hope he will be our first foreign coach, and we will be world champions with him in 2026 (World Cup at Mexico, Canada, and the USA).” an article from sportskeeda.com mentioned.
Rivaldo, the legendary Barcelona player from 1997 to 2002, helped Brazil secure their fifth World Cup title in 2002. Despite their decorated history, Brazil’s recent World Cup campaigns have been marred by four quarterfinal exits, with their most humiliating display occurring on home soil in 2014, finishing fourth. Before that, Brazil had only lost a World Cup match by more than two goals in the 1998 final against France.
Brazil has expressed a keen interest in appointing Carlo Ancelotti as their national team coach, despite the Italian manager having a year left on his Real Madrid contract. Neymar, the former Barcelona forward, has confirmed Brazil’s desire to bring Ancelotti on board. This unexpected development adds a tantalizing twist to the football world, as Ancelotti’s potential move to Brazil could bring a wealth of experience and strategic brilliance to the national team, setting the stage for an exciting chapter in international football.
The star player for Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) spoke to BandSports;
“I know it’s the priority of the national team. The president wants to sign him, and, as players, we also want it to happen.
“For myself, for Vini, for Militão. We all know him. We know how amazing he is … to have him in the team would be very important. But there is nothing confirmed as of yet. We hope that he comes after his contract ends.” an article from sportskeeda.com reported.
The renowned Italian coach, Carlo Ancelotti, began his managerial career in 1995 at Reggiana. Since then, he has claimed every major title in club football but has yet to lead a national team. While he did serve as Italy’s assistant manager from 1992 to 1995, managing a national team remains an unexplored realm for this accomplished tactician.
Roberto Firmino, the Brazilian in Liverpool has not been selected to join the Brazil team for the World Cup. This must have been a blow for the 31-year-old player, and he has been dubbed as a creative player and has worked well with his Premier League manager Jurgen Klopp.
A Facebook post with netizens’ reaction towards the whole ordeal garnered over 1000 likes and 100+ comments. Netizens generally agree with the decision to not take Firmino in as they prefer the likes of Antony and other younger players to participate in this year’s World Cup.
Others are saying that he is not as good as the other players that were selected to join Brazil this year. Jokes were surfacing about his closeness to Liverpool’s manager, Jurgen Klopp and they claim that he’d definitely be selected to go on holiday with the Premier League manager.
Further remarks about his age have been brought up as stated earlier he isn’t as young as Antony or Roger Ibanez.
However, there were multiple fans that supported him and claimed that Brazil is making a huge mistake for not taking him in. They claimed that he helped Brazil qualify for this World Cup and sadly his talents are not appreciated in his own country.
More Firmino supporters claimed that Brazil will suffer this World Cup without him. Even Manchester United fans expressed their support for the player stating that he is a remarkable footballer.
“Liverpool happened to him,” is what they’re all saying on social media. Some are accusing Liverpool and Jurgen Klopp to be the exact reason why Firmino is not selected. It could be that he might prioritise the English club more than his own country’s national team.
However, the fact remains that the Premier League club is the one footing all their players’ bills. The national teams are taking players in through the good graces of the European football clubs.
Gabriel and Firmino
Gabriel Magalhães and Roberto Firmino were not selected for Brazil's World Cup squad ❌🇧🇷
Furthermore, it was said that Gabriel Magalhaes was also not selected to be in Brazil’s squad. Magalhaes received harsher criticisms when compared to Firmino. “Gabriel doesn’t deserve to be in Brazil’s team anyways,” said a netizen.
Other fans claimed that both Brazilians should have been able to make it into the team, especially when compared to Raphninha and Dani Alves. Unfortunately, these other players are playing in different positions when compared to the first two. Netizens are saying that they can’t be compared to each other.
Criticisms against Richarlison on being selected to join the Portuguese speaking country came about. He is currently being criticised for never having scored for the Premier League while the Liverpool player has.
Arguments about the two Brazilian footballers became a topic under the tweet and netizens were finding statistics and facts to counter attack one another. One posted that the Liverpool player has more scores and games attended on his list, however the latter has more scores for Brazil instead of the Premier League.
Apparently Richarlison has been “killing” it in Brazil’s team. “He always turns up for Brazil,” that is one of the popular opinions on why he was selected instead of Jurgen Klopp’s favourite Brazilian player.
There will be more controversies to come after other countries deciding who is in their team and who is out of their team. We might be surprised later on if another prominent player is not selected on their respective home team. Of course there will be debates among netizens about it.
However, the teams have to decide their lineups quickly as the World Cup is only a couple of days away. Furthermore, the Premier League and Champions League will be wrapping up soon on the first half of their games.
The top four favourites have qualified for the next round of the 2022 Qatar World Cup, and while most of them know who they will face in the elimination round, Brazil is still waiting to find out who they will face next week.
The Brazilians are still playing Cameroon in their final group-stage match. They advanced to the next round, win or lose.
But how likely are their chances? And who are the top four contenders for this year’s trophy?
Aside from Brazil, we chose France, the defending champions who were defeated by Tunisia in their previous group match and will face Poland, Argentina, the country of Lionel Messi, the GOAT in the arena, and England, the country that invented football and once won the title.
Brazil on top
We begin with Brazil. The odds are stacked in Brazil’s favour, and an AI predicts the Selecao will win the trophy this year.
Image of Neymar, from Wikipedia.
They breezed through their group, winning the first two games. They did, however, lose Neymar, on whom their entire offensive strategy is based.
Brazil is rarely displaying the radiance and vigour of the offensive samba with which it is synonymous, and this could be because they have a conservative coach in Tite, who has had a good run with just 27 goals against his side in 78 matches.
The current squad is not playing like the flamboyant Brazil of Socrates and Zico, and it appears that they are focusing on winning, even if only by a single goal, to advance their cause.
The plus of this side: It lost very few matches under Tite. It has a balanced defensive and attacking lineup with veterans behind and younger players in front.
Note that both Serbia and Switzerland could not place any shots on target against Brazil.
Now, they are without Neymar who is expected to be back in the elimination round.
If Neymar is ruled out for the remainder of the competition, Brazil can still rely on Gabriel Jesus, who has been consistent for both club and country.
Argentina and Messi
Argentina was shocked and the world too was shocked by their 2-1 defeat against Saudi Arabia. While it looked like they took the Saudi team for easy prey, the latter played the match their match of the year. It was their final and they gave everything against the Argentinians and won.
Messi scrambled in the next two matches winning them for Argentina but will he be able to continue on this run against bigger opponents? They do look good at times and this is what has given their fans hope that Argentina is still a big contender in this tournament.
Too much dependency on Messi shows that something is not right with Argentina but we never know.
England with set pieces
England has big goals and wants to go further than the 2018 semifinals. They can if they keep playing like they did against Iran and Wales.
Experts argue that they are better with set pieces, which they heavily used during the 2018 World Cup.
They are lower on set pieces this time, but that should not be a problem because they can easily turn on the goals from free kicks and corners.
So far, they are the team with the fewest odds stacked against them, thanks to their incredible frontline.
France Double?
Brazil won the World Cup back-to-back in 1958 and 1962, with Pele as the star player.
France is missing many of its star players, but it still has the potential to advance to the next round if it can defeat its next opponent, Poland, the surprise team at the tournament.
Image of Kylian Mbappe, from Wikipedia.
Kylian Mbappe, young and fabulous, is the reason they can win this World Cup. They went through the second round in a breeze beating Australia and Denmark and gave Tunisia a chance to grab three points with an extremely light squad in their last group match.
Not surprising at all that France is still strong in the competition four years after winning it big in Russia. They have young talented players who can win it.
But experts say they give too much chances to opponents and they keep the ball less than the other top favourites, which could be a problem when they advance against tougher sides that are excellent in keeping the ball during elimination matches.
Brazil has confirmed their 26-man selecao or squad for the Qatar World Cup and it includes a plethora of Premier League stars, which is not surprising at all given the popularity of the ‘samba’ players in the UK.
There were a lot of notable absentees in the list which is very surprising for some but coach Tite has perhaps decided to go with a younger generation squad in these competitions.
Naming the squad on Monday, we notice the absence of Premier League duo Roberto Firmino and Gabriel Magalhaes – while Philippe Coutinho had already been ruled out due to injury.
Neymar, who is a colourful player not only by his appearance but also by his style of play and dives, is part of the squad.
This is one chance he may not miss to make his mark on history and win the cup for Brazil, but he is bound to become the top all-time goalscorer for Brazil in World Cup competitions. That will be a major feat for the player.
Image of Gabriel Jesus, from Wikipedia.
Another unmissable figure in the squad is Arsenal’s Gabriel Jesus. One of the top scorers this season in the Premier League, Jesus is a regular feature in the Brazil squad, in and out of the World Cup, similar to Neymar.
Jesus is also a better build-up striker compared to others on the list. He is also a better-goal scorer, with much more pace and pressing ability, he looked extremely sharp in his game.
Image of Gabriel Martinelli from Wikipedia.
Another Arsenal player is Gabriel Martinelli and he makes it into the final squad for Qatar along with Chelsea’s Thiago Silva, Manchester United’s Casemiro, Fred and Antony, Liverpool’s Fabinho and Spurs’ Richarlison.
They will all form a powerful Latin American team and it will be very interesting to see how they defend the colours of their country, certainly after the recent debacles Brazil has suffered during World Cups.
Brazil’s World Cup participations
The country has not won the trophy since 2002, which is 20 years ago. They faced a 24-year drought without a trophy when they won it in 1970 and failed to reach the final until 1994.
Image of Brazil World Cup fans in 2014, from Wikipedia.
In 1998, they were humiliated by a poweful French side that won the cup for the first time in their history with a 3-0 win with Zinedine Zidane leaving Brazil licking to lick wounds.
And how to forget the complete bashing in 2014 when half the world woke up to Brazil, the mighty champions and great football nation, getting defeated 7-1 by Germany in Brazil itself.
Brazil has a great chance to win the World Cup this year after a 20-year jinx, especially in light of the underwhelming performances by nations like Germany, Belgium, and Argentina but its ace Neymar is out for the Switzerland match and Richardlison is being called a lucky striker.
Brazil’s Jinx
Nevertheless, with the poor performances from Germany, Belgium and Argentina, who were all defeated by weaker countries in games that added to the surprises at the Qatar World Cup 2022, Brazil should not let another shock happen.
The match against Switzerland will be all about tactics and seizing the opportunity to score. While the fans and the media saw a great goal scored by Richardlison, some say it was just a fluke.
Brazil will certainly play with the same lineup, minus Neymar, against the Swiss team that has 3 points after their 1-0 defeat of the African side Cameroun.
Beating Cameroud got Switzerland a great start to their World Cup campaign at the Al Janoub Stadium on Thursday. Brazil too started well with its 2-0 win against Serbia, placing it on top of their group with Switzerland in second position.
But football has been pretty upsetting in this World Cup franchise making it precarious for big names like Germany who is clinging on a thread with 1 point in their group after a shocking loss to Japan overturned with a good draw against leaders England.
Without Neymar, it might be more difficult for Brazil to crack the Swiss defence particularly if the Europeans opt for a tactic that might get them a point in a draw that will stall Brazil’s qualification to the next round until its final match against Cameroun.
But not all is shiny in the Brazil team, with legend Kaka attacking Neymar for what he called a poor performance before he got injured.
Kaka says Neymar’s performance against Serbia in the World Cup opener was underwhelming, with the PSG star losing possession more frequently than any other players.
But Kaka believes his injury status may pose a problem for the remainder of the competition.
Due to his injury, Neymar is not anticipated to return to action until the knockout stages.
Neymar is the second player who took the heat after the comfortable win against Serbia while many did not understand the role played by Casemiro during the match.
Casemira got only one chance on goal after Brazil was leading 2-0 and his shot, brilliantly taken, clipped the bar in what was perhaps a heartbreaking moment for the Manchester United star.
But at last, Casemiro’s role at the heart of the Brazil team got some great reviews from another former ace of the Brazilian national team, Gilberto Silva.
“Casemiro, the defensive midfielder who is at the heart of this Brazil team trying to end our 20-year wait to win it again. He has a great responsibility in my old position,” says the player in a column for the BBC website.
Playing in the position that Casemiro is involved, Gilberto Silva is someone who knows what it takes to win the FIFA World Cup having done so in 2002.
However, he says it is a very difficult role, one in which the player might get very little of the ball.
“Whoever the manager chooses to play further forward now, it is still important for us to be defensively strong.
“Right now, I think we have the right balance. I am very happy with our back four and also with the players in front of them who teach the side to be solid.
“This is where Casemiro’s intelligence holds the key,” he writes.
Well, he also says in this role, players tend to lose concentration and it takes only a second for the other side to exploit the situation and destroy your chances.
Casemiro is warned, Neymar is given time to wake up to play better football and Richarlison, while criticised, will be welcomed to hit more flukes against Switzerland and Cameroun to ensure that Brazil qualifies for the next round.
For Silva, this Brazilian squad has what it takes to win this World Cup. Will they end the 20-year hiatus?
The football fans are fixated on who is the greatest of all time in the soccer arena with the duel between Cristiano Ronald and Lionel Messi entering its last global phase, perhaps.
Nonetheless, Ronaldo and Messi are the only two popular and talented players in our era who have never won the World Cup.
While it is true that Portugal is not a large team with many talented players that can easily claim the title of World Cup winner, the same cannot be said for Argentina, a country that has produced two World Cup victories so far.
Argentina has reached the World Cup final on four occasions. It was defeated by the Uruguay national team way back in 1930, which is the inaugural World Cup competition.
However, Argentina produced excellent football in the competition winning by big scores and establishing Guillermo Stábile, an Argentine professional football player and manager who played as a centre forward during his career, as the top scorer of the 1930 World Cup, scoring 8 goals including a hattrick.
Alas, it lost the final against the gritty Uruguayans with the match ending in a 4-2 win for Uruguay.
Argentina was also defeated in two other finals, in 1990 and 2014, against Germany and the latter went on to win those two finals by 1-0. In 1990, it was the last appearance for maestro Diego Maradona.
But Messi’s country produced two great final victories against the Netherlands in 1974, winning 3-1 in a display of magical soccer between the two opponents (Netherlands had the father of modern football Johan Cryuiff in its squad) and beating Germany in a thrilling 3-2 final giving Maradona his only World Cup final win.
While Messi lost in the first ever final in which he participated in 2014, Ronaldo’s Portugal never reached the final though the troubled Manchester United superstar has played in 4 World Cups since 2006.
Who Will Smile at the 2022 World Cup?
We wrote that Ronaldo is a player who sets precedence and sets the tone for styles and goal scoring prowesses. This is so true for the great player and he is also the first to win a ‘regional’ trophy with his country when Portugal won its first ever Euro Championship in 2016, beating France 1-0 in the final after extra time.
It was Ronaldo’s most important national trophy, leaving the World Cup as the only major international trophy he has yet to win.
The star is going through the most turbulent and disturbing period in his football career and his coach at Manchester United is not helping the player with his dictatorial style and his bullying of one of the greatest soccer stars of all time.
This is not going to help Ronaldo in Portugal’s search for a place in the final at Qatar though we know that the latter cna rise to the occasion if he can put all his woes behind him and focus on the football on the field.
A great performance by Ronald at the World Cup will make Eric Ten Hag look like a fool. But Ronaldo is going through pain and this may, unfortunately for his fans and for football, Ten Hag is contributing to a potentially bad World Cup for the latter.
Ten Hag has- sadly – never played in any World Cup and is already seen as a troubled coach at Man Utd. The 6-3 defeat against Manchester City and the 4-0 drubbing against Brentford are two big dark spots in his managerial career at Old Trafford. Another misstep with a drubbing by a small club or a big one for that matter may mean Ten Hag could see the gate wide open for him to be excluded from the club.
Why sadly? He does not know how precarious it is to be a player who is going to play in a World Cup. If he knew, he would have been more careful in his choices with Ronaldo.
Nevertheless, Lionel Messi is not facing such worries and the Argentinian ace is in the running as one of the top rated players who may perform well in Qatar.
Messi has announced that this may be his last call for Argentina in the World Cup and that he may retire as an international soccer player, meaning he might not play for his country again after Qatar 2022.
Ronaldo has responded to Messi’s plans for retirement from international football by saying he hopes Messi would reconsider and would continue to play as long as he can because he believes the latter is a great player with great capacities.
This is how Ronaldo is. He encourages his opponents to carry on and to perform in order to bring brightness to the most beautiful game on the planet. Unlike some people.
Messi’s World Cup?
Among all the stars in Qatar, Messi will undoubtedly be looked upon as one of the greatest and he will become the greatest versus Ronaldo if Argentina reaches the final and wins.
Messi too started his World Cup appearances in 2006. Unfortunately, like Ronaldo, he has been putting more emphasis on clus football – which brings them more cash – than national football.
Unlike people like Pele for example, who played for their country with the same grit and enthusiasm when they played for their clubs – Pele won many club titles and World Cup finals at the same time – it does not appear the same for the modern ‘Peles’.
However, Messi has a chance now and if he forgets club soccer for a while, perhaps he may spark a riot at the World Cup and bring the trophy home to Buenos Aires and consecrate himself as the GOAT of our generation.
Messi has scored six goals in 19 matches at the Fifa World Cup spanning four editions. Argentina is a bigger soccer country than Portugal, though Portugal has also produced aces like Ronaldo and the once thrilling Eusebio whose team beat Pele’s in the 1966 World Cup.
Ronaldo has scored seven goals in 17 matches at the FIFA World Cup, scoring in every edition he has played in – 2006, 2010, 2014 and 2018.
While Ronaldo has advised Messi to continue playing in the World Cup or at International level for a few more years, this year may be his last World Cup.
But depending on his spirit and where he is playing after he leaves Manchester United – unless Ten Hag is kicked out of Old Trafford earlier than January 2023 – Ronaldo may still attempt to give Portugal another shot at the World Cup in 2026! Imagine that.
Nevertheless, it is a pity that none of them have lifted the World Cup trophy, just like the legendary Cryuff who re-invented football with his total soccer styles, reached the final in 1974 and lost to Germany by 2-1.
Cryuff missed the World Cup in 1978 which saw the Netherlands reach the final only to be defeated by host Argentina by 3-1. He did not participate in the World Cup for obscure reasons but in 2008 he revealed why he did not play for the country in 1978.
He told the media that there was a kidnapping attempt on him and his family and that shocked him and while he escaped the attempt, it changed his perspective on life.
Hence, Messi is the best placed in the Qatar 2022 versus Ronaldo who is going through a difficult time, to go and win the cup for once!
