Brazil in the World Cup 2010

Some people employ a tactic to meet the players of Brazilian team for a reasonable price: stay in the same hotel as the team.

Sometimes, CBF rents a whole hotel; sometimes, when the hotel is too big, only a sector is rented. When the team shares a hotel, some security measures attempt to isolate the players from the other guests, but some socialization is unavoidable (and most players don’t care about that).

Nobody knows yet where Brazil is going to stay in South Africa; the city will be defined by a draw on December 4th; the hotels where the team will stay will be defined by CBF only in 2010.

But, looking at the hotels where the team stayed during the Confederations Cup of 2009 may provide hints about where they will (or won’t) stay in 2010.

Brazil played five matches in the Confederation Cup 2009.

The first match was in Bloemfontein; there, Brazil stayed in the Bloem Spa.

Next, Brazil played too matches in Pretoria; there, Brazil stayed in the large Centurion Lake Hotel (photo below). On leaving the hotel, however, Dunga confirmed the occurrence of robbery; before Brazil, the Egyptian team had also complained about robbery. There are rumors that the robberies occurred following parties organized by the players; in any case, Dunga will probably have restrictions to the hotels (either by allowing robbery, or by allowing parties).

Finally, Brazil traveled to Johannesburg, to play the last two matches. In Johannesburg, Brazil stayed at the Sunnyside Park Hotel.

The schedule of matches for the World Cup 2010 in South Africa is already defined.

A final draw to take place on Dec. 4th 2009 will define the distribution of the teams across 8 groups. From June 11th to June 25th 2009, the 32 qualified teams will play the Group Matches, each country playing against the three other countries within the same group.

The distribution of matches will follow the same system adopted in the 2006 Germany World Cup: the six matches of each group will take place in six stadia in six different host cities (Brazil, for example, played matches of the Group Matches in Berlin, Munich and Dortmunt).

In South Africa, the first round of Group A (red squares) will see matches in Johannesburg and Cape Town, second round in Pretoria and Polokwane, third round in Rustenburg and Bloemfountain. Likewise, all teams of all groups will have to travel all across the country to play their matches.

It will be interesting to notice whether FIFA will use this same system in the Worl Cup 2014, in Brazil.

While the distance between Cape Town and Polokwane is about 1,700 km (a bit more than 1,000 miles), the distance between Manaus and Porto Alegre is more than 3,100 km (or nearly 2,000 miles); see map of the host cities in Brazil.

It will not be so easy to use this same system in Brazil, given the large distances involved. Travelling more often and farther can be a disadvantage (one of the reasons why Brazil had a bad performance in the 1938 World Cup was the excess of travel between matches).

Let’s see what FIFA will decide.

Tickets can be purchased for selected matches or by a set of  Team Specific matches (TSTS).Read how to buy tickets for the World Cup 2010.

Below, the official prices of tickets (sold by FIFA), in Rands and in US dollars, for matches of the World Cup 2010.

Notice that FIFA used a conversion rate of US$ 1 = R 7; this rate may change, so can the prices.

South Africans will pay the same price as international citizens. The privilege of South Africans is an exclusivity to buy tickets  of Category 4, considerably cheaper than the others.

Category of tickets refer to the position in the stadia. Category 1 have the best viewing point, and Category 4 have the worst.

Category 1 are generally located in the straight section between the two goal lines or the pitch.
Category 2 are generally located adjacent to Category 1.
Category 3 are generally located behind the goals or in one of the corners.
Category 4 are generally located behind the goals or in one of the corners.

Below, prices of the TSTS (Team Specific Ticket Prices), in Rands and in dollars (Category 4 are sold in Rands only).

Brazil won Argentina today and became the first team in South America to qualify to the finals of the World Cup 2010.

Brazil won easily by 3×1. By request of Maradona, the match happened in Rosario (the same venue where Brazil and Argentina tied a match in the World Cup 1978, which Argentina eventually won), in a stadium smaller than the ones of the capital Buenos Aires; Maradona intented to put more pressure on the Brazilian team, by having the crowd nearer to the Brazilian players.

Brazil qualified to the finals of the World Cup with three rounds yet to go; this is the best performance of the Brazilian team in more than twenty years. Argentina will have to struggle hard and win their three remaining matches, to secure a place in South Africa.

The Brazilian team:Júlio César; Maicon, Luisão, Lúcio and André Santos; Gilberto Silva, Felipe Melo, Elano (Daniel Alves) and Kaká; Robinho (Ramires) and Luís Fabiano (Adriano).
Coach: Dunga.

The early qualification should provide for a tranquil preparation until the World Cup. Besides this good campaign in the Qualifiers, the Brazilian team under the command of Dunga won the Confederations Cup last June and had won the America Cup in 2007. So far, so good.

There are many sources of information about the South Africa World Cup.

Information sites published in Brazil are, almost always, in Portuguese. Not even CBF, the Brazilian Confederation of Football, maintains an English version for official information.

Of course, several world class sites (including FIFA) publish information in English, covering also the Brazilian team; however, these sites lack a touch of Brazilian view when writing about the Brazilian team.

This blog will attempt to fill this gap. Writers of this blog are the same ones who wrote a compilation of the participation of Brazil in all the World Cups.

This blog is about how Brazilians see Brazil in the World Cup. See, also, comments about the World Cup 2014 in Brazil.