One day after Dunga announced the roster of Brazilian players for the World Cup 2010, newspaper O Globo, one of the most infuential in Brazil, conducted an online survey asking readers to answer the question: “how much do you trust Dunga’s team?”
More than 6,000 people responded the survey.
The result:
23% said “I trusted 100%”
29% said “I trust somewhat”
47% said “I don’t trust”
Dunga fulfilled his promise: there were no surprises.
This is the roster of 23 players, announced by coach Dunga today, May 11th:
Goalkeepers:
Julio Cesar (Internazionale Milan)
Gomes (Tottenham)
Doni (Roma)
Wings:
Maicon (Internazionale Milan)
Daniel Alves (Barcelona)
Gilberto (Cruzeiro)
Michel Bastos (Lyon)
Defense:
Lucio (Internazionale Milan)
Juan (Roma)
Luisão (Benfica)
Thiago Silva (Milan)
Midfielders:
Gilberto Silva (Panathinaikos)
Felipe Melo (Juventus)
Josué (Wolfsburg)
Kleberson (Flamengo)
Elano (Galatasaray)
Ramires (Benfica)
Kaká (Real Madrid)
Julio Baptista (Roma)
Forward:
Luís Fabiano (Sevilla)
Robinho (Santos)
Nilmar (Villarreal)
Grafite (Wolfsburg)
This roster is nearly exactly the same as the one Dunga announced for the last match of the Brazilian team before the World Cup (a match against Ireland that Brazil won by 2 x 0); the only difference is that Adriano (who had a series of personal problems lately) was replaced by Grafite.
Below, a photo of the line up which started playing against Ireland:
Maicon, Gilberto Silva, Julio Cesar, Juan, Adriano and Lucio.
Ramirez, Robinho, Kaka, Michel Bastos and Felipe Melo.
Dunga will send a list of 30 players to FIFA (the 23 above and other 7 potential substitutes), and can still make changes until June 1st (replacing any of the23 by any of the other 7). However, as a means to make it clear that the 23 principals were already chosen, Dunga didn’t want to announce today the name of the other 7 players.
Update. Later today, after everyone had already absorbed the impact of the 23 players, Dunga announced the 7 reserves: Ronaldinho (Milan), Paulo Henrique Ganso (Santos), Alex (Chelsea), Marcelo (Real Madrid), Diego Tardelli (Atletico MG) and Carlos Eduardo (Hoffenheim).
Until the beginning of this year, Brazilians were wondering, just like the rest of the World, whether coach Dunga would take Ronaldinho to the World Cup in South Africa.
Over the past few weeks, things have changed in Brazil. Several of the State championships (all important clubs in Brazil play the State and the National championships) have reached and end. The final matches put under the spotlight the most important players in Brazil; in most States, none of the players performed particularly well.
In São Paulo, it was different. The champion was Santos FC; Santos played 19 matches, won 15, and scored 61 goals (see final standings).
The main players of Santos were Giovanni (who had played in the World Cup 1998), Robinho, and two youngsters: Paulo Roberto Ganso and Neymar.
Ganso (which translates as “goose”, in Portuguese), is a midfielder, aged 20; Neymar (see official site) is mid forward, aged 18.
Neymar is just a bit older than Pelé, when he was playing his first World Cup, in 1958. Many Brazilians say that Neymar should go to the Cup, for several reasons: he deserves a place; he could bring luck; he would start to be prepared to the World Cup 2014.
Pelé himself, for example, declared that Dunga should choose Neymar over Ronaldinho. Like Pelé, many Brazilians are asking Dunga to take Neymar to the Cup.
If Ronaldinho indeed doesn’t go to South Africa, Brazilians won’t miss him much.
Below, a semifinal match of the Sao Paulo championship, which finished Santos 8 x 1 Guarani; Neymar scored 5 goals.
For more comments in English about Neymar and Ganso, visit here and here.
While Neymar is the striker, Ganso is the maestro. Until today, Ganso hadn’t gain the same exposure as Neymar. Today, Ganso was the star: when Robinho and Neymar were already out (Santos had to complete the defence, since they were losing by 2 x 3, and had 3 players sent off), the coach commanded Ganso to leave.
The video above shows an interview with the coach,and at 1:30min Ganso appears, and clearly signifies that he refuses to leave.
Ganso indeed stayed, and was the main player of the game. Many say that Ganso gained a few extra points, probably enough to take him to South Africa.
Newspaper O Globo ran an online survey today, asking readers: should Dunda take Ganso and/or Neymar to the Cup?
More than 1600 people responded. More than 62% answered that both should go; 17% said that none should; only Ganso: 14%; only Neymar: 6%.
