Brazil in the World Cup 2010

A few days ago, after the last matches of the Qualifying, all 32 countries which will participate of the finals of World Cup 2010 were known. On November 20th, two days after  the end of the Qualifyings, FIFA updated its ranking of the World teams. Below, a screenshot of the 33 best ranked teams.

It is no surprise that most of the qualified countries are at the top of the ranking.

Spain regained the top position, which they occupied for most of 2009; Spain lost briefly the leading after being beat by United States in the semifinals of the Confederation Cup 2009. Brazil is back to second position; the difference between Brazil and Spain was of just three points in the previous ranking; since, Brazil won England and Oman, whereas Spain won Argentina and Austria – FIFA assigned 33 more points to the Spaniards than to the Brazilians.

Out of the ten top ranked, only Croatia (the tenth) is out of the World Cup. Between 11th and 20th, only Russia (13th) is out. Between 21st and 32th, the following countries are out: Czech Republic (23rd), Ukraine (24th), Israel (25th), Bulgaria (27th), Egypt (29th), Norway (31st) and Romania (32nd).

That means that there are nine countries which are not ranked amongst the best 32 in the world, but are going to South Africa anyway. Eight of them would be: Slovenia (33rd), Slovakia (34th), Ghana (37th), Honduras (38th), Japan (43rd), South Korea (52nd), New Zealand (77th) and North Korea (84th).

What’s the worst country (according to FIFA ranking) to participate of the World Cup in 2010? South Africa, host country, ranked 86th.

Today, November 18th 2009, Uruguay became the 32nd and last country to confirm presence in the World Cup 2010.

The following countries will play the finals of the World Cup 2010:

South Africa: host country, only pre-qualified country (until 1994 2002 – rectified, thanks to the commenter who pointed the mistake – the previous winner was also qualified  - France, winner of 1998, was the last one to benefit from this).

From Africa: Algeria, Ghana, Nigeria, Cote d’Ivoire, Cameroon.

From Asia/Oceania: Japan, Australia, North Korea, South Korea, New Zealand.

From North and Central America: Honduras, USA and Mexico.

From Europe: Netherlands, Spain, England, Italy, Germany, Denmark, Serbia, Switzerland, Slovakia, Portugal, Slovenia, Greece, France.

From South America: Brazil, Paraguay, Chile, Argentina and Uruguay.

In World Cup finals, Brazil has already played against: Cameroon (1994), Algeria (1978), Japan (2006), New Zealand (1982), Australia (2006), USA (1994), Netherlands (1974, 1994, 1998), Spain (1934, 1950, 1978, 1986), England (1958, 1970, 2002), Italy (1938, 1970, 1978, 1982, 1994), Germany (1974, 2002), Switzerland (1950), Denmark (1998), Portugal (1966), France (1958, 1986, 1998, 2006), Mexico (1950, 1954, 1962), Chile (1962, 1998), Argentina (1974, 1978, 1982, 1990)  and Uruguay (1950, 1970).

Brazil also played against Yugoslavia (1930, 1950, 1954, 1974) and the Czech Republic (1938, 1962 and 1970), which later would  split and give origin to Serbia, Slovenia and Slovakia. Considering also these split-ups, none of the countries is making a first appearance in the World Cups finals.

All previous World Champions will be in South Africa. Also, all major football countries will be there, (see this comparison between countries in the Cup versus FIFA rankings).

The 32 teams will be divided into eight groups; the draw will occur on December 4th 2009. The draw will be conducted in such a way that all groups will have stronger, strong, weak and weaker countries (as per FIFA judgment).

After the draw, this blog will recall past performances of Brazil against their first three adversaries.

The South America Qualifyings for the World Cup 2010 finished this past weekend.

Brazil finished the Qualifying in first place (with 34 points), followed by Chile, Paraguay and Argentina (see full table here); these four countries are qualified for the 2010 World Cup. Uruguay, who finished fifth, will face a play-off against Costa Rica, the winner also being qualified to the Cup.

Brazil played the last match against Venezuela, in Campo Grande, in a 0 x 0 draw. Brazil had already secured presence in the Cup by beating Argentina a few weeks ago. Coach Dunga used the two last matches to experiment with new players.

The most dramatic situation was Argentina’s. Los hermanos had to win two tough matches to go to the Cup. First, they faced Peru; at 85 minutes, Peru scored a goal to equalize the score; only with a goal at 92 minutes, with Palermo in off-side position (that the referee overlooked), could Argentina add two extremely valuable points to their tab.

The video below shows Palermo’s goal. Notice that there is a Peruvian player between Palermo and the goal line, but the goal keeper is not there; so, as there is not at least two adversaries between him and the goal, Palermo was off-side.

Thanks to those two extra points, Argentina had one leading point when playing the final match, against Uruguay; Uruguay had to win to qualify. Instead, Argentina won by 1 x 0, much to the relief of coach Maradona.

Does that mean that Brazil is a favorite and Argentina an underdog for the 2010 Cup? Probably not.

Both in1994 and 2002, the Brazilian team left for the Cup without much hope of winning, and ended up being the Champion; on the other hand, Brazil was THE team to beat in 2006, and the campaign was one of the biggest fiascos in Brazilian history.

That’s what the Argentinians are hoping for. In 2002, much like Brazil in 2006, Argentina had a constelation of stellar players, including Verón, Riquelme, Batistuta, Sorin, Ortega, which some (including Time) considered favorite to win the Cup, but didn’t get past the first stage. Argentinians and Brazilians know that, leaving to the Cup with a low profile (and less pressure), there are good chances that the team performs well.

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.