Brazil in the World Cup 2010

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Federação Portuguesa de Futebol : Portugal Football Federation.

Main players: Cristiano Ronaldo (FIFA Player of the Year 2008).

FIFA ranking (April 2010): #4

Portugal finished second after the first round the European Qualifying. In their (very tough) group, Portugal finished behind Denmark and ahead of Sweden, Hungary, Albania and Malta; in the play off, Portugal won the two matches against Bosnia-Herzegovina.

Portugal is in Group G of the World Cup 2010, and will play the first three matches against Ivory Coast (June 15th), North Korea (June 21st) and Brazil (June 25th).

Portugal team for the World Cup 2010:

Goalkeepers: Eduardo (Braga), Daniel Fernandes (Iraklis/Greece), Beto (Porto).

Defense: Miguel (Valencia/Spain), Paulo Ferreira (Chelsea/England), Ricardo Carvalho (Chelsea/England), Bruno Alves (Porto), Rolando (Porto), Ricardo Costa (Lille/France), Duda (Malaga/Spain), Fabio Coentrao (Benfica).

Midfield: Pedro Mendes (Sporting), Pepe (Real Madrid/Spain), Ze Castro (Deportivo/Spain), Tiago (Atletico Madrid/Spain), Deco (Chelsea/England), Raul Meireles (Porto), Miguel Veloso (Sporting).

Forward: Simão Sabrosa (Atletico Madrid/Spain), Danny (Zenit St Petersburg/Russia), Liedson (Sporting), Hugo Almeida (Werder Bremen/Germany), Cristiano Ronaldo (Real Madrid/Spain), Nani (Manchester United/England).

Coach: Carlos Queiróz.

Brazil and Portugal will play on June 25nd 2010 in Durban. This is going to be third match of each team in the World Cup 2010 (sooner, they both will play against North Korea and Ivory Coast – see groups here).

Brazil and Portugal have faced each other in 18 matches (only 11 countries have more matches against Brazil than Portugal; England, with 23 matches, is the only European country in that list). Brazil won 12 matches, Portugal won 4, and there were 2 draws; Brazil scored 36 goals, Portugal scored 15.

In World Cups, there was only one match, in England 1966. The records of the match are here. The match was in Liverpool on July 19th 1966; the ticket costed £ 2.2, or about US$ 3.5 (in South Africa, a ticket for the eighth finals would cost at least US$ 100; check out prices of tickets of the World Cup 2010). After beating Brazil, Portugal faced and won North Korea, which was then playing their first and only World Cup.

Brazil was then defending champion, but the team was resenting the retirement of the generation which won in 1962 (which was basically the same team which had won in 1958 – older, though) and the new generation which would win in 1970.

Portugal had then Eusébio, considered until today the best Portuguese player ever and one of the best European players. Brazil had Pelé, but he had been injured in previous matches, and still had to face the violence of Portuguese defense.

Despite this defeat (and despite the three centuries of Metropolis-Colony relationship), Brazilians never had a feeling of rivalry towards the Portuguese (as we have, for example, with Argentina, Uruguay and, lately, France).

Several Brazilian players have not only moved to Portugal, but also adopted Portuguese nationality; currently, three Brazilian born players, Deco, Liedson and Pepe, are principals in the Portugal team (which led Brazilian coach Dunga to say that Portugal is a kind of Brazil B – to which Portuguese coach Carlos Queiroz responded that Brazil would be a Portugal C or D, given that most Brazilian players have Portuguese ancestry).

In the last World Cup, Portugal was coached by Luis Felipe Scollari, who had been champion with Brazil in 2002. After Brazil was eliminated by France, all Brazilians sided with Portugal (which would also be eliminated by France).

In the last match, in November 2008 in Brazil, we won easily by 6 x 2.

In 2010, Portugal will have the additional advantage of having more support in the stadium (500,000 Portuguese live in South Africa).

Today, FIFA conducted the final draw to determine the groups in the first stage of the World Cup 2010.

Group A: South Africa, Mexico, Uruguay, France
Group B: Argentina, Nigeria, Korea Republic, Greece
Group C: England, USA, Algeria, Slovenia
Group D: Germany, Australia, Serbia, Ghana,
Group E: Netherlands, Denmark, Japan, Cameroon
Group F: Italy, Paraguay, New Zealand, Slovakia
Group G: Brazil, North Korea, Côte d’Ivoire, Portugal
Group H: Spain, Switzerland, Honduras, Chile

Brazil is seed of group G. The Brazilian Confederation is happy: if Brazil reaches the final match, four of the seven matches will be played in Johannesburg; so, the team will have to displace less often across host cities, and will have more time for training.

Brazil will play the first match against North Korea on June 15th 2010 in Johannesburg, then Cote d’Ivoire on June 20th again in Johannesburg, and Portugal on June 25th in Durban.

If Brazil finishes first of group G, then will play against the second of group H again in Johannesburg on June 28th; if Brazil finishes second, will play against the first of group H in Cape Town on June 29th.

Brazil has never played against North Korea and Cote d’Ivoire (considering only adult male teams). Brazil played several times against Portugal, including one match in the World Cup 1966, which Portugal won by 3×1.

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.