The Evolution Continues

Sports Coaching is always about evolution, be it any sport. You might be the best coach in one era, but, if you are not upgrading, your ways would be figured out and would be countered.

New people keep coming and always bringing something new to the game. Everything has to be followed and studied and whatever is there to be taken for the enhancement of your system should be taken.

Tite, who is now the head of the coaching department at Selecao, is someone who is a big believer of this theory. He travels across continents to see how the managers and the coaches work in different areas.

The 55-year old had a tour of Europe before his glorious spell with the Corinthians in the Brazilian League last year and his formations in that tournament had a touch of Europe in it.

A hard-core Brazilian fan might not even like it for Brazilian Football has always been related to class and artistry. European style might seem Pragmatic, but, so what? You just have to do with productivity, haven’t you?

First week into his Brazil chair and Tite has begun his work already. He will be one of the faces in the dignitaries’ box this evening when Chile and Colombia go loggerheads in Round of 4.

The Brazilians are playing one of their next two World Cup qualification matches against Colombia and the coach is evidently keen to observe the strengths and weaknesses of what would be a not-so-mean opposition.

Given the lose situation of Brazil in the scheme of things in CONMEBOL, it is now about them fetching maximum output off every single match they are into. Finishing inside or at no. 4 in South America is essential for straight qualification.

Mexico wins group C

Mexico earns an important draw against Venezuela to win Group C thus keeping their hopes of avoiding Argentina alive. Indeed, Mexico will be keen to avoid the team that eliminated them at the 2006 and 2010 World Cups.

The match was harder than thought and Mexico have had to dig deep in order to earn the draw. Given that they were already qualified for the next round, Mexico fielded a much-changed team for the last game of the group. Continue reading “Mexico wins group C”

Vermaelen eyes Premier League return

Former Arsenal defender Thomas Vermaelen might make a return to the Premier League with both Liverpool and West Ham interested in signing the Belgium international. The player has been disillusioned with a lack of first-team football at Barcelona and might consider a move away from the Spanish side.

Thomas Vermaelen has joined Barcelona in 2014 after leaving the Gunners but so far has only managed to make 14 appearances for the Spanish side. If he goes, he will be the second defender that will be leaving Barcelona after Marc Bartra. The latter has just left Barcelona to join German side Borussia Dortmund. Continue reading “Vermaelen eyes Premier League return”

Brazil Have Busy Months Ahead

The Brazil soccer team is currently focusing on the Olympics.

There are certain changes that are being made in the squad accordingly. For instance, William and Phillippe Coutinho would be in the squad that would leave for Copa America. Dunga is being hailed as a competitive team for this tournament. Neymar is being considered either for Rio Olympics or for Copa America as per Barcelona’s request.

Copa America is coming up with US which will be played out next month. There has been a tough test that USA team faces in the run-up against teams like Costa Rica and Columbia for Copa America 2016. Dunga as Brazil’s coach has a lot of responsibilities on his shoulders. He has accepted Barcelona’s request that Neymar would be considered as a striker for either one of the competitions and that he be kept aside for the upcoming Rio Olympics that would be held in August. Dunga has named his squad for Rio and it includes seven players who are all under the age of 23 and would be eligible for Rio games. Besides Neymar, there could be Willian, who is a Chelsea midfielder as well as Philippe Coutinho, who has been selected from the Liverpool team. Both players have come in from England. Continue reading “Brazil Have Busy Months Ahead”

Dunga will stay as Brazil coach despite poor form

After a meeting with the Brazilian football confederation, it has been decided that Dunga will remain in charge of the Brazilian sides for both the Copa America and the Olympics.

A poor run of form has suggested that Dunga might be replaced at the head of the Olympics team so that he can devote himself entirely to the senior team.

Brazil’s technical director GilmarRinaldo has stated that the meeting was just a routine one and that there has been nothing new that has been discussed. He added that Dunga will go to the end of his contract with the Brazil national team. Continue reading “Dunga will stay as Brazil coach despite poor form”

Kompany: Hart is best goalkeeper for England

Vincent Kompany has come to the rescue of his Manchester City teammate by saying that he is the best goalkeeper for England and that they should feel lucky to have him in the team. Indeed, Hart has come under pressure recently after the goal he conceded for England and Kompany was keen to defend his teammate.

In one instance, Hart failed to clear a long-range free-kick from Ibrahimovic in the game against Sweden, and many England supporters have been criticizing the Manchester City goalkeeper. Fortunately, this was the only occasion that Wales had in the game as England quickly took control of the game and placed the Welsh team under pressure. Continue reading “Kompany: Hart is best goalkeeper for England”

Arsenal’s Olivier Giroud believe they should have signed an attacker

Arsene Wenger right now is shaving a love-hate relationship with the supporters of Arsenal as the French manager managed to sign Petr Cech. Even at his 33 years of age, Petr Cech is one of the highest rated goal-keepers in the world and the defensive department of the Premier League club has benefited from signing this top notch player.

Petr Cech made a disastrous mistake during his opening match as a player of Arsenal when facing off with West Ham United on August 9 but the Czech shot-stopper has been trying to bounce back and indeed has done it. Cech made an unbelievable performance against Liverpool which helped Arsenal keep a clean sheet and collect 1 point.

The veteran player is expected to continue improving and helping out Arsenal. Even with the awful debut performance that Petr Cech made, it hard to deny the fact that he still continues being one of the best players in his position in the world of football and that Arsene Wenger made a superb signing. Continue reading “Arsenal’s Olivier Giroud believe they should have signed an attacker”

Brazil have always been required to play beautiful and attractive football

Brazil have always been required to play beautiful and attractive football, but national team boss Dunga had his hands tied for the recent knockout match against Venezuela in the Copa America.

Without the team’s star striker Neymar, the coach decided to opt for a pragmatic approach to the game. Brazil managed to please a lot of fans after reaching the quarter-finals by beating the opposition 2-1 with goals from Thiago Silva and Roberto Firmino. Brazil looked to be comfortably reaching the next stage of the competition before Fedor’s late goal raised to some hopes for Venezuela but they disappear quickly.

Dunga has claimed that winning is more important than playing attractive football. Neymar will miss the rest of the tournament – even if Brazil reached the final – after being given a four match suspension for his inability to control himself in the 1-0 defeat against Colombia. Brazil qualified for the knockout stages despite this defeat. After having overcome Venezuela in the first knockout round, they will take on Paraguay in the quarter-finals. Brazil are amongst the favourites to win the tournament, but the lack of Neymar has brought back memories of the painful exit in the World Cup 2014. Brazil lost back-to-back matches without their talisman striker in this competition. Continue reading “Brazil have always been required to play beautiful and attractive football”

Neymar alone is carrying the weight of the current Brazilian team

The experts and analysts are saying that Neymar alone is carrying the weight of the current Brazilian team and his exclusion would weaken the team to a significant extent, but, Ze Roberto thinks on different lines.

According to the 40-year old Footballer, who is not active in the international circuit now, Neymar is very popular all over the world and thus, he would always be in the sight of everyone. People would follow him and talk about him all the time and it’s also a fact that he has been performing wonderfully well for Brazil, but, apart from him, the Selecao possess some other good players as well and there is no reason why the team can’t win at a big stage even in his absence.

Ze Roberto reckons Brazil has found a good balance following the World Cup and it has got to do with the way Dunga has worked. There must have been a temptation to make the wholesale changes after that thrashing that the team received at the hands of Germany in WC, but, the incoming manager remains very sensible. He did not fire everyone. He knew he needed a bit of experience as well in his ranks to be able to build a new team. Continue reading “Neymar alone is carrying the weight of the current Brazilian team”