Ronaldinho practises his free kicks in training (Mowa Press)
Brazil will play Argentina in Cordoba (Argentina) on Wednesday evening. The match is the first leg of a competition called the Superclássico das Américas, which I must admit I’ve never heard of before. I’m guessing it must just be a one off. The match kicks off at 21.50 (Brasília time) while the return leg will be played in Belém, Brazil on 28 September.
Both teams have called up only players who are currently playing their club football in their countries’ local championships. Mano Menezes included a few surprize names in his squad last week and also turned a few heads with his starting line up in training on Tuesday: Danilo started in the centre of midfield alongside Renato Abreu and Ralf. Originally Danilo was called up to the squad as a right back. Grêmio’s Mario Fernandes is now likely to start at right back instead.
Neymar, Ronaldinho and Leandro Damião are expected to start in attack after linking up well against Ghana. Leandro Damião scored a hat trick against Palmeiras on Sunday and has now scored 40 goals so far this season in all competitions. He also recently scored his first goal for Brazil against Ghana.
Goal machine Leandro Damião starts again (Mowa Press)
Neymar sees the funny side of things (Mowa Press)
Brazil’s expected starting line-up is as follows and includes six debuts if I’m not mistaken:
Jefferson, Mário Fernandes, Réver, Dedé e Kléber; Ralf, Danilo, Renato Abreu e Ronaldinho Gaúcho; Leandro Damião e Neymar.
Personally, I’m a little dissapointed to see three defensive midfielders in the line-up. Two would be enough, surely. Anybody else have any thoughts on that?
u20 World Cup her Oscar (right) will have to make do with a place on the bench (Mowa Press)
Vasco defender Dedé will get his first start in the seleção (Mowa Press)
Ralf is expected to start in the centre of midfield (Mowa Press)
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