Ramires back to Brazil’s NT
As Brazil’s U23 seems to have a clear path for their first Olympics gold medal after their closest rivals, Spain, fell to Honduras 1-0 in a game full of controversy, national team coach Mano Menezes is already thinking ahead of London. Today, CBF announced the 24 players chosen to defend the Amarelinha against Sweden in Rasunda Stadium, Stockholm. Mano decided to maintain the current Brazil selection that is playing in London, calling more 6 players.
In the list, as well as including the youngsters and overage players, Mano decided to call midfielder Paulinho, who was one of Corinthians’ main pieces in their Copa Libertadores title this year. Another player that will be available is Chelsea’s Ramires, whose absence in recent call-ups even though he was playing superbly for the Blues caused some stir among football pundits.
Also joining is Vasco defender Dedé, Barcelona’s right back Daniel Alves coming back from injury and Valencia striker Jonas. Chelsea defender David Luiz, who wasn’t call to join overage players in Brazil’s U23 due to “technical reasons”, also gets another chance under Mano Menezes. One player, Real Madrid’s left back Marcelo, wasn’t called due to suspension after getting involved in a brawl with Ezequiel Lavezzi in a friendly against Argentina back in June.
Below, the full list:
Goalkeepers:
Neto (Fiorentina)*
Renan Ribeiro (Atlético Mineiro)
Gabriel (Milan)
Center backs:
Thiago Silva (PSG)*
Bruno Uvini (São Paulo)
Dedé (Vasco)
Juan (Inter Milan)
David Luiz (Chelsea)*
Full backs:
Daniel Alves (Barcelona)*
Rafael (Manchester United)
Alex Sandro (Porto)*
Danilo (Porto)
Midfielders:
Paulinho (Corinthians)
Ramires (Chelsea)
Rômulo (Spartak Moscow)*
Sandro (Tottenham)*
Attacking midfielders:
Hulk (Porto)*
Lucas (São Paulo)
Paulo Henrique Ganso (Santos)
Neymar (Santos)*
Oscar (Chelsea)*
Strikers:
Alexandre Pato (Milan)*
Jonas (Valencia)
Leandro Damião (Internacional)
* = most likely to start
It’s good to see Mano with a bit of sense, maintaining what should also become Brazil’s base squad in the next World Cup as well. And their performances have been pretty good, even though you have to take into consideration the lesser competition they’ve getting while playing against Egypt and Belarus U23 squads even though they were pushing hard with their “park the bus” tactics. Let’s see how this pretty young core will fare against the likes of Zlatan Ibrahimovic and his companions.
Brazfoot 
I dont really understand why Renan Ribeiro (Atlético Mineiro) is selected even as secound or third keeper , Galo`s best keeper is Victor by far , then such keepers like Jefferson , Fernando Prass and Fabricio are much more experieced and are better then Neto and Gabriel either
Will Rami and Luiz call up affect the Community Shield team selection?
If RDM is wise, he’ll give both of them a rest. So I expect both of them to be rested
Sounds fair enough. Since the friendly is in Europe, when will Rami and Luiz have to report to the Brazil National Squad?
Also, when could they be released?
Probably a few days before the game. They’d be the first to join the squad; usually players coming from Brazil are the ones that come later. And they’d be released shortly as well, but it depends on RDM to see if he should give them a (deserved) rest or not.
What’s the deal with Mano Menezes. It seems that many don’t think he is good enough and want him sacked even if Brazil wins gold at the Olympics. I find that very odd. I like the way he sets up Brazil and marvel at how fluid the front four are. After the functionality of the Dunga years Brazil are entertaining again, with a touch of fantasy. Playing “like Brazil” would have been unthinkable in the past or contemplated only in jest as beyond the realm of possibility — but having signed Oscar and other technical players I would love it (love it!) if Chelsea could emulate Brazil. We may just have the technicians to do it. It would be an update on the sexy football we used to play in the 90s during the Gullit-Vialli-Zola era.
This flair given by Mano Menezes team is due to some players such as Neymar, Oscar and Hulk shining in a few moments. He likes to play tight, but his teams have an history of suffering many goals. Also, he doesn’t give much “confidence” that he’ll be able to succeed in a higher competition like the World Cup. It’s 2012 and just now Brazil seems to be getting a shape. But I think that he’ll be with the Seleção until 2014. I just don’t think that, if Brazil wins the competition, we’ll have to credit him like we did in 2002 with Felipão.
Tough crowd. At least he got the “selection” part right. And he appears to give considerable freedom to the front quartet. Wish we’d replicate that at Chelsea. Pre-season was not encouraging in that regard (even Hazard seemed rigid).