Brazil vs North Korea

December 22nd, 2009

Brazil will play against North Korea on June 15th 2010, in Johannesburg; that will be the first match of Brazil in the World Cup 2010.

This will be the first time that Brazil will face North Korea. North Korea is a very closed communist country (the North Korean Government announced that the World Cup will be censored, and only images favorable to the country will be aired – which means that it is likely that the Cup will not exist for Korean citizens), and very seldom performs in non-official matches.

Coincidentally, Brazil is one of the countries in the world which best knows the football in North Korea. There is a team, currently disputing the Second Division in Sao Paulo, called Clube Atletico Sorocaba; in 2000, Atletico Sorocaba was purchased by Reverend Moon, a controversial religious leader born in Korea. Thanks to these connections, Atletico Sorocaba played a friendly match against the North Korea national team in November of 2009, which finished 0 x 0.

North Korea played in only one Cup, in England 1966; in that Cup, Korea lost to Soviet Union, tied with Chile and got past the groups stage by winning Italy; in the quarter-finals, Korea lost to Portugal by 3 x 5, after being leading by 3 x 0.

Coach Dunga said in an interview that North Korea being unknown shall be a reason of concern, not of oblivion; besides the surprising role in England 1966, Korea surprised also by winning Iran and Saudi Arabia in the Qualifying, and by winning recent FIFA World Cups for Young Women.

However, nobody in Brazil thinks of anything but a victory over Korea. Brazil hope (but many Brazilians don’t expect) that Portugal win Ivory Coast in the first round, Brazil win Ivory Coast in the second round, so that Brazil vs Portugal can be just a friendly match.

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Messi and Marta, players of the year

December 21st, 2009

FIFA announced today the Players of the Year 2009, and there were no surprises: best male player is Messi, from Argentina, and best female player is Marta, from Brazil.

marta-messi

In 2009, Messi helped Barcelona to be champion of Spain, Europe and the World. Messi obtained 1,073 points in votes casted by coaches and captains of 147 national teams; Cristiano Ronaldo was second with 352 points, followed by Xavi (196), Kaká (190) and Iniesta (134).

FIFA also polled 50,000 players from around the world to come up with the dream team 2009: Casillas (Spain) in goal; Daniel Alves (Brazil), Nemanja Vidic (Serbia), John Terry (England) and Patrice Evra (France) in defence; Steven Gerrard (England), Xavi (Spain) and Andres Iniesta (Spain) in midfield; and Lionel Messi (Argentina), Cristiano Ronaldo (Portugal) and Fernando Torres (Spain) up front.

Marta was elected player of the year for the 4th consecutive year; no other player, male or female, has ever achieved such a feat. Marta spent the past seasons in Europe and USA; currently, she is playing with Santos, in Brazil (which she helped win the Brazilian League and the first edition of Libertadores da America – the South America Champions League – for women).

The movie below compares Marta to Ronaldinho, two of the most skillful Brazilian players.

Despite being acclaimed as “Pelé in skirts” in Brazil, Marta is yet to win important titles for the national team. Marta was best player of the major events she participated of, but Brazil lost the final matches of the World Cup 2007 (Germany won) and of the Olympic Games 2008 (USA won).

So, just like Brazil would need more than Marta, it also can be thatArgentina will need more than Messi.

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Driving in South Africa – Tips

December 20th, 2009

A few tips about driving in South Africa:

  • South Africans drive in the left-hand side of roads, like the British, Japanese and Australians.
  • Speed limits are: 120 km/h (75 mph) in national highways and freways; 100 km/h (60 mph) in secondary roads; 60 km/h (35 mph) in built-up areas. All road signs and car speedometers show speeds and distances in kilometers.
  • Long distance roads are in good conditions. Notice, however, that South Africa is a large country, and driving between host cities can be very tiring (Cape Town and Polokwane are more than 1,000 miles apart). Plan your routes carefully.
  • Many national roads require payment of tolls; toll value varies from R 2.50 to R 46, payable in cash or credit card. Visit this page of Automobile Association of South Africa for more information about road conditions, tolls, distances, etc (free registration required).
  • In rural areas, there are animals on the road, both domestic (dogs, sheep, horses) and wild (antelopes).
  • Fastening seat belts is mandatory. Using mobile phones while driving is an infraction. Driving under influence of drugs or alcohol is a crime. South Africa’s number of fatalities in the roads is one of the highest in the World: about 10,000 people die each year.
  • Some emergency phone numbers:
    Police 10111
    Fire 10111
    Ambulance 10117
    Netcare 911 082 911
    From  mobile phones, call 112.

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Who will be on the way of Brazil

December 17th, 2009

The first stage of the World Cup is drawn in a way so as to spread the strongest teams evenly across each group. So, the matches which should draw more attention during this stage are probably England vs. USA, Netherlands vs. Denmark, Brazil vs. Portugal and Spain vs. Chile, thanks mostly to historic rivalries.

What can happen after this first stage?

In the 2006 World Cup, six of the eight seeds finished first in the groups stage. The two seeds which failed were Mexico (outdone by Portugal) and France (who couldn’t beat South Korea and were outperformed by Switzerland). So, it’s quite a good assumption that most seed countries finish first in their groups.

Let’s make the assumption that France will finish first in group A (the seed of his group is South Africa, but just because they are the host country – France is clearly superior; in 2006, the host which became seed was Germany, which clearly deserved it), and all other seeds finish first in the other groups.

So, the leaders of the groups stage would be, from 1A to 1H: France, Argentina, England, Germany, Netherlands, Italy, Brazil and Spain.

matches-2010-world-cup

If this happens, and given the match schedule above, in the round of 16 Brazil would play against the 2nd of group H, probably Switzerland or Chile.

If all the seeds get past this round of 16, we would have the following matches in the quarter-finals: France x England, Netherlands x Brazil, Argentina x Germany, Italy x Spain.

If Brazil wins Netherlands, then the next match would be against France or England in the semi-final, and the final match would be Brazil against Argentina, Germany, Italy or Spain.

However, Brazil is said to be in the Group of Death, which means that there are plausible chances that we finish 2nd in the group. If that happens, the situation changes completely.

Brazil and Spain, the two main favorites to win the World Cup, would face each other very early in the tournament, right after the group stage (one of these teams would go home three rounds before the final). If Brazil wins, then next would probably be Italy in the quarter-finals, Argentina or Germany in the semi-finals and the final would be against France, England, Netherlands or Portugal.

The quarter-finals, semi-finals and final matches comprise a total of 13 matches, which will sure be very thrilling.

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Germany not a favorite to win World Cup 2010

December 16th, 2009

Michael Ballack declared in an interview to German magazine Kicker that Germany is not one of the favorites too win the World Cup 2010.

michael-ballackBallack, currently playing with Chelsea, is captain of the German national team, and played in the 2002 and 2006 Cups.

He said in the interview that the German team “do not have the consistency or strength in depth in the squad at the moment”, and “in friendly matches we have been too weak to be able to say that we have the class and routine to beat everybody else”; in the last three matches, Germany lost to Russia (0 x 1), tied with Finland (1 x 1) and with Ivory Coast (2 x 2).

In the first stage of the World Cup, Germany will face Australia, Serbia and Ghana; about them, Ballack said: “we have a tough group and all three opponents are uncomfortable and physically very strong”.

Does he really mean it?

Today, Germany is the 6th in the FIFA ranking. Betters put Germany as the 5th favorite to win the Cup, with odds ranging fro 10/1 to 12/1.

And more important, Germany, along with Brazil, Italy and Argentina, are the countries with most tradition in World Cups. In all the World Cup finals since the first event in 1930, at least one of these countries has been present (and in six Cups, two of them were present).

No matter how weak these countries may look before the Cup begins, they will always rank among the favorites.

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Brazil vs Portugal

December 15th, 2009

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.

price-ticket-1966In 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).

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Salary of Dunga and other coaches of the World Cup 2010

December 13th, 2009

Portuguese site Futebol Finance published a list with the salaries of coaches of National teams in the World Cup 2010.

Best paid coach is Fabio Capello’s, the Italian who manages the English team, with an annual salary of € 8,800,000; distant second is Marcelo Lipi, with € 3,000,000. Salaries listed do not include other perks such as bonus for victories, championships, etc, which can explain  some of the differences.

Below, the list of all 32 coaches.

salary-coaches

Interesting to notice that Brazilian coach Dunga is listed with a salary of € 800,000 per year, or about € 66,666 per month, or about US$ 100,000, or about R$ 170,000 per month (all values approximated using current exchange rates).

Dunga’s official salary was not disclosed, because CBF, the Brazilian Confederation, who pays Dunga’s salary, doesn’t have to disclose it. But it is very unlikely that Dunga would accept to coach the Brazilian team for such a salary.

Not that is a low salary, per Brazilian standards. Minimum wage in Brazil is currently R$ 550 per month, or about  € 220 per month (someone with a minimum wage, which comprehends a lot of people in Brazil, would take 25 years to get what Dunga gets in one month). But football in Brazil pays top salaries to some people.

In June of 2009, the best paid coach in Brazil was Carlos Alberto Parreira, with a wage of R$ 500,000, or about € 200,000 per month; Parreira was then coach of Fluminense, and today he is back to manage the South Africa team, probably with a salary higher than the € 100,000 monthly informed in the above list (during the first sting of Parreira as South Africa’s coach, in 2006, the announcement that his salary would be US$ 253,000 per month caused a revolt in South Africa).

Vanderlei Luxemburgo, winner of five National Leagues (most ever), ex-coach of Brazil team, is one of the highest salaries in the country: around R$ 570,000, or € 220,000 per month. Muricy Ramalho was national champion in 2006, 2007 and 2008; when he moved from Sao Paulo FC to Palmeiras, there were rumors that his salary was around R$ 460,000, or € 190,000 per month. Luis Felipe Scolari, the coach of Brazil in World Cup 2002, was recently quoted as the coach with highest salary in the world, with € 16,600,000 per year.

In a recent interview, Dunga said that he is aware of the responsibility of managing the Brazilian team. It is very likely that he demanded a salary compatible with such responsibility.

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Will Ronaldinho play in the World Cup 2010 ?

December 10th, 2009

Update, December 23rd 2009:  a report published by Italian magazine Gazzetta dello Sport informs that Dunga declared that the doors of the Brazilian team are still open for Ronaldinho.

A survey conducted by magazine World Soccer among their readers elected Ronaldinho the player of the decade. Argentinian Lionel Messi was elected player of the year 2009, followed by Iniesta, Xavi and Cristiano Ronaldo; no Brazilian player was ranked among the top 10 of 2009.

ronaldinho-player-of-the-decadeWorld Soccer tallied up the votes cast by readers between 2000 and 2009, and the result appointed Ronaldinho as “the outstanding performer of the decade”, followed by Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo, Thierry Henry and Kaká. Ronaldinho gained many votes for his performances in 2004 and 2005, when he was Player of the Year.

Ronaldinho is currently playing with Milan, in Italy. Other Brazilians in the list of the players of the decade, besides Ronaldinho and Kaká, are Ronaldo (still playing with Corinthians, in Brazil), Rivaldo (still playing, at age 37, with a team called  Bunyodkor),  and Adriano (who recently was the striker of the Brazilian League 2009).

Ironically, it is possible that, except for Kaká, none of these players go to South Africa 2010.

Rivaldo, because he is aged.

The other three, who defended Brazil in Germany 2006, will probably be out because Dunga consider them to lack a spirit of commitment, as he declared in a recent interview.

In the first matches after becoming coach, Dunga didn’t roster Ronaldinho. A few matches later, Ronaldinho was in the team, but started matches in the bench.

When Dunga considered he had tamed Ronaldinho, the player was given a full chance: Ronaldinho was captain of the team in the Olympics 2008, which Brazil finished 3rd, after losing to Argentina in the semi-final; the other over-aged player in the Olympics was Diego, who, despite running for player of the year this year, will also probably be out of the team in 2010.

In the first match after the Olympics, Ronaldinho wasn’t rostered. In early 2009, he was back. When the team for the Confederations Cup was announced, Ronaldinho was out again; and remained out for the following matches in the Qualifying, and remained out until today.

Who took the place of Ronaldinho? Kaká is doing much of Ronaldinho’s role. Besides, Dunga seems to have defined Elano and Felipe Melo as principals, giving more freedom to Kaká; Julio Batista and Ramires start in bench and occasionally come in during the games.

Clearly, none of them has the skills of Ronaldinho; however, Dunga seems to prefer commitment rather than skill.

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Travel packages for World Cup 2010

December 9th, 2009

Not all Travel Operators are authorized to sell packages to South Africa which include tickets to matches. Only operators which have partnered with FIFA can guarantee the availability of tickets.

From the FIFA website:

1. http://www.fifa.com/ is the only online source for legitimate tickets sold outside of a package. Paper ticket applications are also available in South Africa at FNB branches nationwide. (read more about how to buy tickets online).
2. Participating Tour Operators are the only entities authorized by FIFA to sell ticket inclusive travel packages for the 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa.

Actually, very few travel operators can offer packages.

In the United States, only three operators are authorized sellers: Great Atlantic Travels, Cartan Tours and My Africa Vacation.

In the United Kingdom, there are: Thomas Cook (which serves all European countries), Thomson, Keith Prowse and BAC Sport.

In Brazil, authorized sellers are Agaxtur, Ambiental, Stella Barros, Pallas, Marsans and TAM Viagens.

For a complete and updated list of authorized operators, visit this page.

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Tickets – black market

December 8th, 2009

FIFA announced that, as scheduled, the phase three of the ticket sales process started on December 5th, and will continue until January 22nd 2010 (see how FIFA is selling tickets for the World Cup 2010). A little more than a million tickets will be available during this phase, and FIFA informed that 220,000 applications were received within 48 hours.

This is no surprise: after the draw of groups on December 4th, the matches of the first stage are already defined (Brazil, for example, learned that we will play against North Korea, Cote d’Ivoire and Portugal); now, fans from all over the world know when and where their teams will play, and assess the chances of moving forward. It is natural that the demand for matches increase.

What is surprising is the information (same reference) that “the first phase of purchasing opened in February. Since then, Fifa says 674,403 tickets have been sold – 90% of those made available to date”.

During phase one of sales (which finished March 31 2009), very few countries had secured qualification to the finals. During the phase two (which finished November 20th), the groups had not been drawn yet.

Who would buy tickets not knowing which teams were going to play? The answer may be: black market sellers.

The image below was captured today, December 8th, from a site which sells tickets online:

black-market-ticket

The site is selling tickets for the match Brazil x North Korea (which, until December 3rd, was referred to as Match n. 14), for the prices of US$ 1,000, US$ 1,200 and US$ 1,500, approximately. Official ticket prices were US$ 80, US$ 120 and US$ 160.

England versus USA is going cheaper. English and Americans are the nationalities which purchased most tickets so far (read: there are more ticket brokers in USA and UK than anywhere else).

ticket-england-usa

At ebay, someone is auctioning a pair of Category 1 tickets (the most expensive) for US$ 1,800:

ebay-ticket-usa-england

So, there is already a secondary market, where tickets are costing ten times more than official prizes. And we are still six months away from the Cup.

FIFA is trying to create a fair system to sell tickets. For example, there is a draw system, there are limits for the number of tickets which a person may purchase, there is an obligation for the purchaser to collect the ticket, etc. However, FIFA can’t check at the stadium gates whether or not the ticket holder is the actual purchaser.

It seems very difficult to stop profit seeking brokers from buying tickets and reselling them in the black market. Let’s see what will happen in the World Cup 2014.

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