Dunga begins working without many players from the World Cup team. Some big names like Ronaldinho, Kaká, Roberto Carlos, Cafú, Adriano and Ronaldo are out. It is very nice that he called some of the players that were really interested in playing for real in Germany as you can notice in the list below.
GOALKEEPERS:
Gomes from PSV Eindhoven (Netherlands)
Fábio from Cruzeiro (Brazil)
DEFENDERS:
Juan from Bayer Leverkusen (Germany)
Lúcio from Bayern Munich (Germany)
Luisão from Benfica (Portugal)
Alex from PSV Eindhoven (Netherlands)
WINGERS:
Cicinho from Real Madrid (Spain)
Maicon from Internazionale Milan (Italy)
Gilberto from Hertha Berlim (Germany)
Marcelo from Fluminense (Brazil)
MIDFIELDERS:
Gilberto Silva from Arsenal (England)
Edmílson from Barcelona (Spain)
Elano from Shakhtar Donetsk (Ukraine)
Julio Baptista from Real Madrid
Jônatas from Flamengo (Brazil)
Morais from Vasco (Brazil)
Dudu Cearense from CSKA (Russia)
Wagner from Cruzeiro (Brazil)
FORWARDS:
Robinho from Real Madrid (Spain)
Fred from Lyon (France)
Vagner Love from CSKA (Russia)
Daniel Carvalho from CSKA (Russia)
Many strange choices can be found here like Vagner Love who scored only 5 goals in the last 21 matches, a lower average than Rogério Ceni’s (the São Paulo goalkeeper). I don’t know if the Russian championship is as strong as the French or the Spanish but as I mentioned before many experiments will be made during the Dunga administration.
Players from São Paulo FC and Internacional (Brazil) were avoided because of the Libertadores da América semi-finals. Among the Brazilian-based players, 3 are from clubs from Rio: Morais (Vasco), Marcelo (Fluminense) and Jônatas from my beloved Flamengo. At last! After Flamengo conquered the Copa do Brasil they got some attention but they are still doing very bad in the National Championship (Brasileirão).
Brazil will face Norway on the next 16th in Oslo, a team that Brazil has never beaten. In the 3 times they played, Norway won twice in 1997 (friendly) and 1998 (France WC) and they tied once in 1988 (friendly). After that Brazil will play against archrival Argentina in September the 2nd at the Arsenal’s new stadium in London.
I hope Dunga’s team display a good performance, especially showing a strong will and teamwork from the players. The wound is still deep from watching that match against France. A special good luck for Jônatas from Flamengo: may his performance with the canary uniform inspire his teammates here in Rio.