Brazil 2-0 Mexico

Bracelona’s newest super star, Neymar, was definitely the man of the match for the second time in a row as he provided a goal an assist in Brazil’s 2-0 rout of struggling Mexico. If Italy beat Japan later today, they will be eliminated from the Confederations Cup. From early on in the match Neymar was very influential to the Brazilian offense. He provided a cross to Paulinho who teed up the shot, but was fortunately, blocked by a Mexican defender. Oscar was on the end of the deflection and put it past Corona, but the assistant referee flagged him for being offside, which was correctly called in the end.

Dani Alves had a much better game tonight than he did against Japan. His crosses into the box were a lot better as was his tracking back to help defend against the Mexican wingers, who were not really a threat, to be completely honest. And Brazil pushed forward into their attacking third of pitch every chance that they got. Giovanni Dos Santos had a solid first half for the Mexican side but not so well in the second half, he was almost invisible for much of the later stages of the game. One thing that really surprised me during much of the game is that Brazil was the back four for the host nation was shambolic a lot of times during the match, but it was mostly down the flanks where they had trouble, with Hiram Mier causing a lot of the problems.

It baffles me, as well as a lot of people, how Hulk continuously gets into the starting line-up is beyond me. He has not had a good game of football for a long time now. Lucas Moura would be an outstanding replacement. Neymar nearly doubled Brazil’s lead after some shaky moments at the back. Mexico were starting to get a foot back into this game closer to halftime as a few very good goal scoring chances scared the host nation, but nothing really came from it in the end.

Thiago Silva nearly had a goal of his own not long after the restart when again, Neymar’s free kick eventually found Silva, but it was ruled offside. Tottenham target and current Corinthian midfielder, Paulinho, nearly got that ever important second goal with about six minutes to go, but he blasted his shot just over the bar from very close range. Brazil, would eventually get their second goal through substitute Jo. Neymar did very well to beat his man down the left flank and beat a couple of defenders before squaring it up for Jo. Jo has now scored two goals in his last two matches after coming off of the bench both times.

Brazil – Confederation Cup Preview

Luiz Felipe Scolari is currently in his second term managing the A Seleção, as they are so called in their home country. Despite having all the highly rated talent in their squad, the friendlies have not gone how they would have hoped, except for thrashing a talented France squad 3-0 this past weekend.

A few weekends ago Brazil drew with the English national team with a score of two all at the new Maracana. The national team needed that victory over France because people who followed the team closely was beginning to get worried after results against top opponents did not go as expected. They got their first victory of 2013 when they defeated underdogs Bolivia, four goals to nil, after drawing with Russia and Italy, and losing to England, 2-1, in the United Kingdom.

Brazil are the two time defending Confederations Cup champions and are looking for their third in a row. The squad is loaded, just as you would assume a Brazil squad would be. From Neymar, to Hulk, to Oscar, to Fred, the list goes on and on and on with the amount of depth that they have. But if they are lacking at a certain position, it would be the striker role.

Yes, Fred has performed consistently for the national side, but if he gets injured that is about it for their main strikers, outside of Jô, who really has not shown his true form yet for the Brazilian national team like he should be doing. It is going to be interesting to see where he plays all of his midfielders with the sheer volume of attacking midfielders, specifically, that they have.

The likes of Oscar, Neymar, Hulk, Fernando, Luiz Gustavo, Hernanes, Jadson, can all play everywhere on the pitch. Scolari will have to solidify his starting eleven before the Confederations Cup begins if they hope to beat the defending World Cup and European Champions. However, one thing that Brazil does have as an advantage is that they are the two time defending Confederation Cup Champions.

The Brazilian national squad do have a fairly challenging group on their hands and will definitely have to play well against the likes of Mexico and Japan. Fortunately, Mexico has been slipping a little bit in their World Cup Qualification having only won one match and drawing their last four with a game on hand to the United States in the hexagonal qualifying group. Japan is a nation that is certainly on the rise with a lot of their young starlets going over to the German Bundesliga to further develop and hone their skills to prune them for the national team.Italy will be the toughest squad they face in their having drawn once already with them leading up to this tournament at the Stamford Bridge in London.

Spain are bound to be the likely Champions of this tournament especially after winning the last two major tournaments, despite not having a good running in the last couple of tournaments. But, being on home soil, the nation of Brazil will look to upset the Spanish on their home soil to win their third straight Confederation Cup.