Bolivia 0-0 Uruguay
Hardly the rockingest of all games at Estadio Municipal de El Alto.
Uruguay grew increasingly exhausted and worn off by the altitude as
the game progressed, but unsurprisingly Bolivia couldn't help
themselves and dropped important home points. The game had its share
of goalscoring chances, mostly by the home side, but was by and large
a forgettable affair.
On 26/03/2025 01:57, Lléo wrote:
Argentina 4-1 Brasil
And the first casualty of this blowout is Dorival Junior, who has just
been fired from his post as Brazilian manager by CBF.
Our local press spent the week bringing up Carlo Ancelotti's name but,
asked about it, he (for the umpteenth time) made it clear that he's
still contracted to Real Madrid and he would honour his contract. He
also denied any recent contact from CBF.
frontrunner for the job is Jorge Jesus, who also enjoys near-mythical
status with the same press corps for his amazing season with Flamengo in 2019. What remains to be seen is (1) whether he's actually aware of
CBF's supposed interest or (2) even interested on the job himself.
Dorival managed the Brazilian national team for 16 games, with 7 wins, 7 draws and 2 losses. Under him the team played wobbly football, sometimes
just barely getting by, and at some moments the job just seemed too much
for him. For example, the run-in to the penalty shootout vs Uruguay in
Copa America, where he was "locked out" of the players' circle who
seemed to flat out ignore him - while the Uruguayos, in contrast, were focused on Bielsa. I guess the only mitigating circumstances one could
point out in his defense are that he seemed to have to deal with more injuries than usual, and that he never could count on Neymar - who, predictably, bailed out of the national team for these last couple of
rounds, when he could finally have returned, due to injury.
Not that these would be remotely enough to tip the scales in Dorival's
favor, though. Plus, this humiliation at El Monumental was too much, in
any event.
So, if the thing with Jorge Jesus is indeed serious and not another
fantasy from the writing heads (as the Carlo Ancelotti thing was/is for
years post-Tite), Brasil will have its fourth foreign manager, the first
one on a definitive basis. In history, Brasil had three foreigners in
command - Ramon Platero (Uruguayan), for the four games of the South
American Championship of 1925; Joreca (Portuguese), for a couple of friendlies against Uruguay in 1944; and Filpo Nuñez (Argentinian), who
was actually manager of Palmeiras in 1965 as that team was picked to represent Brasil in another friendly against Uruguay, this time for the opening of Mineirão Stadium.
The local candidates, if there's still any, don't seem to be up for the
job. In this WCQ cycle Brasil did try the last two Brazilian
Libertadores winning managers. Almost half of the current Brazilian
Serie A managers are Argentinian or Portuguese, and from the 11 that
aren't (plus the ones without a team right now) no one really stands out
as an obvious name. Flamengo's Filipe Luis has been mentioned, since he
made them play good football again after they fired Tite last season,
but while that's a good sign, one has to remember that he manages a
squad that's considerably deeper and stronger than most of his
opponents' - a condition that won't be true in the case of the Brazilian national team. Plus, as Diniz and Dorival have just shown, success in
our local environment is no longer a good predictor of success in the international stage.
Well, there's enough time until the next match and this is a long enough
post already. We'll see what happens.
Best regards,
Lléo
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