Top Stories

TFC’s Julio Cesar makes Brazil’s World Cup squad

Goalkeeper Julio Cesar of Brazil

Photo by ISIPhotos.com

By DAN KARELL

Major League Soccer will officially be represented in Brazil’s squad at the World Cup.

On Wednesday morning, Brazilian National Team head coach Luiz Felipe Scolari announced his 23-man roster for this summer’s tournament, with Toronto FC goalkeeper Julio Cesar making the squad as expected.

Brazil’s stacked squad includes four players at Chelsea (Ramires, Oscar, Willian, and David Luis), Neymar and Dani Alves from Barcelona, and Thiago Silva and Maxwell from Paris Saint-Germain. Scolari made a couple of interesting decisions as well, taking Manchester City’s Fernandinho over Liverpool’s Lucas and Shakhtar Donetsk’s Bernard over PSG’s Lucas Moura.

The selection marks the end of an era for players such as Robinho, Kaka, and Ronaldinho, who were left off the squad and likely won’t have a chance to play for Brazil in the next World Cup.

Here’s a closer look at Brazil’s World Cup squad:

GOALKEEPERS: Julio Cesar (Toronto FC), Jefferson (Botafogo), Victor (Atlético Mineiro)

DEFENDERS: Daniel Alves (Barcelona), Maicon (Roma), Marcelo (Real Madrid), Maxwell (PSG), Thiago Silva (PSG), David Luiz (Chelsea), Dante (Bayern Munich), Henrique (Napoli)

MIDFIELDERS: Luiz Gustavo (Wolfsburg), Hernanes (Inter Milan), Paulinho (Tottenham), Ramires (Chelsea), Oscar (Chelsea), Fernandinho (Manchester City), Willian (Chelsea)

FORWARDS: Hulk (Zenit), Neymar (Barcelona), Fred (Fluminense), Jô (Atlético Mineiro), Bernard (Shakhtar Donetsk)

———

What do you think of this squad? Do you see Brazil steamrolling all of their opponents? Excited to see Cesar represent MLS at the World Cup?

Share your thoughts below.

Comments

  1. That defense is incredible.
    Everywhere else kind of underwhelms me for a Brasil team. Tons of potential but I don’t know if they’ll be ready to score in bunches against good teams next month.

    Reply
  2. How cool is it going to be when they go through the line-up for Brazil and “Toronto FC” flashes across the screen. I wonder if Ives can have someone put together some numbers on how many MLS players have participated in the World Cup since the league started. I’d like to see how many countries have been represented and would like to know if the number has increased.

    Reply
  3. Just some players left out of that Brazil squad:

    Coutinho (Liverpool), Lucas Leiva (Liverpool), Diego Alves (Valencia), Filipe Luis (Athletico Madrid), Lucas Moura (PSG), Rafael (United), Ronaldinho (Atletico Mineiro), Kaka (AC Milan), Robinho (AC Milan), Pato (Sao Paulo), Rafinha (Bayern), Miranda (Atletico Madrid), Maicon (Roma)

    How’s this for a lineup… that does NOT make the 23:

    —————- Alves ———–
    Rafael —- Luis – Miranda – Rafinha
    Moura – Leiva — Ronaldinho– Coutinho
    ——— Kaka —— Robinho ————

    Talk about embarrassment of riches….

    Reply
    • Plus Sandro has been forgotten under the moronic Tim Sherwood, but it wasn’t that long ago that he could claim to be the second best defensive mid in the Premiership…

      Reply
  4. I don’t know – I am oddly underwhelmed by this squad. There’s a lot of good to very good players. But there’s no Ronaldo, Ronaldinho, Kaka, etc. Maybe it’s just because I’ve been pretty disappointed in what I’ve seen this year from their supposed best player in Neymar. Not a single one of these guys, except for maybe Hulk, is the best player on his club team.

    Reply
    • To be fair to Neymar, I don’t know if Ronaldo, Ronaldinho, or Kaka would have been the best player on a team with Messi (in his prime) on the team.

      Reply
  5. Felipao has his favorites. Definitely think he could’ve picked some form players over others(Filipe Luis and Miranda over Henrique and Maicon/Maxwell), but I do agree with Fernandinho over Lucas. Funny part was watching this live on Globo… i was trying to do business, walking around and talking as i normally do, and my wife started yelling at me to get away because she wanted to hear the convocados, even though she knows little about the players… even the Brasilian women are going crazy this time of year 😉

    Reply
  6. Where’s Leandro Damiao? what happened to him? injured? besides Neymar no too many options compared to other WCs

    Reply
    • I think highly of Damiao, but I think based on form and recent Brazil appearances Fred and Jo get the nod at forwards.

      Reply
  7. No I don’t think Brasil will steam roll. They could very well get knocked out early like the round of 16.

    Reply
  8. Know what is scary?

    Brazil’s defense is more impressive than anything else on that squad. They will be VERY tough to beat, impossible even.

    If Fred, Jo or Hulk can step up in that 9 role, look out….

    Reply
  9. Feel like the coach made a couple of questionable picks. Filipe Luis has been clearly better than Maxwell this year. Miranda should be there over Henrique. Diego Alves should be there based on form, in fact he should be starting. Another possible one people are questioning is bring Oscar (who hasn’t been in good form) over Coutinho.

    Reply
      • So now we’re not allowed to give opinions about lineups on the internet? Sweet, good to know.

      • Only if your opinions are stupid bull$hit that are completely wrong and embarrassing.

        (For real though, I agree with everything you said except the Oscar vs. Coutinho thing. Oscar has been in the system and played that #10 spot for Brazil through quals, while Coutinho hasn’t. In this case, I don’t think Oscar’s form has been bad enough nor Coutinho’s good enough to make a switch like that.)

      • I should have mentioned this but I actually would have picked Oscar as well, that is just one a lot of people are talking about is all and I think it’s a fair discussion to have.

    • From what I understand, he likes this group of players. I think its more of a style choice rather than a form choice.

      Reply
    • I’d be interested in seeing the overall distribution of World Cup players by league, and how the % of MLS players compares to that of the previous cycle. It could be a telling statistic.

      Reply
    • I’d throw in the caveat that it looks like a soft position for Brazil based on using domestic players for the other slots…..but the MLS move worked like a charm in getting him playing time and ending the discussion of whether he’s a washed up has been fit to do no more than sit a bench running out his contract.

      Defoe has been hurt and I’ll be interested whether he makes England as well.

      Reply

Leave a Comment