By ADAM TROXTELL
Plenty of star names will take part in Brazil’s quest for continental glory, but one particular English Premier League title winner will not feature.
Chelsea’s Oscar was left off of Dunga’s 23-man Copa America squad, confirmed on Tuesday by the Brazilian coach. Dunga said the attacking midfielder has sustained an injury late in the Premier League season and, after communicating with Chelsea staff, he decided not to call Oscar up for the tournament in Chile.
“His period of recovery will be somewhat prolonged, so he will not be in the best condition,” Dunga told reporters. “We think he will be better prepared for the World Cup qualifiers, which begin soon after the Copa America.”
Bayern Munich’s Dante was also not called up, with Atletico Madrid’s Miranda the preferred option. Liverpool attacker Coutinho, Santos and former Real Madrid man Robinho, and Chelsea’s Willian also made Dunga’s squad.
Here are some more news and notes for your Tuesday afternoon:
CREW REPORTEDLY ARRESTED WHILE FILMING IN QATAR
A crew working on a television show about preparations for the 2022 World Cup said they were arrested and had their equipment destroyed by Qatari authorities.
The team was working on a program called “The Selling of Football: Sepp Blatter and the Power of Football” when a reporter, camera man, assistant and driver were arrested and interrogated by authorities. The documentary was reportedly about the conditions of workers in the country building stadiums and infrastructure for the 2022 World Cup.
Florian Bauer, a journalist with German TV station ARD, told UK newspaper The Telegraph that the team was there without a permit after attempts to acquire one failed. He said the crew was not harmed after being arrested in late March, but the equipment — including a laptop, hard drives and information on a phone — was either deleted or destroyed.
Qatar has faced scrutiny over conditions of construction workers in the past. The country’s officials pledged to take care of any issues about a year ago.
LEVERKUSEN’S SON WANTED BY LIVERPOOL, AGENT SAYS
The agent of Bayer Leverkusen midfielder Son Heung-Min said that Liverpool is interested in acquiring his client’s services.
Thies Bliemeister said that he is aware of Liverpool tracking the player this season, according to Bild. The Reds might miss out on a deal this summer, however, since they do not appear likely to finish in a UEFA Champions League spot, while Leverkusen is expected to remain in Europe’s top club competition.
“I know that Liverpool has repeatedly watched him this season, and it is a player they would like to have in the team,” Bliemeister said.
BAYERN MUNICH, UNIVISION ANNOUNCE PARTNERSHIP
German soccer will now feature more prominently on Spanish-language television.
Bayern Munich announced a partnership with Univision Deportes on Tuesday that will see the broadcaster air episodes of FC Bayern Munich Magazine. The show will be broadcast in Spanish.
The magazine show runs 90 minutes and includes highlights from Bayern’s exploits throughout the Bundesliga season. The German champions have been eager to increase their American fanbase in recent months, and they believe this is another step to do so.
“The partnership with Univision is the next step in our goal to bring FC Bayern closer to the American audience,” Vidal said. “Univision Deportes will enable us to reach millions of Hispanics, a key audience for growth of the sport and the club in the U.S. market.”
In addition, Univision Deportes will include a special segment on Bayern in its main Sunday sports show, Republica Deportiva.
What do you think of Dunga’s Brazil squad selections? Who should Liverpool target this summer?
Share your thoughts below.
Do you have to reach a certain level of accomplishment to get one of those one-word Brazilian nicknames, or is it pretty automatic? The practice has always struck me as a little self-congratulatory, if not narcissistic, but that may just be my lack of knowledge talking. What are the nicknames based on? Do you choose it yourself, or does someone give it to you? Here’s a fun way to waste some time: let’s pick one-word nicknames for the players in the USMNT pool.
Your right Brain Guy, it’s completely a lack of knowledge.
http://lmgtfy.com/?q=brazilian+soccer+nicknames
Interesting. So *everybody* in Brazil gets these nicknames? It sounds like they’re not always exactly flattering. Do co-workers use them to refer to each other?
Pete from Queens gets the award for most passive aggressive post ever.
People from Queens aren’t that passive aggressive.
I guess that’s the last time I’ll post without doing my homework.
I think that the names are given to you, and you don’t necessarily name yourself. Often they are short versions of a name (“Kaka” nickname for RiCArdo for example) or based on some physical characteristic (“Pato” is duck, and I think he had a waddle or some kind of ducklike trait and “Hulk” cause he’s you know, hulklike). The others like “Ronaldo” (the fat one), “Oscar”, are just a first or middle name, “Ronaldinho” means little Ronaldo, probably something like “Robbie” for Robert or Jimmy for James.
On the USMNT – we already have one word nicknames right? Deuce, Mikey, Lando
Ha. Interesting question. I have no idea how/when Brazilians decide to choose their one-word moniker (there are a number of articles on this if you do some Googling…. none of them really give a very comprehensive explanation). Or why they sometimes seem to show a preference for famous figures from American history (Washington/Jefferson/Lincoln, etc…. even Pele’s actual first name was “Edison”).
Maybe one day in the extremely distant (200+ year) future, Brazilians will actually start naming themselves after great American soccer players. “Deuce” or “Gooch” or maybe even “Landycakes”. I’ve always thought “He Hate Me” would make a great Brazilian soccer name, but that is another matter altogether.
As for the utility of Google searches, I suppose Pete from Queens would disagree.
Tim Howard already has one, given to him by the Spanish speaking media, “El Pato”, which means “the Duck”.
I remember reading on this website a long time ago that some of the fans thought it was insulting or racist that the Spanish announcers called him that. Haha wth? Talk about making assumptions without knowing what they were talking about. It’s a simple play on American pop-culture. There was a movie called “Howard the Duck” (you know the Marvel comics character). So since Timmy’s last name is Howard, they call him “El Pato Tim Howard”. Spanish/Latino culture just loves giving people nick-names.
Pablo and El Profe are the best, remember Philip “El Cordero” Lahm
hah! I remember that. For those that don’t know, “El Cordero” is Spanish for “the Lahm”. haha.
haha damn it I messed that up. I meant “the lamb”.
This is my hypothetical USA 2015 Copa America squad (had we been invited instead of Jamaica). I didn’t put much thought into this, just did it off the top of my head.
————Agudelo—————-Rubin———-
E. Castillo—–Nguyen/Feilhaber———J. Corona
——————–A.Morales/P.Kitchen—————
T. Ream——–Spector—Alvarado——Lichaj
—————————–Hamid—————————
Bench: S. Johnson, J. Torres, Bunbury, J. Green, G. Zelalem, H Gomez, etc. (fill in the rest with top MLS/Euro players not going to the Gold Cup).
Would be awesome!
Well…. I’ll give you credit… I definitely wouldn’t mind seeing this squad, at all.
Can you qualify your criteria a bit? Meaning– did you construct this team as “guys who didn’t make the Gold Cup team”? Or would you include “Guys who made the Gold Cup team, but didn’t really play” (i.e. Jack McInerny / Will Bruin in 2013)?
My criteria is basically what Mexico’s coach Miguel Herrera has said his criteria is, which is that the priority is the Gold Cup. So you select your top Gold Cup squad, and then do the Copa America squad with the available players left over. No player can play in both tournaments (because it is doubtful a club team would release players for both tournaments, especially with MLS currently in season).
Fair enough…. I like your side (even though I think Spector and Lichaj are pretty much finished as long as JK is in charge… but that’s another matter)
I think Alvarado will be with the Gold Cup team and Green and Zelalem haven’t done anything to merit being picked in any senior USMNT squad but otherwise not bad. I guess Rubin will be at U-20 world cup so he probably wouldn’t be available but then again this is hypothetical.
The Nguyen, Feilhaber, Castillo group is made for this B team. I would imagine that a lot of u23 players like Gil, Trapp, Jamison, Rubin would be on the copa squad , now how would they fair vs Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay…idk about that
We have the depth and it falls at a good time in the cycle I’d love to see us back in the copa esp if we win the 2017 gc, 2019 is in Brazil too!
And this is why we won’t get invited back to another Copa America.
They were royally ticked in 2007 (2008?) when we sent a C team.
I’m excited to be able to watch the Bundesliga again next season–no need for the Bayern special on Univision. I’m also looking forward to Crew games once they are done with the blackout deal with Time Warner.
Remind of who got the rights going forward? I still watched it this year on GOL TV… albeit in SD with DirecTV En Espanol sport pack..
Fox has the rights starting next season. Hopefully they don’t put all the games on FS2.