Fútbolita

So Felipe Melo has arrived in his home city of Rio de Janeiro… and received a “welcome” that would make even Hitler shudder in his grave! Evidently, the Brazilian public are now putting the blame of the caras’ elimination in his hands so obviously, poor Melo can kiss his career with the selecao goodbye. There’s not much he can do to regain anyone’s affection – not even if he gets Arjen Robben a slot in “Inside the Actor’s Studio”!

Here’s footage of the players being surrounded by overprotective guards… and supportive fans alike after arriving in Rio. A different batch of players (including Kaka, Juan etc) continued the journey to Sao Paulo. Dias difíceis estão à frente …

And now it’s time for our hardest challenge in this World Cup. It’s time for Robinho, Luís Fabiano and Kaká to face Snejder, Van Persie and Robben. Everybody is getting nervous with the possibility of going home. In the streets, the talking today was “What is going to happen tomorrow?” Though everybody here has something like faith in our squad, I saw a different look in people’s faces. Like a challenge has finally come. A very beautiful match appears to be arriving, and very balanced too.

Today Mr. Johan Cruyff said to the journalists that would never pay to watch this Brazilian Squad play. A very hard pronouncement to what Dunga responded in a ver elegant way. “He might have won a free ticket from FIFA.” Finally a humorous answer from our coach. I liked it, didn’t you?

Felipe Melo seems to be ok, but is still a doubt (Photo: Zimbio)

Let’s talk about our players for tomorrow. Elano is out. Felipe Melo is still a doubt Josué might play in  Melo’s position if he doesn’t feel alright. Ramires (suspended), lost a great chance to show his game. A shame, but there’s nothing to do for him for tomorrow’s game. Our guys must be: Julio Cesar, Maicon, Lúcio, Juan, Michel Bastos, Gilberto Silva, Felipe Melo or Josué, Daniel Alves, Kaká, Robinho and o FABULOSO.

Lúcio, our captain, is doing a very good job in this Cup. He is making the team unite on the field. Although he is a defender we can see him every time in the most important moves during the matches. He is showing himself as a complete player. A very important piece in our squad.

I’m here with all my positive thoughts with 190 million brazilians expecting A SELEÇÃO to bring us the Hexa!!!!

Signing off,

Your anxious Brazil Futbolita

So Senhor Felipe Melo has decided that he really does love the city of Turin – and would like to stay and help Juve win more trophies. And why not right? When he returned to his former stomping ground of Fiorentina last weekend, the tifosi loooooved it!

“No, thanks. It is a pleasure to be observed, praised by a technician as good as (Arsene Wenger), but I have eyes only for Juventus. I’m just focused on my work here. My goal is to play well at Juve,” he declared.

The way he said it – it’s almost like the Gunners are made up of flirty chicas prancing around in Carnaval samba outfits! Yes Dame Denilson, that’s quite possible. o que é sonho!

For a moment, Diego forgot about the team he was playing for (“Boa gol, Dinho! grande abraço!”) Then, he caught Felipe Melo giving him the evil eye on the pitch – and that was it! 3-0 to Milan, and you don’t even know if Juve bothered to turn up at their own stadium at all.

To be fair, neither side was doing much in the first ten minutes, but despite the Rossoneri’s inadequacy - including Ambrosini’s “speed”, Beckham’s disappearance and Pirlo’s bad corners – UncleDude Nesta pulled one for his side while The Dinho (yes, we told you everyone will be scrambling to show off this year) netted in a double!! El Pato was out fretting over his injury on the roller coaster ride, so perhaps their attacking prowess was a little tamed. But in the second half, Milan actually improved and controlled the game – and although they weren’t at their best, Juventus and Amauri proved that they were indeed, better off prawn fishing

Poor Ciro. Now the Italian press are sharpening their pencils and ready to attack! “I don’t feel in danger of losing my job, I am very concentrated. I am trying to put my energy into the team. It is not my decision to make if they sack me or not, and if I am sacked I will accept it,” said tio Ferrara after the game.

via Reuters

So in the end, it was Juve’s Claudio Marchisio who scored the winner to save Juventus to save his side against Inter last night. And futbolitas… his quick moves were che belleza to watch. Well, except it was against Julio Cesar of course (and if does this next year in South Africa, nothing but daggers will be thrown in his way. Cara, isso NAO é o caminho para guardar O GOAL!)

Ironically, Marchisio had always wanted to become the club’s next Del Piero, after spending most of his youth at the club’s youth ranks. Someone else saw his potential as a midfielder, and moulded him to become the Marchisio he is today! Not so bad now, isn’t it?

It’s Saturday and all of you are probably stuffed with turkey or lamb (depends on which part of the world you come from), but a nice music video wouldn’t do us all any harm… especially if it involves someone who looks like a combination of Simão and Felipe Melo. O huy there, you didn’t think we’d leave them alone now, did you? Especially when we finally found their long-lost twin brother, Simaolo being all sexy and shit in Nelly Furtado’s latest music video, “Mas”. The hair is looking a tad bit like Spock but cara has got the badass Brazilian thang going, so enjoy!

Altogether now, sing…”más de tu corazón más… de tu emoción más!!!!”

Yes, despite cara’s hectic schedule with the selecao late last week, Brazil’s Felipe Melo found the time to answer Futbolita’s questions. En realidad, we spent the whole day running in the airport and walking in the rain last Friday before the all-important call from Felipe’s agent came through! And it’s adorable how paranoid he was about the selecao’s stringent rule with interviews till we had to be the ones to calm him down. Relaxe homem, você é brasileiro….!

Anyway, we’ll reveal the full context of the interview for our national newspaper in due time. Here, Felipe shares some interesting insights about his life in Italy and with Brazil.

“Being a footballer appears to be a ‘glamorous’ job, but it was a lot of hard work getting here. To have achieved the dream of becoming a professional footballer and to wear the Brazil shirt – the best international squad in the world – and Juventus, one of the most important clubs in world, is already something great for me,” Melo told Futbolita proudly.

Read the rest of this entry »

via Reuters

We only wished for Nilmar to start against Chile…. and mano went on to score a hat trick against them last night! Daaaamn, tipo over here is keeping track, ya’ll. On hindsight, 4-2 isn’t the perfect score but what else can we say to Nilmar except muito obrigada?! After all, Chile actually equalised 2-2 after Baptista’s 40th minute goal and thought they could get away with a victory. Desculpe, but this is Brasil…

On a sadder note, Felipe Melo had a bad night when he was sent off in the 49th minute for going in with his foot raised on Sanchez. He was also penalized for a foul which led to Humberto Suazo’s penalty for Chile. Speaking of the Melooo, we’ll be speaking to him soon – more details on that to come!

Our Brazilian amiga was in a visibly samba-like mood today so please help yourself to that unopened can of Guaraná and join her as we await the next Bootcamp!

(via Reuters, AP)

Photos via R.Ribeiro

Ah, an exciting week of international futbol is finally upon us as our hombres prepare to face The Dona’s Argentina on Saturday! Yesterday, the Brazilian Bombshells eagerly assembled at the Tom Jobin International Airport (in Rio) before proceeding to Granja Comary. On arrival, everyone received a welcome snack before heading to bed. Yes, it’s beginning to sound a lot like pre-school…

As you can probably tell, manos were excited to meet each another again (Julio Baptista and Lucas both look thrilled). Barbecue King, Adriano, was also delighted to be back with the selecao but admitted that he "only personally knows Nilmar and Victor" from Dopey’s current squad. Uh, no problem. He’ll make friends just as long as he doesn’t locate an All-You-Can-Eat buffet spread in Rosario.

The players also attended a commercial event for Gillette last night and Julio Cesar, Felipe Melo, Adriano, Juan and Lucio were on hand to test their new series of razors. "Drawing with Argentina will be good enough. If we win, it will have to be with a beard, hair and moustache," joked Julio Cesar as he tried to shave( seriously???). But the worst line had to come from Adriano who was asked by former model, Monique Evans, if any of his girlfriends had ever shaved him. "Not yet, but if you want to…" he replied, laughing. Have you seen Monique Evans?

So the star of the Serie A this weekend is Diego after cara scored a double against Roma last night. Felipe Melooooo added in a third in the 66th minute to steer the team to a 3-1 victory away from home. Bom Trabalho, rapazes!

Buffon couldn’t help himself from praising his teammate after the game. “Diego does things that only a few players can do, but we don’t launch any challenge to anyone. He must improve day by day. Roma? They put their heart into the match, but with such a reduced squad, they suffered when playing their fourth game in 10 days.”

via GettyImages

Meanwhile, things aren’t looking very sunny in Milanello after Inter’s 4-0 thumping of Milan. Ah, pessimo! We’re speechless. The man at the centre of the storm is Leoooonardo who admitted that Botox Berlusconi and Uncle Fester held crisis talks with the players after the game.

AT LAST! The Rossoneri finally pulled off a win yesterday evening against Juventus – albeit on penalties – but it was the Trofeo Berlusconi after all, so losing was absolutely not an option. Uncle Galliani may be a Ray-Ban wearing wannabe, but the tifosi will never forgive him…

Anyway, Diego and Pato scored respectively for their sides and Thiago Silva’s penalty kicked sealed the deal for his team. Mano was brimming after the game. “I am very happy with what I did on the field and I think it was my best match with the Milan shirt. Everyone is telling me this and the Italian press recognized it. Therefore, I am even more confident about the season ahead and I can say that was a great satisfaction to help win this first cup for Leonardo,” he said.

Gangsta Gattuso let his guard down again and got into a tussle with Felipe Melooo. Tipo needs to chill…. “We have not solved our problems with this victory tonight, because there is still a lot of work to be done,” he said seriously. You can watch the fight below and the goals here!

Photo by R.Ribeiro

So these sexy homens appear to be doing very well in Estonia! Ah, the ninos above look so happy – especially that boy who is sticking his chest out for Robinho to autograph his shirt. Awww.

Anyway, as usual, the selecao were being followed by a huge group of fans on their second day in the country. The Estonian kids gathered themselves at the door of the Radisson Hotel and waited patiently for the team bus to exit for afternoon training yesterday. There, most of them received autographs and a young boy begged journalists to teach him how to say “squeeze my hand” in Portuguese (“aperta a minha mão”). It worked against Gomes but not Kaka, so the fervent boy kissed the player’s hand instead – catching him by surprise. Good move!

At the stadium, the boys from Flora Tallinn academy were fortunate to watch the training and meet the players after the session was over. On a sidenote, Luis Filipe needs a haircut agorraaaaa and Felipe Meloooo is living up to his reputation as the Cara Do Momento!

Summer tales...... / Foto de R.Ribeiro

The Brazilian bombshells have arrived in Tallin for their friendly against Estonia tomorrow. OK, Gomes doesn’t know anything about the Estonian national team but still, it’s always nice to see the seleção. It cures our homesickness!

Anyway, homies are staying at the Radisson Hotel and except for Inter’s trio of Maicon, Julio Cesar and Lucio who arrive today, a crowd of screaming boys and girls waited to welcome the squad. Doesn’t Felipe Meloooo look like a high school stud trying to round up his gang of friends? Luisao is not amused!

Caras also gathered to have dinner together last night. And ya’ll know that Kaka told the best story at the table followed by Dani Alves‘ fishmonger tale (“Na verdade, eu não comer peixe!!” he cried). Nilmar looked excited to share his story about the crying children at his official presentation (“Eu queria chorar também..”) Well, they didn’t exactly say any of those things but imagination is key, amigas!

According to our friends, the view of the city from the Radisson hotel is “beautiful” and the sunset happens at exactly 9:30pm every night. Awww, how romantic. Robinho and co’ can certainly toast to that! Training will take place in the afternoon later today. Enjoy the photos…

via JUVENTUS FC

So good ol’ Felipe Melo decided to snub Gilberto Silva’s invite for the dry winters of Turin instead. Yes, he was officially unveiled as a Juventus player yesterday after a medical check-up at the Fornaca Clinic and the Centro di Medicina dello Sport. This, despite previous reports that he was interested in a move to Arsenal. Melo’s price? A cool €25 million to be paid over three years.

“I am very happy to join Juventus and can’t wait to start working. I believe very much in this team that (has been) reinforced and that (it) can compete with anybody in an attempt to reach all the goals in Italy and in Europe,” Melo declared.

It’ll certainly be an interesting spectacle to watch in midfield next season as newly-signed Diego will also be dictating the squad’s play. We can all look forward to a Brazilian Show in Juuuuuve!

These BFFS look like Bros on a mission! So don’t try to stop them… especially the walking Sexiness that is Felipe Melo. Ei Futbolitas, hasn’t he grown on you throughout the tournament? Come on, admit it… don’t get all shy on us!

Anyway, Gilberto Silva thinks Felipe should join Arsenal next season and we can’t help but agree. It’s probably the only English club that we genuinely prefer and the holding midfielder would be perfeito for them.

“We heard rumours and he asked me,” Gilberto said. “I said it’s a fantastic club and if he’s interested, he should go without thinking.

“He is exactly what they need – a powerful player with quality. If they got him it would be great because he is a player they need at the moment.

Dunga in, Diego Hypolito out?! Based on that photo, he might be the perfect replacement for the Brazilian gymnast. Maybe after the World Cup eh, Dopey? O que acha?

Anyway, good ol’ Felipe Melo open the scoring yesterday in manos’ 3-0 victory over the USA! Senhor has been pretty impressive since earning his call-up to the selecao, so his goal was fully deserved. Robinho and Maicon’s addition to that tally, an improvement in defense compared to the disaster against Egypt and great passing made it (almost) like a walk in the park for us. Even Tim Howard admitted it!

“They’re always going to be the better team, right? It’s just for us about going out and trying to give a good showing of ourselves because the best team doesn’t always win. Today it did. We were overpowered, and sometimes you just come up against Goliath and David doesn’t win.”

Also, gymnast Dopey,  PLEASE START NILMAR AGAINST ITALY!!

Good morning everyone… Felipe Melo is NOT amused!

In day ocho of the selecao’s training session at the Super Stadium, Pretoria, the subs played a game against the Under-17 Super Sport United boys. In case you’re wondering, SSU is a team that competes in the Premier Soccer League of South Africa. The selecao won the mini match 2-0 with goals from Baptista and Nilmaaaaaaar. And as for the players who started against Egypt, they had to run around the field. That’s typically Pablo’s (physical coach) techniques before the ball control and technical work starts again today!

After the training session, the Super Sport kids were praised by the journalists for their agility and ability to handle the game well. Of course, they proceeded to take photos with Kaka, Dani Alves, Pato and Robinho afterwards. Juan’s facial expression…. priceless!

Photos courtesy R.Ribeiro

99.9% of the Brazilian public may not love Dunga but he doesn’t really care. Or does he?

“When I started with Brazil, people said I’d last two months, and three years later here I am. I just worry about the job I’m doing and I think that some people have taken this the wrong way,” he said yesterday. “I have to give all my attention to the players, who are the ones I depend on. If, after that, I can be nice to other people, tell jokes and be pleasant, then I will. Sometimes, I say things that people don’t want to hear…. but that’s my personality.”

Anyway, the squad spent a productive day at training yesterday to prepare themselves for today’s date with Egypt (no, there won’t be pharaohs around but their opponents can be pretty lethal.)

Players were split into two groups – one wearing yellow, and the other in orange bibs – and played a short game. Luisao, who is one of the squad’s major fun clowns, took the practise game a little too seriously, tackling Pato in the process. Then, from the sidelines, Kaka shouted : “Are you playing with fire, Pato? Beware of those who’re moving!” referring to the tall defender. After the game, Robinho jokingly declared that the “tiriça” (worst player on the field) had to go to either Kaka or Pato.

Felipe Melo, who was in the ‘yellow team’ also became confused midway, passing the ball to a player in the orange bib. “Felipe, you are wearing yellow, YELLOW!” his teammate screamed. Technically, they all wear yellow so differentiating can be a pretty challenging process anyway!

Photos : Ivo Gonzalez & R.Ribeiro

The seleção defeated Paraguay 2-1 at the Arruda Stadium yesterday and Nilmar scored!!!!! Ok, excuse our outburst but we had been waiting to see this mano do well at international level and he finally did yesterday. Dopey decided to start him alongside Robinho and the look on his face after scoring was pure delirium.

Even Luis Fabiano – who didn’t play – was impressed with the results. “Nilmar came and finished the job,” he said after the game.

There was a little bit of pressure in the first half as Paraguay opened the scoring via a Salvador Cabanas strike. Fortunately for us, Robinho equalized in the 41st minute and Nilmar made it 2-1 in the second half, thanks to a Felipe Melo cross. Pato wasted a great opportunity in the 74th min but was too busy thinking about his wedding dinner and missed instead.

“I want to dedicate this victory to the followers in the (stadium) for the love and support they showed in the more difficult moments of the match,” said Kaka, after the game.

Anyway, Lucio was excited to arrive back at the hotel after the game. “At the entrance of the hotel, the people (there) applauded for the Brazilian national team without stopping. It was so spontaneous,” he said.

Photos : AFP, R.Ribeiro

More gym work in day six of the selecao boot camp. Robinho looks like he’s really enjoying himself through his teeth. Someone help the man! Also, Felipe Melo doesn’t like it when you stare (see photos) – so please don’t or he’ll throw a major bitch stare which is um pouco sexy actually – ha!

Dani Alves probably shouted “el clasico eh, Kaka?” midway throughout the workout. Brasil’s physiotherapist Luiz Alberto Rosan responded by throwing more weights into his face. “Be serious now, boys! Paraguay tomorrow.”

Anyway, Brazil’s starting XI against Uruguay worked on their physical fitness yesterday while the other manos went to watch Terminator Salvation. OK, not really.. the rest of the team went to the stadium to practise with the Santa Cruz youth squad. They also played a practise game which ended with the Brazilian National Team winning 4-0.

Photos : AFP, gettyimages, R.Ribeiro