Fútbolita

It was a maravilloso night for the Inter boys as they made a clean sweep of all the UEFA Gala Awards, two of which naturally went to Brasileiros! Parabens to Sneijder, Julio Cesar, Maaaaaicon and Milito! Of course, Platini and friends opted to save on air tickets by making the already present winners draw the lots themselves. They obviously couldn’t afford Cruyff, who was busy tanning at a golf course somewhere in the world.

And as for the draw, many questions have risen over the authenticity of the process. Milan and Madrid in the same group AGAIN (with the added threat of Ajax!) is broma completa while Chelski and Barca will obviously sail through to the second round. Theose GORDO men in grey suits sitting at the front must stop all their dirty tricks before the Champs’ League turns into a joke!

Anyway, it’s the SuperCup Finale tonight! Kun Aguero Papa thinks Atletico will win it, but with Inter high on form (and confidence), they’ll probably prevent that from happening. Buennna suerteeee!

via UEFA, AFP, AP Photos

No, you’re not looking at a new edition to the epic Barney & Friends television show. It’s Zlatan, meu amigas! The Ibracadabra you forgot all about. OK, maybe it was just us but the fact of the matter is that he is going to make Barca fans very happy with a recent declaration – that he’s staying at the club and ~totes~ going to have lunch with Davilla.

“Guardiola told me that I am an important part of the team, so I understand that I will play, because if someone is not important, they do not play,” he said, rather reassuringly of course. If he doesn’t change his outfit soon, we will be counting pears…

This, my friends, is David Brazil huddled next to your favourite couple of Julio Cesar and Susana Werner. They celebrated his birthday by throwing a poolside party for David and his boyfriend. Awww! Walking out on your birthday to see a topless Julio Cesar will not leave you disappointed (I mean – look at that smile on David’s face – que bom).

Yeah, he looks like buzz lightyear and all, but he’s no buzzkill!

Lastly (ignore the screams from our Dutch futbolita, Hanneke, in the background), but here is Wesley Sneijder on honeymoon in…. (drumroll), Ibiza, our most favourite place on Earth! Finally… somebody, aside from Juande Ramos decided to go there and hit it up ‘Jersey Shore’ style. He’d better be ready to hit it up before the new season starts!

via AFP, HOLA

Beethoven, is that you? Chill everybody, it’s just Julio Cesar learning how to play the piano! Well, you know what they say. Music nourishes the soul and provides relief. That’s exactly what good ol’ Julio needed after all that shizz that Brazil had to face at the World Cup. We still scream “QUERIDO DEUS!!” sometimes in our sleep, but life goes on!

Anyway, does Cesar know how to play “Lavender’s Blues?” Eiii, it’s our speciality… we can play it with our eyes closed!

Also, here are Mexican guapas Eva Langoria and Rafa Marquez at a Mexican football event. The Internet is a little wonky where we are right now, so unfortunately, we can’t give you more details on this meeting. Nevertheless, it’s always nice to see Gabi Solis involved in something to with futbol. She’d be the perfect cougar for Chicharito! Yeah, we hear ya… gross!

Photos via EGO/Globo

Now it’s time for Dunga’s squad to beat the strong and powerful Ivory Coast. Julio Baptista and Julio Cesar said yesterday that they are “our stronger challenge.” I guess it may be true. Our players have now to leave a god impression for Brazilian supporters (who are not happy with our boys, but are really hopeful).  As we say “Sou brasileiro, não desisto nunca!” (I’m a brazilian, and never give up).

The Ivory Coast’s squad has really strong players. And they’re also tall and able to do good finalizations with crosses in the area (wich we are not doing good so far). But Robinho promised good results for tomorrow. “The general run of things says that we are going to better than last game. The anxiety is gone”, he said. And that’s what we are expecting!

The game is going to be tough tomorrow and the only enemy isn’t the Ivory Coast and Mr. Drogba. The low temperature is a problem for our tropical players. Although come of them play in Europe, it’s never easy to play with a -2 celsius temperature. Julio Cesar said what he needs to beat this enemy. “I asked for thermal pants so I don’t feel so cold”, he admitted.

Gilberto Silva is ready for tomorrow (Photo : Zimbio)

Another problem we went through this week, was a possible absense of Gilberto Silva . He got injuried in a training, but Dunga calmed us all down. Our ‘teacher’ (as the players call him) confirmed Silva for tomorrow, and said that he will be doing alright, with that rude way of being. Some journalists today complained about him saying Dunga is not talking about football in his interviews, and only whining about the press’ job, wich is to inform brazilian people about our squad. Polemic or not, this is the impression he is leaving.

Tomorrow it’s party here. There will be a great gathering, families, friends, people who doesn’t even know each other will become best friends in front of the television. Brazil stops (as you may know) during a footbal match when the Seleção Canarinho is on field.

Let’s all sleep tonight praying for our players to do good and to Mr. Stéphane Lannoy (our French referee) to be honest and inspired tomorrow. I don’t have a magical formula for winning, but if our boys play the football we are used to see, the World cup is ours! And as a friend of mine says “to score more that the opponent is always a good way to win.” LOL

Bora, Brasil!!!!

Signing off,

Brazil Futbolita

Hey, everybody! Brazil is totally ready for tomorrow’s game! Everything people think about here in Brazil is that game. As Dunga said today, we do always get nervous before the first game. To brazilian supporters, it’s a little hard to imagine how North Korea will behave tomorrow. Most people here never heard of that squad, but to Brazilian people, unknown team may mean weak challenge. But this is not how Dunga and our players feel. For Dunga, each and every oponent has to be respected.

And he is right. For the second time in a World Cup, North Korea comes 44 years after the first one (when they eliminated Italy), with a very strong team that has stars like Yong Jo Hong (Rostov), In Guk Mun (April 25), and Jong Hyok Cha (Amrokgang).

But with the due respect I might say: Mr. Hong, your kick is strong but we’ve got Julio Cesar, wich is in great form in despite of some comments about his health during the past few days.

Julio Cesar (Photo Zimbio)

About our team for tomorrow it’s a little hard to say if there will be any changes. Seleção’s practice happened closed-doors for one more time, today. Anyway, our spectacular Seleção Canarinho will present us with an outstanding performance. We meet again tomorrow, for a after game analysis.

Signing off,

Your Brazilian Futbolita and 190 million hopeful brazilians!

So in the end, it was 3-1 to Inter and Julio Cesar’s POSE totally says it! Anyway, after beating the tired Barca, both Julio and his esposa, Susana Werner, left the kids at home and went out for dinner and drinks. The folks at the back obviously have NO idea what’s going on… like the gardener downstairs who suddenly became an Interisti!

“They were unbelievable in their character, in their mentality,” declared MouMou. “We won and we deserved it but experience tells us that we still have a long way to go. Today we did it, though, and we deserved it.”

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?

We love this tipo, and we’re sure you do too! Yes, CQC’s resident louco reporter, Felipe Andreoli recently went on one of his missions during the legendary Selecao Bootcamp week and he got pretty far asking Lucas, Luis Fabiano, Dunga, Julio Cesar and Kaka absurd questions. And yes, he even passed them toys! There’s also a cameo appearance by a clone of The Dinho and an intermission featuring Felipe himself at Oktoberfest. E muito engraçado a explicar. Enjoy!

Bom dia and welcome to Day 2 of the Brazilian Bootcamp! Both our coach and goalkeeper are enjoying a Soul Sista moment in the photo above  (Dunga : “Gurrrl, you got strength!” The Cesar : “Adriano ain’t got nuthin’ on me, lady. Uh-uh.” ) And that’s because Juliolita had a field day during yesterday’s training -  saving almost everyone’s shots at goal and getting teased in the process.

Barbecue King, Adriano was really pumped up and put many goals past Julio, but when his former Flamengo mano saved it, there were plenty of jokes. “Are you kicking with all your strength? What do you want? You (Adriano) are always like popcorn to me!” yelled The Cesar. Later, Dunga made the tipos shoot from a further distance, and this time, many of them missed the target. “For those who do not know, the goal of this sport is to score!” joked Julio again.

Meanwhile, Kaka looks like he just saw an ice-cream truck pulling up into the driveway. Unfortunately, Miranda knows that the best person to ask for Cadbury hot chocolate is still Adriano. Damn, tipo brought the whole kitchen! And since it rained, everyone had to warm down quickly and throw on their windbreakers. They had to do their interviews in the rain… and damn, we hate it when that happens! Still, we spotted our worried looking friend, Rodrigo, wearing a hoodie and windbreaker in the clips below. Você olhar engraçado, tio!

Fotos de R.Ribeiro/Getty

Both Milan and Roma pulled off wins in their respective games against Bologna and Fiorentina yesterday. Inter also managed a 2-1 victory over Cagliari thanks to a Diego Milito double. “The pitch was awful, the ball bounced in a strange way, but in the end it went well and these points are very important. We’re playing every two days now,” said Julio Cesar.

Roma won their second game in the Serie A this season with a 3-1 win over Fiorentina thanks to goals from Prince Totti and De Rossi. “I would like to dedicate this victory to all of my friends, fans and the club, who all work hard during the week, and then are always there to support us,” declared De Rossi.

Elsewhere, the Rossoneri had good ol’ Seedorf to thank for securing three precious points for them. “I’m not using triumphant tones for this victory, there’s still many things to do,” said coach Leoooo. “My triumph was the commitment the team showed against Bologna. The players did a lot, they showed their pride from the beginning to the end. Now there is a fighting mentality; talent mixed in with desire and organisation.”

The Dinho was benched due to the flu. “There’s no Ronaldinho issue,” added Seedorf. “He’s part of the squad. Here in Italy people are always looking for pointless issues.”

Fotos de R.Ribeiro

E ai tipos??!! It’s the final day of our Selecao bootcamp specials and if you’re already bored, please sit by the window and speak Joel Santana English. Yes, you must… we insist!

Anyway, Miranda celebrated his birthday with his amigos yesterday – his cake wasn’t as zany as Julio Cesar’s – but you can never go wrong with strawberries and chocolate. Filipe looks mesmerized by the cake… although you know Juan looks like he’d much prefer tiramisu. Awww.

In more serious news, Dunga has called up four players to face the Chileans later. They are André Dias (São Paulo), Cleiton Xavier (Palmeiras), Diego Souza (Palmeiras) and Diego Tardelli (Atlético Mineiro). Robinho flew home yesterday afternoon, after suffering a nasty injury and will continue treatment at Man City. We hope Nilmar starts!

Brazilian fans gather outside their hotel in Chile to welcome them! / via globo

Crédito da foto :R.Ribeiro

Kaka and Lucio cordially welcome you to Day 3 of the Brazilian boot camp with towels! In today’s edition, Julio Cesar celebrated his 30th birthday (with one of the coolest cakes you’ll ever see, futbolitas!), the selecao arrive safely in Rosario and everyone poses gamingly for a yearbook photo (see below). Muito adorável!

Upon arrival at their hotel, a group of Argentinean fans (hoho) welcomed the manos. Among them was a girl wrapped in a Brazilian flag named Sara de la Vega. “I love Brazil. I’m saving money to live there. I already know Florianópolis, Rio de Janeiro, Salvador … I’m rooting for Brazil because I am practically a Brazilian,” she declared. The other fans arrived in the form of a group which nicknamed themselves Globeleza.

There will be light training later today, so in the meantime, enjoy the sight of Julio’s cake!

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?

How nice of Julio César to remember his friend, Adriano, during such a glorious occasion! We almost feel bad for making fun of the Fallen Striker.

As soon as the Inter-Siena match ended yesterday (a nice 3-0 scoreline in favour of the Serie A champs) the players did a victory parade around the San Siro. Mancini and Balotelli also wore “Adriano” shirts, which they must’ve taken from the storeroom when no one was looking. And you know Uncle Fester Galliani tried to gatecrash the event but was promptly stopped at the door. 

Anyway, when he wasn’t sulking or getting wasted at a samba party, Adriano had his rare moments of brilliance. And although many at Inter may not want to acknowledge it, his goals helped their Serie A campaign this season, especially the one against Milan in February. So the tribute was certainly a nice welcome.

Check out Julio Cesar and the rest of the Inter squad celebrating his ‘seventh year anniversary to actress Suzana Werner’ last night – at a nightclub in city Figo and his ferosh wife – Helen Svedin – were in attendance. We’ve included a bonus photo of the couple…

Day two of Brazilian Bootcamp and everyone looks good. They’re training hard for Sunday’s game against Ecuador and keeper Julio Cesar even scored a goal during practise. “You must have skill. It seems easy, but it is not for everyone,” he joked afterwards.

Our friends tell us the guys retreated to their rooms to watch TV after dinner last night. And yes – it was more football! They all watched the game between Santos and Sandro André that was being broadcast on TV. So no one got to watch new episodes of Desperate Housewives. Sorry pessoas!

Futbolita’s gallery under the cut.

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The seleção have arrived in Rio de Janiero for the World Cup Qualifiers! Here are some photos courtesy of our friends (taken in the team bus). Adriano needs to stop looking at lewd samba photos on his blackberry, agora. It’s not very good! Julio Cesar knows that as well – so they’re probably having a debate about it.

Felipe Melo looks exhausted and Pato’s shirt is teasing the shit out of all of us. Marcelo and Thiago Silva look like two Kinder kids who’re in their own world. Loving the spirit, caras!

Update : Doni looks straight out of a middle-aged Calvin Klein ad.

Photos Credit : R.Ribeiro

You all probably know our distaste for Man United (cue the sick bag). Unfortunately, they put up a pretty convincing performance against Inter last night. Yes its the painful truth, amigas.

United managed to clamp down Inter’s midfield. The likes of Cambiasso were playing hide and seek, leaving Mourinho seething at the sidelines. United had better chances at goal – in fact, a lot more opportunities to score (ball flew past the net, Giggs didn’t see it, etc). So you could say they were unlucky not to take advantage of that.

On the other hand, Ibrahimovic wasn’t proving to be much of a threat. He was taking a walk in the park. It’s very embarrassing to be called the ‘Best Player in the World’ by your coach time and time again – and fail to live up to the hype! Also, could someone explain what on earth Adriano was doing in the first half?

Still, some highly laudable performances from the Inter camp. Julio Cesar deserves high praise for his fantastic saves (to think Brazil never produce good goalkeepers!). Davide Santone did a good job trying to pin down Ronaldo although that proved to be quite a challenge for his teammates.

Anyway, Mourinho blamed the ref after the game and said : “Maybe in the second game we will have a referee who is on our side. If we go to Old Trafford and we don’t have the same referee – but we have one who will give the away team so much protection – then my team will get to the quarter-final.”

Brazil’s Kaka and Julio Cesar‘s names are in the running for the “The Oscars of Italian Football.” The annual prize is awarded by the Italian Players Association (AIC) to the biggest names in the country’s football season. Kaka won the prize for Best Foreign Player last year – and is in the running again this year. Julio Cesar, who faced competition from the likes of Gianluigi Buffon and Sebastien Frey, also has a chance to win Best Goalkeeper for his services at Inter Milan. Here’s the full list of nominees.

Best Italian Player: De Rossi (Roma), Pirlo (Milan) and Del Piero (Juventus).

Best Foreign Player: Kaka (BRA / Milan), Ibrahimovic (SWE / Inter Milan) and Mutu (ROM / Fiorentina).

Best Young Player: Balotelli (Inter), Giovinco (Juventus) and Hamsik (ESQ / Napoli).

Best Goalkeeper: Frey (FRA / Fiorentina), Julio Cesar (BRA / Inter Milan) and Buffon (Juventus).

Best Defender: Chiellini (Juventus), Nesta (Milan) and Mexes (FRA / Rome).

Best Coach: Carlo Ancelotti (Milan), Cesare Prandelli (Fiorentina) and Luciano Spalletti (Roma).

Best Referee: Emidio Morganti, Roberto Rosetti and Massimiliano Saccani.

Players from the selecao came together to vote for the Brasileirão 2008 awards which recognizes players who performed well in the league this year. Yesterday, everyone including Dunga had to submit their choices for Best Striker and Best Player in a box mounted on the lawn.

Kaka : “You’d better fold the paper at the ends, Alex. Be careful.”
Pato : “Chill bro, I’ve got this”
Julio Cesar : “I’m going to play tic-tac-toe with my vote.”

More miscellaneous photos of the selecao training and arriving at the hotel below. Are they reciting the pledge? How patriotic!