Fútbolita

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

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

Luis Fabiano welcomes you to Day Ten of the Brazilian training sessions! We really love how these manos look with tracksuits…. almost like astronauts on a mission.

Anyway, the squad was divided into two groups yesterday where they practised among one another in a short game. Unfortunately, the yellow astronauts fell to a 4-2 ‘defeat’ in the hands of the green-bib wearing players (who were mostly subs). Gilberto Silva complained that the defenders weren’t doing anything (“Tá muita firula aí atrás!”) while Kaka whined at Miranda to start scoring (“Come on Miranda, go!” he said).

The seleção will meet the USA later today.

Photos : R.Ribeiro

Thiago Silva wants fellow Brazilian defender Miranda to join AC Milan. There’s a lot of speculation about the Sao Paulo player coming to Milan next season. Silva told La Gazetta Dello Sport that Miranda and him are BFFS and if he doesn’t arrive in Italy next season, he’ll scream out loud in exasperation (like what he’s doing in the photo above). Ok, not really.

“He is a great friend and we were together when the selecao last convened. I would be very happy if he joined the team. We could really make a great team,” Silva said.

Yes, Miranda needs to inject new blood into the ageing defense. After all, it’s arrivederci to Maldini this season!

We all love São Paulo here at the Futbolita camp so it’s always sad to see them lose. But despite a hard fought game, they couldn’t pull off a victory over Corinthians in the semifinals of the Paulista Championship yesterday. Instead, the home side came away with a 2-1 victory thanks to goals from Elias and Cristian. Miranda netted in the only goal for the visitors.

At least The Ronaldo admitted that the win didn’t come easy.

“It is difficult to reach perfection in football but today Sao Paulo was almost perfect,” he said after the final whistle.

His linda wife, Bia Anthony was also present at the VIP box of the stadium. She told the media later that “Corinthians deserved to win.”