SB Nation International Friendlies
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Brazil's world tour continued with the Samba Boys brushing aside Egypt. Valencia's Jonas got both goals in a very easy win.
So far things have just about been going to the script for Brazil's match against Egypt in Qatar. The favourites have dominated the match and are 1-0 up at halftime thanks to Valencia striker Jonas's first senior international goal, while Egypt have struggled to get out of their own half but looked reasonably competent whenever they did have the ball, testing Diego Alves with a very nice free kick early on.
Despite the occasional blip, the attack threat has come from Brazil, and it's mostly come from the right hand side, where Hulk and Dani Alves are combining to devastating effect. Hulk's been the best player on the pitch, routinely squirming his way through two or three defenders, and he did most of the work for the goal, breaking through to the touchline and firing in a low cross that Jonas turned home.
Could Brazil be playing better? Sure - they're being very conservative, and the left side could be doing more in the attack. But they don't need to, so hey.
Why should you get excited about Egypt vs. Brazil? Well, if you're not that into Bob Bradley and Egypt (and there's no harm in that) this game is still worth your attention, because Brazil are playing the most Brazilian lineup we've seen in ages. A defence featuring the attack-happy trio of Dani Alves, David Luiz and Adriano? Yes please - it's not often you see a back line more capable on the attack than a midfield. Bruno Cesar, Jones and Hulk up front? That's drool-worthy.
Basically the only way you could get any closer to Samba Football is if you replaced Fernandinho with Neymar. This game might not work out so well for Brazil, but it sure should be fun to watch.
Brazil (4-3-3): Diego Alves; Adriano, David Luiz, Thiago Silva, Dani Alves; Lucas Leiva, Fernandinho, Hernanes; Bruno Cesar, Jonas, Hulk.
Egypt (4-3-3): Ahmed El-Shennawy; Mohamed Nasef, Ahmed Hegazy, Wael Gomaa, Ahmed El-Mohamady; Ahmed Fathy, Hossam Ghaly, Hosny Abd Rabou; Shikabala, Mohamed Zidan, Emad Meteab.
Welcome to 2011, a wonderful time of space-age technology that allows you to watch flashing pictures on a monitor, streamed to you from halfway around the world. Brazil and Egypt are playing each other in Doha, Qatar today, and you can probably watch this game legally and in high quality no matter where you live. It's widely available in the United States, United Kingdom, South America and the Caribbean. It doesn't look like it's on television in Canadia or Kangaroo Land, but I could be wrong! Check your guides. Here's the TV schedule and where to watch the game streaming live on the internets.
Game Date/Time: Monday, November 14, 12:00 pm ET, 5:00 pm GMT
TV: ESPN Deportes (USA - Spanish), ITV (UK), ESPN Latin America (All of South America, excluding Brazil), ESPN Caribbean (Caribbean). For those of you wondering: Yes, this site actually gets plenty of readership from the Caribbean. Football!
Online: ESPN3 (USA - English)
We'll have live coverage of the game in our Brazil vs. Egypt StoryStream. For more on the entire world of football, visit SB Nation Soccer.
For the first time since he was fired from the United States men's national team, Bob Bradley will manage in a professional match. Hired by Egypt after their disastrous Africa Cup of Nations 2012 qualifying campaign, Bradley doesn't get to start with an easy match, as he takes on Brazil in a neutral site clash in Doha, Qatar. Brazil do not have to participate in the CONMEBOL World Cup 2014 qualifying tournament due to their hosting of the finals, and therefore get to spend their time until the Confederations Cup in 2013 on a fun friendly world tour.
Brazil defeated Gabon 2-0 in their last friendly encounter. While Egypt should theoretically be a step-up in competition, they're an aging side who was terrible in their most recent competitive tournament and they've just hired a new manager. One has to wonder why Brazil, the most popular and famous national team in the world, isn't playing slightly better competition.
Bradley hasn't had a lot of time with his team, so don't write him off if they get crushed by mighty Brazil on Monday. Mano Menezes doesn't have his full first-choice side, but he's taking a very strong team to Doha, featuring the likes of Porto's Hulk, Liverpool's Lucas Leiva, Lazio's Hernanes and Barcelona's Daniel Alves.
Kickoff is at 12:00 pm ET from Doha, Qatar. The game can be seen on ESPN Deportes and ESPN3 in the USA.
Brazil Vs. Egypt, 2011 International Friendly: Brazil Cruise To 2-0 Win
So that wasn't very difficult for Brazil, and we had a fairly quiet game as a result. Egypt never really threatened to do anything like win or draw this match, allowing the favourites to mostly snooze their way through to a 2-0 victory, never getting out of first gear. It was a disappointing start for Bob Bradley in his career as Egypt manager, but anyone expecting a performance in which his side could test one of the world's better teams, even if they did field an experimental lineup, was deluding themselves.
Valencia's Jonas ended up scoring a brace, the first a tap-in after lovely work from Hulk (who was an unholy terror on the right side all evening) and the second after Ahmed El-Shenawi spilled a Fernandinho header from a set piece, but a Brazil team that could have played lovely, fluent football mostly didn't bother, since they definitely didn't need to. Even when the score was 0-0 there was never really any sense that Egypt would get the goals they'd need to beat their illustrious opponents. That said, they didn't look too bad in the rare occasions that they managed to get forward, and Diego Alves had to be alert to keep the ball out, pulling off a good save in both the first and the second half.
When two decent saves by the opposition goalkeeper are your highlights, your team didn't play very well. In Bradley and company's defence, though, they were playing against Brazil.
Nov 14 2:11p by Graham MacAree - 0 comments