Dante - World Soccer Source

Maicon has returned to form with Roma. Photo: (Tony Gentile/REUTERS)

A Seleção 23-Man World Cup Roster (January 2014)

Felipão has stated that either Kaká or Ronaldinho will go to the 2014 World Cup, but not both, so the race is on between two footballing legends and masters. Of the two, Ronaldinho Gaúcho is The Grandmaster.

Kaká has been playing for Milan with energy, speed, creativity, and passing and attacking skill and vision, and Ronaldinho is Ronaldinho.

No one can deny that an inspired Ronaldinho is a monster of a footballer and still perhaps the most gifted current player, if not ever.

Atlético Mineiro might have lost early at the FIFA Club World Cup, but that Ronaldinho free kick golaço was ruthless, magical, and unstoppable.

Nevertheless, as with the choice between Kaká and Ronaldinho, the problem for Felipão and O Canarinho is deciding which players should go to the World Cup. The Seleção now has an abundance of totally complete center backs (zagueiros), and the Seleção also has many attacking midfielders and forwards to chose from.

Really, Brazil is just absolutely loaded with players at every position, and more and more world-class Brazilian players keep making their case for inclusion on the 2014 World Cup squad.

In almost six months, the 2014 World Cup will begin, and a lot can happen. When the time comes, players like Pato, Robinho, and perhaps Ronaldinho might prove to be just too good to exclude from the roster.

Despite the quality of Germany, Spain, Italy, and others, Brazil is truly the clear favorite to win this World Cup.

Brazil is often every non-Brazilian’s second favorite team (with the exception of Argentineans), and Brazil is the team that neutrals love to watch and support.

From an American perspective, Brazil’s ability to constantly have so many world-class players at its national team’s disposal is hard to even fathom, if it weren’t a reality that soccer fans everywhere have grown accustomed to.

Brazil can beat your national team by four goals, and the loss will just be dismissed be the frequent excuse of, “It was Brazil.”

Without further delay, below is World Soccer Source’s 23-man currently-preferred Brazil World Cup roster, which is somewhat an approximation of Felipão’s ideal roster and somewhat this writer’s preference (and several world-class players have been omitted due to Brazil’s depth):

GOLEIROS: JULIO CESAR (Queens Park Rangers; rumored to be moving), JEFFERSON (Botafogo), RAFAEL (Napoli)/GABRIEL (Milan).

ZAGUEIROS: THIAGO SILVA (Paris Saint-Germain), DAVID LUIZ (Chelsea), DANTE (Bayern Munich), DEDÉ (Cruzeiro)

LATERAIS: MAICON (Roma), DANIEL ALVES (Barcelona), MARCELO (Real Madrid), ADRIANO (Barcelona)

CABEÇAS DE ÁREA: LUIZ GUSTAVO (Wolfsburg), CASEMIRO (Real Madrid)

VOLANTES: PAULINHO (Tottenham), RAMIRES (Chelsea)

MEIAS: KAKÁ (Milan), OSCAR (Chelsea), ROBINHO (Milan), WILLIAN (Chelsea)

ATACANTES: NEYMAR (Barcelona), PATO (Corinthians), LEANDRO DAMIÃO (Santos), LUCAS (Paris Saint-Germain)

SNUBS: RONALDINHO (Atlético Mineiro), BERNARD (Shakhtar Donetsk), FRED (Fluminense), FERNANDINHO (Manchester City), JÔ (Atlético Mineiro), MIRANDA (Atlético Madrid), MAXWELL (Paris Saint-Germain), FILIPE LUIS (Atlético Madrid), HERNANES (Lazio), DIEGO (Wolfsburg), MARQUINHOS (Paris Saint-Germain), LEANDRO CASTAN (Roma), CÁSSIO (Corinthians), GANSO (São Paulo), RALF (Corinthians), FELIPE ANDERSON (Lazio).

World Soccer Source’s Brazil Starting XI:

Julio CESAR; MAICON, Thiago SILVA, David LUIZ, MARCELO; Luiz GUSTAVO, PAULINHO; KAKÁ, OSCAR, NEYMAR; PATO.

Brazil was far more dangerous in the attack, but any look back at Italy’s two to four loss to Brazil has to be prefaced with the caveat that Daniele De Rossi and Andre Pirlo were unavailable to play and that Paulinho was being rested by Brazil to let his ankle recover.

Brazil deserved to win, and particularly Neymar’s third goal in three games was a free-kick golaço that had nothing to do with Italy’s line-up and everything to do with Neymar’s steady string of big performances on the world stage.

It’s worth repeating that Brazil too was a missing a vital player in its midfield: Paulinho. As one of the world’s best box-to-box midfielders and Luiz Gustavo’s partner in the defensive section of the midfield, Brazil was without one of its key ball winners and main protagonists in the midfield, and yet still Brazil won.

If Italy was missing De Rossi and Pirlo, then it’s fair to note that without Ramires even on the roster as a replacement for Paulinho, Brazil was itself missing half of what Italy was missing.

Both Italy and Brazil were without at least one major midfield piece, and this affected how Italy and Brazil played.

Without Pirlo and De Rossi, Mario Balotelli lacked two of the players who are most responsible for either ensuring that Italy has a strong percentage of the possession or providing Balotelli with final balls or at the very least, a steady stream of service.

Gigi Buffon was blamed for two of Brazil’s goals as he blocked two of Brazil’s shots as opposed to catching them, and given his skill level, perhaps blocking them was all he was able to do, despite what the commentators said.

One of Buffon’s blocks was purposely played away from the goalmouth but Brazil’s central defender, Dante, a native of Salvador where the game was played, pounced on the rebound and was in ecstasy as he scored in the Arena Fonte Nova, home of the team that he has been a fan of since childhood, Bahia.

Even without Pirlo and De Rossi, Italy was totally guilty of conceding the third goal to Brazil when Fred outmuscled the much stronger Giorgio Chiellini in the penalty box to roof a left-footed shot into the upper 90 on the left side of the goal.

In many ways, Brazil scored two legitimate goals, and Italy only scored one.

With a possible offside on Brazil’s first goal, a Neymar golaço on the second goal, a well-deserved goal by Fred on the third goal, and a mishandled shot by Buffon on the fourth goal, Brazil scored two totally legitimate goals compared to Italy’s one legitimate goal scored by Emanuele Giaccherini off a balletic backwards flicked assist by Balotelli.

Neymar versus Balotelli and Italy versus Brazil in this first Confederations Cup encounter doesn’t tell the whole story.

Even without De Rossi and Pirlo, Brazil deserved to win, but in the duel of Neymar versus Balotelli is far from over.

Neymar stole the headlines with his free kick golaço, but Balotelli’s backwards volleyed assist to Giaccherini was outrageously brazen. Neymar won, but Brazil almost had to resort to wrestling and kicking Balotelli to stop him.

The Confederations Cup isn’t over, and Balotelli and Neymar offer the world the chance to perhaps see the world’s most talented second striker (Neymar) and the world’s most talented first-striker (Balotelli) face off against each other again in this tournament.

Balotelli has learned how to keep his cool, and Neymar has learned how to body check and get more physical with opponents, in the hopes of deterring them from fouling him too much.

This new physicality was new from Neymar, and perhaps it brings him one step closer from being immune to comments from doubters who say he doesn’t have the physicality to play in Europe.

Neymar unfortunately hurt Ignazio Abate with his body check, but it was time for Neymar to start knocking people off him.

Some observers like to dismiss the absence of certain key players as the reason for a win by the other team, and other observers view the absence of key players as a valid and important piece of analysis.

Neymar and Balotelli both performed, and Italy and Brazil both advanced out of the group stage.

The battle between Balotelli and Neymar continues, and the additional subplot of seeing how Neymar and Balotelli compare to Spain loams on the horizon.

Balotelli and Neymar are coming for Messi, and Brazil and Italy are both coming for Spain…and Germany.