Chapter 160: Confederation Cup

This year's Brazilian national team has 9 players from overseas and 13 players from domestic clubs.

Overseas players are in their own faction, while domestic clubs are faintly divided into three factions, and São Paulo's three players are in their own faction; In addition, Corinthians also had three players selected, Gil, Fabio. Luciano and Klebel, who are also in their own right; The rest of the club players are also in a faction.

However, due to the charm of Pro Evolution Soccer, the gap between the factions has been slightly dispelled.

São Paulo and Corinthians are rivals, but they are not mortal enemies, São Paulo - Santos and Corinthians - Palmeiras are mortal enemies.

So after a few days of intensive training and the tacit understanding formed on the live battlefield, the players quickly talked and laughed with each other.

In this year's Brazilian team, the factional struggle is not harsh, and the most crucial point is that most of the players selected this time are fringe players of the national team.

It's hard to be selected once, and if you don't train seriously and play well, you may not have a chance to be selected next time, so everyone doesn't pay much attention to factional struggles.

Ahead of the match against Cameroon, several players from São Paulo received good news: in the second leg of the Copa Libertadores semi-final, Sao Paulo, who had lost them, drew 2-2 with Independiente Medellín, with Kaka scoring twice.

In this way, São Paulo qualified for the final with an aggregate score of 5:2. Their opponents in the final will be between Boca Juniors and América de Cali, who met in the first leg and won 2-0 at home.

Therefore, Sao Paulo is likely to meet Boca Juniors from Argentina in the final.

However, if Brazil go far enough in the Confederations Cup, they will only be able to make it to the second leg of the final.

The first leg of the Copa Libertadores will be played on 25 June, just after the group stage of the Confederations Cup.

The proud Brazilian doesn't think he can't make it out of the group.

However, the first opponent of the group stage, Cameroon, gave them a head start!

The match played at the Stade de France on the evening of June 19 has reached the 77th minute, and Cameroon is still leading 1:0! The goal was scored by Cameroonian striker Samuel Eto'o.

This patchwork Brazilian team has no cooperation on the field, and there are no big names in the second. Ronaldinho is the biggest name in this Brazilian team, but at this time he has not yet joined Barcelona, and he is far from being able to compare with the form when he won the Ballon d'Or the day after tomorrow.

Adriano, a heavy tank on the front line, was still a little immature at this time, and his ability to fight alone was slightly insufficient.

Pereira observed the situation on the field with a nonchalant expression, and then moved his gaze to the bench: "Ricardo, Ricardinho, you go to warm up." ”

Ricardo and Ricardinho quickly took off their coats and stood up.

They are already suffocating on the bench.

Pereira used a 4231 starter for this game, with Adriano in front and Ronaldinho, Gil and Luis behind him. Fabiano, Emerson and Klebersen from Atlético Paranaense combined to occupy the midfield.

Judging from the content of the more than 70 minutes of the game on the field, this lineup did not have the chemistry it should have.

Ronaldinho indulged in individual performances, making Cameroon's defence miserable with all sorts of fancy moves, but he failed to create more killings.

Both Gil and Fabiano seem to be a bit out of tune with the pace of the national team's game, running around the pitch like headless flies and never being on the right track.

Adriano had a couple of dangerous shots, but he was still some way from being a real one.

The players from Europe's top five leagues took the Confederations Cup as a vacation and didn't take it seriously at all, with Emerson, Lucio, Dida and others all looking unfocused.

Pereira's expression looked calm.

He led the team in this cup tournament for the purpose of training, and he didn't think about what kind of results he wanted to achieve. According to Brazil's tradition, even if his results in these games are poor, it will not shake his position, and there is only one indicator to evaluate his merits: the World Cup.

Except for the World Cup, none of the other matches matter.

Until the results of the World Cup are known, the Brazilian Football Federation will never sack him because he has lost a few inconsequential games.

However, losing to Cameroon is a faceless thing after all, so he has to transfer troops to change the situation on the field.

In the 82nd minute, Licardo and Ricardinho both came on, replacing Gil and Kleberson respectively. So the three players of São Paulo came together on the field.

The two of them also seemed to activate Fabiano, and two minutes later, the three of them played a brilliant combination: Ricardinho sent a half-high ball of around 25 meters in midfield to find Ricardo just right.

Ricardo chested the ball in a half-crouch position with his legs slightly bent and then picked the ball up to Fabiano.

Fabiano was able to stop the ball and make a breakthrough, but found that the opposition was in a very secure position, so he passed the ball back to Ricardinho, who was cutting in at high speed.

Ricardinho didn't stop the ball, just stuffed the ball, and the ball rolled accurately to the feet of Ricardo, who had just run into the box.

Ricardo was not greedy, his left foot quickly knocked the ball sideways, but the force was slightly more than half a point, the speed of the ball was a little faster than he expected, Adriano was inconvenient to stop the ball, simply shot straight at the goal, the football blasted towards the Cameroon goal like a cannonball, was the opposing goalkeeper struggled to defuse, Brazil won a corner kick opportunity.

Although there was no goal, it did play a wonderful combination this time, winning a round of applause from the neutral fans, and Pereira also applauded softly from the sidelines.

That's what people think Brazil should look like.

Brazil took a corner kick to the front post, which was headed over by a Cameroonian defender.

The Cameroonian controlled the second drop and was ready to counter-attack, but was cut off by Emerson as he turned. Emerson quickly handed the ball to Fabiano, who took a look, took a few steps to the baseline, and crossed with his feet.

Adriano used his body advantage to lean on the Cameroonian central defender, jumped up and stopped the ball with his chest before forcing a shot at the goal, which bounced off the Cameroonian player.

Licardo, who had been waiting for an opportunity in the penalty area, stepped forward sensitively and volleyed directly, and the football went into the net!

In the 86th minute, Brazil equalized!

Brazil then had two more chances, but Adriano and Ricardo both had shots deflected off target, and the score remained in place until the end.

After the game, the media criticized the Brazilian team, believing that they lacked fighting spirit, lacked coordination, and had ugly skills, and almost lost to the African team, disgraced the Brazilian face. However, they still unanimously praised the performances of Ricardo, Adriano and Ronaldinho.