Starts this weekend - anyone watching it?
I am hoping to catch what I can, or at least highlights/repeats of games as some are on very late or middle of the night here.
Chile have won the last two but all eyes again on Messi and Argentina. Surely he cannot finish his international career without a trophy. No Neymar for Brazil, the hosts, which will certainly help Argentina.
Hoping for some great quality football and would like to see Messi lift the trophy as well as see some exciting South American based players before their big moves to Europe.
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someone is bound to ask
Neymar is gonna be a big miss, watched the friendly he got injured in and you could see he knew he was gonna miss it from the tears in his eyes
Also quite looking forward to Chile versus Japan. Always have a soft spot for Chile as it's where Bielsa really started his resurrection with that now aged Golden Generation, plus my brother lived there for 4-5 years.
U-21s start tomorrow as well. Between that and the WWC, so much footy, such little time.
Obviously Argentina have the likes of Messi, Aguero, Dybala and Di Maria but their overall squad depth is poor.
Brazil 3-0 Bolivia
Venezuela 0-0 Peru
Argentina 0-2 Colombia
Paraguay 2-2 Qatar
Uruguay 4-0 Ecuador
It would be like UEFA inviting Cameroon to take part in the Euros.
I think they should just stick to it being countries like Mexico, Costa Rica, USA, and even countries like Jamaica, Honduras, and Canada.
Brazil looked poor in their first match, though the absence through injury of Arthur didn’t help as it meant a very defensive centre midfield pairing of Casemiro and Fernandinho (against the highly attacking Bolivia...). Firmino also looked lacking in match sharpness and I’d start Jesus who was far more impressive when he came on. Richarlison looked their best player to me.
I make Uruguay favourites, followed by Colombia (who dealt with a poor Argentina easily) and Brazil.
Japan vs Chile tonight may be a good watch if anyone has insomnia (kicking off at midnight UK time).
Would be interested in a report when you get back, quite fancy doing this myself in the next couple of years.
If you're in Rio for a bit, make sure you visit Vasco da Gama's stadium. It's a listed building in a really interesting area, much more impressive than the Maracana I thought.
Pricing for this isn’t so bad for us gringos but sadly is still steep for the locals - group games started at £15 a pop which isn’t bad for Brazil vs Peru on Saturday but even I wouldn’t pay that for Qatar vs Paraguay yesterday and I don’t earn the average monthly wage in Rio of £350! Holding games like that in the 78,000 Maracanã is frankly ridiculous unless you open the doors for free......