Brazil's Six Appeal

UK EUROSPORT/YAHOO/REUTERS


Previous appearances in finals: 18

Best performance: Winners in 1958, 1962, 1970, 1994, 2002. Also runners-up in 1950, 1998

Coach: Dunga, Brazil's World Cup-winning captain in 1994 - having rebounded from a miserable experience four years earlier when he was made the scapegoat for their second-round exit. Appointed shortly after the 2006 World Cup, despite having almost no top-level coaching experience, to install discipline and pride into the team. He has since won the 2007 Copa America and 2009 Confederations Cup, although many purists dislike the team's counter-attacking style under his leadership.

Key players:

Kaka (Real Madrid). Age: 27. Midfielder: FIFA's World Player of the Year in 2007, Kaka, full name Ricardo Izecson dos Santos Leite, is still regarded as one of the world's top players. Excellent long-range shooting and incisive passing are both strengths but he is at his most exciting when picking up the ball near the halfway line and then surging towards goal. Ever-present in 2006, he also won a World Cup winners medal four years earlier as a teenager although he made only a brief appearance in the campaign.

Luis Fabiano (Sevilla). Age 29. Forward: The 'Fabulous One' scored nine goals in only 11 World Cup qualifiers including braces against Uruguay, Chile, Peru and Argentina, making him Brazil's top scorer in the campaign. His combination of power and accuracy makes him perfect for Dunga's counter-attacking style.

Julio Cesar (Internazionale). Age: 30. Goalkeeper: Has emerged as one of the top world's top goalkeepers. In several of Brazil's apparently easy World Cup wins - notably the 4-0 victories in Venezuela and Uruguay - he made the difference with outstanding saves early in the game.

FIFA world ranking May 2010: 1st

How they qualified: Brazil sailed through the potentially tricky South American World Cup group, booking their place with three matches to spare in the best way possible with a 3-1 win away to arch-rivals Argentina. Their best performances were away from home, including a 3-0 win in Chile and 4-0 wins in Uruguay and Venezuela. Their biggest problems were at home facing massed defences, and they were held to goalless draws by Bolivia, Argentina, Colombia and Venezuela. Their only defeats in the 18 matches were against Paraguay and Bolivia, the latter at extreme altitude after they had already qualified.

Prospects: Dunga has turned Brazil into a ruthlessly efficient outfit, even if they are not particularly attractive to watch. They are capable of soaking up pressure for long periods and then hitting their opponents with counter-attacks of astonishing power and precision. The air of overconfidence which has preceded their 2006 campaign has been swept away, making them a good bet for a sixth world title.

Bookmakers' odds: 11-2

Expert view: "Brazil will have to be at their best to win the World Cup this summer. It will be hard but they can do it." Pele

Squad: Goalkeepers: Julio Cesar (Internazionale), Doni (Roma), Heurelho Gomes (Tottenham Hotspur); Defenders: Maicon (Internazionale), Daniel Alves (Barcelona), Michel Bastos (Lyon), Gilberto (Cruzeiro), Lucio (Inter), Juan (Roma), Luisao (Benfica), Thiago Silva (Milan); Midfielders: Gilberto Silva (Panathinaikos), Felipe Melo (Fiorentina), Ramires (Benfica), Elano (Galatasaray), Kaka (Real Madrid), Julio Baptista (Roma), Kleberson (Flamengo), Josue (Wolfsburg); Forwards: Robinho (Santos), Luis Fabiano (Sevilla), Nilmar (Villarreal), Grafite (Wolfsburg)

Luis Fabiano: Brazil Will Play Dirty To Win If Necessary

By Stefan Coerts/NBC Sports/Goal dot com

Brazil start the upcoming World Cup finals as one of the favourites to lift the trophy, but even surviving the group stage could be tricky for the Selecao as they compete with Portugal, Ivory Coast and Korea DPR for only two spots in the first knock-out round.

Highly rated striker Luis Fabiano is confident that Brazil will be successful in South Africa and the Sevilla hitman has made it clear that the South Americans will do anything to go far in the competition.

"If it is necessary to play dirty to win, we will do it. All that counts at the World Cup is to win and we are ready to do whatever it takes to go far," Luis Fabiano was quoted as saying by reporters.

"I am at a stage where I want to achieve several goals. I have already achieved one which is to be here with the squad. Above all the most important target is to be crowned champions. To be leading scorer is a consequence of those efforts during the whole of the tournament."

Brazil start this summer's tournament with a match against Korea DPR on 15 June.

Brazilians soccer player Luis Fabiano, left, and Thiago Silva practice during a training session in Johannesburg, South Africa, Sunday, May 30, 2010. Brazilian team is preparing for the upcoming World Cup, which gets underway on June 11. (AP Photo/Andre Penner

By Tales Azzoni/Canadian Press/Hosted News/Google

JOHANNESBURG — Brazil striker Luis Fabiano is playing in the World Cup for his late grandfather.

The Sevilla forward known for his razor-sharp finishing ability and sometimes hot temper turned emotional when asked about his motivation going into the tournament in South Africa. Luis Fabiano was raised by his grandfather Benedito, and said that if Brazil wins the trophy he will dedicate it to the man who helped him become a professional soccer player.

"I would like to win this to honour him," the 29-year-old player said. "Unfortunately he has passed away, but the title would be for him."

Luis Fabiano said that since he was young his grandfather would walk around with newspaper clippings about him in his pocket, bragging about him to everybody.

"He was my biggest fan and an idol to me," the striker said. "I think about him in all my victories."

Luis Fabiano is expected to play a large role in Brazil's bid for a sixth World Cup title, having scored five goals in helping the team win the Confederations Cup last year. Before that tournament, the striker pledged to score a goal per game — and lived up to his promise.

He's not making any brash predictions this time, but made it no secret that he hopes to contend for the scoring title.

"The striker is there to score goals and in a World Cup every goal usually is decisive," he said. "I want to help Brazil win the World Cup and I will try to score as many goals as possible."

For a while, however, he worried he may not be able to play at all. He hurt a muscle while playing for Sevilla in May and feared the injury could jeopardize his presence in South Africa.

"I didn't know how serious it was," Luis Fabiano said. "It wasn't until I had the exams and showed them to the Brazilian doctors that I felt relieved. They said there would be enough time for me to recover before the World Cup."

The left thigh injury kept Fabiano from playing with Sevilla in the Copa del Rey final, but he went into intensive treatment after reporting to the Brazilian national team on May 21. He still is undergoing treatment but has been practising normally and will likely play in Brazil's friendly at Zimbabwe on Wednesday.

"I'll be a bit cautious in the friendly, but I'll be ready," he said.

Besides injuries keeping him off the field, the striker has also been known to earn too many red cards because of his hot temper. He said that's a thing of the past, however, as he has matured with age.

"I didn't accept losing and didn't like getting hit too much on the field," the striker said. "Now I can control myself. I'm not a kid anymore. Time does that to you. I'm a different Luis Fabiano now."

2010 World Cup Top Goal Scorer Prediction

Bet On World Cup 2010

Aside from the outright winner, one of the most fun things to debate, speculate, and gamble on in a World Cup is who will win the coveted Golden Boot, awarded to the top goal scorer in the competition.

Here we discuss some of the players in the running and take a look at what might work for and against them.

1 – David Villa – Spain (8-1)

With Spain the current favourites to win the tournament outright and David Villa’s excellent goal scoring record for both clubs and his national side, it is no surprise that he leads the pack in terms of the prices on offer to bet on the Golden Boot.

Despite it being logical that the longer a player’s team stays in the cup the better chance they have of scoring the most goals, the theory behind predicting this is actually a lot more complex.

The highest scoring games in the majority of major tournaments come during the group stages, before the weaker teams are sent home. In later stages, as teams become more evenly matched, low scoring games and matches settled on penalties (which don’t count towards the Golden Boot) become more common. For this reason, strong players like Villa in strong teams like Spain have a much better chance if their group stage opponents are “easy” teams they can beat with a high scoreline.

With Spain facing Honduras, Chile and Switzerland, their group does, with no disrespect to their opponents, look much easier than that which other strong sides were drawn in (Brazil’s group looks very tough by comparison with the Ivory Coast and Portugal).

What may work against Villa is the fact that one of the other favourites, his strike partner Fernando Torres, is on the same team. With only so many goals likely to happen in the tournament, whether either of them will lay claim to enough of them to win the Golden Boot remains to be seen.


2 – Lionel Messi – Argentina (9-1)

With some bookmakers offering him as joint favourite with Villa, again, there is nothing surprising about the short odds on the Argentina and Barcelona star. Many consider Messi to be the greatest current footballer in the world.

The Argentina squad are generally thought to be less strong going into the competition than Spain, with odds of 8-1 compared with Spain’s 4-1 at the time of writing, however they are still a fairly safe bet to progress far enough to give Messi a chance to notch up some goals. Like Spain, their first round opponents are not, on paper at least, likely to be too troublesome for the Argentine team – they face Nigeria, South Korea and Greece.

3 – Wayne Rooney – England (10-1)

These odds are from the UK betting market, where there is likely to be a slight bias towards England and England players in the odds, given that a lot of people in the UK will want to take these bets.

Even so, Wayne Rooney has a brilliant goal scoring record and when fit can give Villa and Messi a run for their money. As England’s top striker, Wayne may never quite have lived up to the “new Pele” talk around him when he shot to notoriety during the Euro 2004 tournament, but his skills are a force to be reckoned with and he should have no problem putting goals past fellow Group C competitors the USA, Slovenia and Algeria.

4 – Luis Fabiano – Brazil (12-1)

With ultimate football heavyweights Brazil second favourites to win the Jules Rimet trophy outright with bookies almost unanimously offering 5-1 odds, Luis Fabiano is another man in with a very serious chance of securing the Golden Boot.

The Sevilla striker has scored 25 goals in 36 appearances for Brazil since 2003, and has had some amazing club seasons too, the peak being the 07-08 La Liga season when he scored an incredible 34 for Sevilla in 44 games across all competitions.

The one thing counting against Fabiano here is the comparative strength of the opponents in Brazil’s group. Whilst they can still be expected to progress to the next stage, defeating the Ivory Coast and Portugal by a number of goals will be no mean feat.

5 – Fernando Torres – Spain (12-1)

Liverpool’s golden boy is the second appearance by a Spanish player in the top five. Torres plays very well alongside Villa for the national side, and is a consistent, reliable scorer. Often scoring enviably inspired goals, Torres can almost certainly be relied on to supply some of the most entertaining goals of the competition, but can he also deliver the most?

With an injury keeping him out for the rest of the season, though he is expected to be fit to play in the 2010 World Cup, Torres will be missing out on a lot of the preparation he was probably hoping for. Also, with Liverpool’s disappointing season, where it seems that they have lost their place as part of the renowned Premiership “Big Four”, it is possible that odds on Torres will drift as those favouring Spain opt to back Villa instead.