The Brazilian coach, Adenor Leonardo Bacchi ‘Tite’, said this Wednesday that the cancellation of the friendly that the ‘canarinha’ was going to play on June 11 with Argentina in Melbourne (Australia) and the impossibility of agreeing on matches with European teams harm his preparation for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.
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Tite made clear his dissatisfaction with Brazil’s inability to schedule friendlies with teams of high technical quality at the press conference he gave to announce the call for the matches against South Korea on June 2 and Japan on June 6, the first preparatory friendly of the ‘canarinha’ for the World Cup.
For the FIFA window in June, Brazil had scheduled a third warm-up friendly for Qatar, against Argentina on the 11th in Melbourne, Australia, but the match was canceled due to commercial problems.
A friendly against an African rival, the solution
The national team’s technical coordinator, Juninho Paulista, stated that the Brazilian Football Confederation (CBF) is trying to agree on a new friendly with another rival on that date, but that, given the impossibility of it being a European opponent, it is most likely that Brazil is measured in some African team.
“I have an opinion on that, but I don’t want to say it publicly. I discussed it with the leaders of the Confederation and I don’t want to comment on that matter here,” Tite said, making his dissatisfaction clear and admitting that this situation harms the preparation for the World Cup.
The organizing company communicates the cancellation
“We were informed on Tuesday by Pitch, the company that negotiates the team’s friendlies, of the cancellation of the match with Argentina. We had all the logistics ready for that match. But now we consider it important to look for another rival to take advantage of the window of the FIFA and most likely we will face an African team in Europe,” Juninho said.
The leader added that the disappointment is not about facing Argentina in a friendly or not, but because all the logistics and planning that Brazil had ready for a commitment that he considered important in his preparation was lost.
Confirmed friendlies against Japan and South Korea
Juninho affirmed that, since the European and North American teams are committed to competitions in June, Brazil can only negotiate a friendly for that date with Asian and African teams, but that, since they already have friendlies scheduled with Japan and Korea, the only option is to look for to a team from Africa.
“The real circumstances do not allow us to have the ideal friendly match. Our reality is that we cannot prepare ourselves against rivals with a high technical level,” said Tite, who has complained on different occasions that the Brazilian Confederation does not negotiate matches with high-level European teams. .
“Just as Argentina will face Italy in the match between the champions of America and Europe, we tried very hard to be able to play a friendly with the European runner-up (England), but we couldn’t. We tried all the alternatives, all of them, but we didn’t get any European rival,” added Tite.
The coach said that the ideal is for Brazil to be able to prepare for the World Cup in Qatar with matches with high-level teams such as Italy, England, Belgium, Holland, Germany or Spain, but that, given the reality that remains, “the option will be look for the (African) best placed in the standings for that matchup”.
After the friendlies in June, Brazil will have a new and last opportunity to prepare for the World Cup in September, in a new FIFA window, in which they will probably face Argentina and Mexico, before making their debut in Qatar on November 24 against Serbia.
The official Brazil-Argentina pending, in September?
Juninho said that he will analyze the resolution that FIFA issued this week and that forces Argentina and Brazil to play the South American qualifying match that remained pending, after being suspended in September just four minutes after it started, to define when and where it will be possible to play .
He admitted, however, that said match could be played in the September window, probably in North America in order to take advantage of the friendly that Brazil is negotiating for the same month with Mexico.
