Brazil Hosts Qatar in Copa America Tuneup

You don’t even have to be a soccer fan to understand that the sport is hugely important to Brazil. In fact, more so than just about any country in the world their entire national identity is wrapped up tightly with their success at football. For that reason, this is an especially critical Summer for the Brazilian soccer team. The team was castigated–rightfully or not–for losing to Belgium in the 2018 World Cup. That doesn’t give Belgium their due as a very solid soccer team in their own right but that is the prevailing wisdom among Brazilian fans.

The hope now is that what is viewed as a ‘failure’ at the World Cup has served as something of a ‘wake up call’. Brazil has not lost an international friendly since then. That suggests that despite the absence of a number of key players–Alisson, Roberto Firmino and Lucas Moura–the Brazilians will take this tune up contest with a high degree of seriousness. The aforementioned trio were all involved in the Champions League Final and thus it’s a good play to give them a break.

Unfortunately, the big news in Brazilian football now has nothing to do with their perceived ‘failure’ at the World Cup. Neymar was recently stripped of his captaincy due in large part of a dustup with a fan at the French Cup Final in late April. Neymar, who plays with Paris Saint Germain in the French League, was suspended by the team. The thinking is that giving the captaincy to PSG teammate Dani Alves is a sign that Brazilian coach Tite will not accept this type of outburst.

A bigger issue for Neymar is an ongoing investigation into rape allegations in Paris in mid-May. Apparently, Neymar broke down in tears in an emotional conversation with Tite prior to Sunday’s training session. Neymar reportedly asked to take part in training normally, thinking that the structure and presence of his teammates would do him some good. Although Tite didn’t divulge specifics of the conversation he appeared to be satistified with what Neymar had to say:

“I had two conversations with him, and they remain between us. We know what we are talking about, there are no half-truths. What happened regarding the captaincy and the importance now of focusing on work”

Qatar is by no means a pushover–they will play in the Copa America by virtue of their victory in the Asian Cup–but should Brazil bring their ‘A Game’ it’s difficult to see them being competitive. The Copa America was a crucial event for Brazil–there’s a lot of pressure on them to regain their spot atop South American football in the wake of the early World Cup exit. Adding to the pressure–the series is being held in Brazil. The conventional wisdom is that the ‘off-field distractions’ could be a problem but a more likely scenario is that they could enhance Brazil’s focus and a focused Brazilian team is tough to beat. We’ll lay the handicap on the soccer betting odds board.

BET BRAZIL -2 1/2 -120 OVER QATAR

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