Cult Football - Ronaldinho

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After his fantastic showing in Liverpool last winter, Evertonians were abuzz over bringing the little speedster back to Goodison. They weren’t alone. Plenty of us in the States were hoping for his return to the people’s club, and a good many of us were hoping for a more permanent move. Everton is a club that’s easy to follow for the drama alone – they’ve a solid squad with an attractive style that tends to get down before fighting back in the second half of the season. Donovan as part of that struggle made for great drama, and his quality displayed on such a big stage brought some tiny increase in respect for the game coming out of america.

Were the Merseysiders really that enamored of the man? Just check out the 400 pages of comments in this Everton forum: Sir Landon of Donovan.

But while he would’ve been very welcome on loan, Landon has sat himself out for the winter, and who can really blame him? He’s played almost nonstop for two years, what with the spring-fall MLS season, loans to Bayern Munich then Everton in the winters, and the World Cup last summer, he’s had all of 2 months off out of 24. Let’ snot forget he’s pushing thirty, and those muscles and joints starts to ache all the more at the turn of one’s third decade (just ask anyone in La Liga Fabulosa).

So we’ll see him again with the Galaxy come Spring, and maybe he’ll have Ronaldinho alongside him in attack? According to certain sources, the Galaxy have made a $40M offer to Milan for the chubby Brazilian. We’ll see about that, but one thing is for certain, Donovan will stay in LA for the time being.

Commentary Italy

Ronaldinho & A Seleção

November 16, 2010 — by Sean — 1

In preparation for tomorrow’s Brazil-Argentina “friendly”, we in the CultFootball pressroom have been having some exchanges as to whether or not Ronaldinho’s form warranted his call up to the side, especially after having been so unceremoniously dumped for the summer’s big tourney in S. Africa. Mark Gannon, our man in Brazil, lays it out plainly below.

Ronaldinho — The best player in the world: ~2003-2007

I watched the season of The Simpsons after Conan O’Brien left to take over Late Night, but I didn’t like it, so I stopped watching the show. The next year, friends started telling me about episodes that actually sounded good. It seemed like the show might actually be back on track, so I thought I might try to watch it again. I’d still forget to tune in most of the time, and on the occasions when I did, it sucked. But frequently, when I didn’t watch, my friends would tell me about the episodes, and they sounded really good.

I mention this because I’ve been thinking about it since getting Sean’s e-mail, and it occurred to me that I’ve never actually watched a Milan game in which Ronaldinho played well. I’ve seen Milan games without him, Milan games in which he didn’t play well, and highlights of Milan games in which he did play at least well enough to make the highlights. But I don’t think Ronaldinho has ever had a good game for Milan when I sat down and watched the whole game.

I think Ronaldinho probably should have been on the Seleção for the 2010 World Cup, but I don’t expect him to be a starter in 2014 at age 34.

He is already a very different player from the one he was when he shone at Barça, and a good part of the difference looks to me like bad aging. That said, his peak was so high that he can still be a very useful player.

Commentary News

A Seleção: November 17 vs Argentina

November 1, 2010 — by Sean

From our Senior Correspondent in Brazil, Mark Gannon. Reporting from the trenches deep in the heart of futebol country.

Here is Mano Menezes’s list for the seleção that will face Argentina in Doha on the 17^th of November.

Goalies:

Victor (Grêmio)
Jefferson (Botafogo)
Neto (Atlético-PR)

Interesting that all three are playing in Brazil. A lot of people, including me, thought Victor might be the third goalie for the World Cup. Brazil very often takes a young goalie who might become the starter in the next World Cup.

Wingbacks:

Daniel Alves (Barcelona)
Rafael (Manchester United)
Adriano Corrêa (Barcelona)
André Santos (Fenerbahçe)

André Santos probably owns the left wingback position unless he really screws up. There are other players at his position who would be good choices, but Mano knows and trusts him from their days at Corinthians. Similarly, Daniel Alves seems to be Mano’s guy at right wingback, and deservedly só. He’s very effective and dependable now, and is likely to still be quite good at age 31 in 2014. Rafael is only 20 and already seems to be solidifying his position as Daniel’s backup. His first call-up to the senior team was as part of Mano’s first list, for the friendly against the USA in August.

Central defenders:

Thiago Silva (Milan)
David Luiz (Benfica)
Alex Costa (Chelsea)
Réver (Atlético-MG)

No surprises here. It’s interesting that after a long period of total stability at the center-back position (Juan and Lúcio), Mano already seems to have established who his starters and even preferred backups are at this position. And they seem to be good choices.

When rosters and lineups are listed in Brazil, midfielders are usually separated into “volantes” and “meias.” The basic rule is that meias are offensive midfielders and volantes are more defensive, but there are volantes who can be really important parts of the offense, so I don’t like the term “defensive midfielder” as a translation of “volante.”

Volantes:

Lucas (Liverpool)
Ramires (Chelsea)
Sandro (Tottenham)
Jucilei (Corinthians)

Lucas has been getting more chances with Mano. Ramires was one of Dunga’s best additions to the seleção, and I’m convinced that Brazil lost to Holland in the World Cup quarterfinal basically because Ramires had to sit out that game because of accumulated yellow cards. Brazil had just found what seemed to be the best formula for the team (given that there was no way to sit Kaká, no matter how much he needed it) in the game against Chile. The presence of Jucilei and Elias (see below) is not surprising, not only because Mano remembers the success he had with them at Corinthians, but also because Corinthians is one of the leaders of the Brazilian championship now, in large part because of its excellent midfield (both volantes and meias).

Sandro was an alternate for the World Cup squad and has played for the U-20 and primary national teams.

Commentary Italy News

AC Milan’s New Strikeforce

August 31, 2010 — by Sean — 2

With the signing of Robinho and Ibrahimavic to put alongside Ronaldinho and Pato, AC Milan have created the most impressive forward line in Serie A. Some will say that Robinho is too temperamental to play in Europe and should stay at home in Brazil. People will talk about how Ronaldinho is fat, slow, and old. Others will suggest that with so many creative sorts, there won’t be a willingness to win ugly, a necessity when facing physical, defensive minded teams.

I grew up watching Milan on the RAI Sunday morning feed on a local broadcast. Back then they had the magical Dutch trio of van Basten, Gullit, and Rijkaard, and though the broadcast was entirely in Italian, I could still pick out their names when the commentator mentioned them (they tended to stick out on the field, too). Milan have had some great teams over the years, but never have they had such a combination of attacking talent as they had then. But maybe now, with this trio of Brazilians alongside a lanky Swede with a sense for the fantastic, they may just create the sort of wonderful attacking style the rossoneri haven’t seen in years, and may just create a ripple in the power balance of European club football.