According to the president, some think that Brazilians are ” idiots” and do not know how to make the necessary improvements for the tournament.

“The African Cup has just ended and they have already started asking ‘where are the Brazilian airports?’, where are the Brazilian bus lanes?,” the president said, not elaborating on who “they” are.

“As if we were a bunch of idiots who do not know how to make things, how to define our priorities.”

The pressure for Brazil to make the necessary projects to host the next World Cup has increased in the past month, due to the proximity of the tournament, the fact that many reforms necessary to the Cup have yet to start, and to the problems with airports seen in South Africa.

President Lula also commented on the Rio-Sao Paulo bullet train project. According to the president, the train will be ready by 2016 when Rio will host the Olympic Games. He stressed the importance of the project and the difficulties to make the bullet train possible.

“I think Brazil needs it (the train) and I think that Rio and Sao Paulo need it because they are the most important cities in Brazil,” he said

The public bidding process for the bullet train’s construction will take place in mid-December.

Source: Xinhua

Image via Wikipedia

Seleção knocks down Spain to second place. Portugal is in third.

The seleção commanded for Dunga comes back to the top after five months occupying the second position, Brazil outs Spain and assumed the top of Fifa’s ranking, in the new classification announced this Wednesday. Seleção Brasileira (name used for Brazil Soccer Team) assumes the top for the seventh time since the ranking was created, in 1993. Since then, the country remained on top for 142 months in the total.

Based on the rankings, the group G  will be the strongest of the World of the World. Besides the leader, Brazil, the group counts on Portugal, that went up a position and now it is right behind Spain, in third, its better rank in history.

On the other hand, the Coreia of the north, Brazil’s adversary in the first game , is worse between all the teams that will dispute the World Cup , in 106ª position. The Ivory Coast, that complete the group, is in 27º place.

Between the ten first ones in Fifa’s ranking, the biggest advance was of Argentina, that jump from ninth to seventh position. France suffered the biggest fall, falling from eighth for tenth.

The April’s edition of the ranking only took in account five games, since not many official Fifa games happened and the national and international matches of the Europe are in its playoffs, what it make harder to schedule games between national teams.

Despite having midfielder Felipe Melo sent off in the opening minutes of the second half and seeing Chile manage to overcome a two-goal deficit at one point, Brazil managed to win after they had already clinched the qualification with a 3-1 win at Argentina last weekend.

Chile also had one player dismissed as talented forward Alexis Sanchez was also shown red in the second period.

Brazil needed nine minutes to take a two-goal lead. In the 31st minute Daniel Alves crossed the ball to Adriano and Nilmar was quickest to slide in and score.

In the 40th minute, after a terrible mistake by Gonzalo Jara, Nilmar passed the ball to Alves, who assisted Julio Baptista to widen the gap.

However, with half-time was approaching, Felipe Melo fouled Sanchez in the box. Humberto Suazo fired home from the spot to reduce the deficit.

Felipe Melo was sent off for a tough foul on Sanchez four minutes after the interval. Three minutes later, Jean Beausejour crossed the ball from the left to Suazo, who equalised with a volley.

Chile boss Marcelo Bielsa decided to take Suazo off for Jorge Valdivia at the 68th and Chile lost attacking power.

Despite playing with one man less and being dominated by Chile, the five-time World Cup winners proved why they are the best team in the region by scoring twice in two minutes.

In the 74th, Nilmar headed a Dani Alves cross from the right home. A minute later, Gilberto Silva crossed the ball to Maicon and when his shot was saved by Omar Bravo, Nilmar connected to make it 4-2.

Only 60 seconds after Brazil’s fourth goal, Sanchez was shown red for protesting.

Chile never approached Brazil keeper Julio Cesar again and the scoring was no longer changed.

While Brazil are already through to the finals, Chile stay on 27 points and need only one more to secure qualification.

These are the only matches Brazil will play before the qualifies for 2010 World Cup, in June.

On May 14, Brazil will face Paraguay in Asunción-Paraguay, while on May 18 will receive Argentina, in Belo Horizonte-Brazil.

For who is interested in buy tickets to the matches in USA check out the links below:

Brazil vs Canada
Qwest Field, Seattle, WA
Sat, May 31, 2008 07:30 PM

Brazil vs Venezuela
Gillette Stadium, Foxborough, MA
Fri, Jun 6, 2008 06:30 PM

Charles Miller is the “father” of soccer in Brazil. When he was 9 years old he went to England to study and 10 years later in 1894 he came back with more than school knowledge. He brought two footballs, a pump, the rules book and two sets of uniforms (shirts, shorts and socks for players).

Brazil became the king of soccer after win 3 out of 4 FIFA World Cup titles from 1958 to 1970, the last FIFA World Cup won by Brazil was in Japan in 2002, it was Brazil’s 5th trophy in history of the competition, becoming the Nation which holds more FIFA World Cup titles.

Brazil also has the best player of all time, Edison Arantes do Nascimento best known by his nickname Pelé, here are some of his accomplishments:

1. He made history playing for only two teams: Santos F.C in Brazil and NY Cosmos in USA.
2. He is also a member of the American National Soccer Hall of Fame.
3. He was given the title of Athlete of the Century by the International Olympic Committee.
4. Pelé’s goal scoring record is often reported as being 1280 goals in 1363 games

Brazilian soccer teams figure between the best soccer teams of the world, teams like Sao Paulo, Corinthians, Santos, Palmeiras, Cruzeiro, Atletico Mineiro, Flamengo, Vasco, Internacional e Gremio are very well known because of their history and international titles.

Sao Paulo is the most well known Brazilian team at this time. It has won three FIFA world cup for teams and it’s the Brazilian team that holds more national titles, its 5th title was won in 2007. Flamengo claims to have 5 national titles too, but FIFA doesn’t recognize it because Flamengo disagreed to play the final game against Sport F.C in 1987, losing by W.O.

If we go back in history the modern soccer game was codified in England following the formation of The Football Association, whose 1863 Laws of the Game created the foundations for the way the sport is played today.

The strange fact is that in 7 of the 8 editions which Brazil won, the initial of the player’s first name start with the letter “R“, and the only one player that the name doesn’t start with the letter “R” is commonly know as Rivaldo that does start with the letter “R“.

Below are the name of the players who has won the award »

2007 – Ricardo Izecson dos Santos Leite, commonly know as ‘Kaka’.

2005 – Ronaldo de Assís Moreira, commonly known as ‘Ronaldinho’.

2004 – Ronaldo de Assís Moreira, commonly known as ‘Ronaldinho’.

2002 – Ronaldo Luis Nazário de Lima

1999 – Vítor Borba Ferreira, commonly known as ‘Rivaldo’

1997 – Ronaldo Luis Nazário de Lima

1996 – Ronaldo Luis Nazário de Lima

1994 – Romário de Souza Faria

All the players are still in active.