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Thursday, August 2, 2012

Guias Barca mantendo sobre Neymar

Neymar of Brazil looks on during the international friendly match between Great Britain and Brazil at Riverside Stadium on July 20, 2012 in Middlesbrough, England
Image by: Julian Finney / Getty Images

A Prodigy Futebol, em casa no Brasil

Miguel Schincariol/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

A Soccer Prodigy, at Home in Brazil

Neymar has led Santos to the championship of the top league in the country and is the highest-paid player in Brazil.
By SAM BORDEN

There is a Brazilian saying that the soccer prodigy Neymar and his family often laugh about. The phrase — calça de veludo ou bunda de fora — comes up frequently: when Neymar reminisces about his beginnings in street games in São Vicente, for example, or when someone asks, again, “Are you really better than Messi?” Always, the family returns to calça de veludo ou bunda de fora. And then they all giggle.

The phrase is difficult to translate directly into English. Generally, it has to do with gambling and a man’s soul. It has to do with being brash and bold and brave. It has to do with fortitude and, perhaps more than anything else, an abiding belief in a singular path.

Sitting in a hotel lounge 25 stories above Columbus Circle in Manhattan last month, the star’s father, Neymar Sr., looked out over Central Park and tried his best to explain it. Across the Hudson River, his son was with the Brazilian national team, preparing for a sold-out exhibition match against Argentina and, beyond that, for the Olympics, where he will be the most dynamic player in the competition. At the London Games, with the world’s spotlight squarely on him, Neymar Jr. will seek to earn his country a gold medal, the one major soccer trophy it has never won.

“He is living it right now,” Neymar Sr. said. “That saying we talk about — he is doing it.”

But that was not enough. So Neymar Sr. tried again, through a translator, to summarize the essence of the phrase. His son’s success, he continued, has always been based on risk. On finding the right mix of fast and slow, of possibility and caution.

At 20 years old, Neymar is already the highest-paid soccer player in Brazil. He is the face (and future) of soccer’s South American mecca. He is, in the words of no less than perhaps the greatest player in history, a technical marvel, a wizard with magical feet. But through it all, his father said, this one Brazilian saying has guided him, especially now as the latest question — when will Neymar go to Europe for good? — is asked over and over.

Finally, Neymar Sr. laughed as he settled on the best way to present the idiom. He sat up straight and explained that in life there are, really, only two choices: “A man can either go through life wearing velvet pants,” he said grinning, “or he can go through life with his bare rear end hanging out in the open air.”

A Magician With the Ball

For the better part of 100 years, Brazilian custom has allowed many, if not most, people to go by a single nickname. This convention knows no boundaries (a former president was known simply as Lula), and in some cities even the phone books list residents by a lone name.

In soccer, the nicknames are prevalent. Edson Arantes do Nascimento is Pelé. Ricardo Izecson dos Santos Leite is Kaká. Robinho, who was Neymar Jr.’s favorite player growing up, is Robson de Souza. And so, before Neymar — Neymar da Silva Santos Jr., actually — there was Neymar Sr.

But Neymar Sr.’s risks did not come on the soccer field. Yes, he was a professional player, he said, but by his own admission “not a player of high quality.” In 1992 he was playing in Mogi das Cruzes, a factory city about 25 miles east of São Paulo, when his son was born. Initially, Neymar Sr. remained in Mogi, but after several years, as it became clear his playing career was ending, he moved his family — his wife, Nadine, as well as an infant daughter and Neymar Jr. — back to his hometown, São Vicente.

There, in the coastal city where he grew up, Neymar Sr. moved in with his parents. “We weren’t starting at zero — we were starting at minus-five,” Neymar Sr. said, acknowledging it would have been easy simply to stay put. Live in that modest house, raise his children with his parents around, aspire to little more than he had. “We could have done that,” he said.

Instead, he started his chase for the velvet pants. Neymar Sr. began working three jobs simultaneously. He was a car mechanic. He was a bricklayer. He was an employee for the city. His wife worked too, as a cook at a child-care center.

The early mornings and late nights lasted about four years, Neymar Sr. said, and in the middle of that span — when Neymar Jr. was 7 — a recruiter for a local indoor soccer team came to see them.

The family did not know it, but that was the beginning. Neymar Sr. did not get to see his son play much because he was always working, but he had heard the talk. Even at 5 and 6, Neymar was pushing to play with older boys in street games. It did not matter that the goals were sandals and the ball was sometimes little more than a rock. “I just wanted to play,” Neymar said during a recent interview at a New Jersey restaurant.

Grabbing a tiny salt shaker from the table, he held it up against a water glass at least three times as large. “They were this size, I was that size,” he said, laughing at the memory. “They were very dismissive, the other boys. ‘Who is this little kid?’ But I managed to convince them to let me play that first time, and I scored a goal. That changed their attitude. That changed everything.”

Between street games and salon football, or futsal, as it is sometimes known, Neymar quickly developed a preternatural touch with the ball. Style is prized among South American players, and controlling the ball artistically is such a desired skill that there is a television show — known as “Street Style” — dedicated to identifying the best juggler.

Neymar was a celebrity judge on that show last year (he even gave a standing ovation to one contestant, who popped the ball up and hid it under his shirt as Neymar looked for it in confusion) and, as a boy, he honed his feel for the ball by rarely being without one, as if willing it to become an extension of his feet.

He can flick it, roll it, slide it and cradle it. He can make it disappear. In an exhibition against the United States this year, Neymar took the ball to the near side and danced with it toward the endline. As the crowd at FedEx Field in Landover, Md., exhaled a collective “oooh,” he slipped toward the goal and slid a perfect pass at the feet of a teammate, Pato.

That Pato’s shot rebounded off the post almost did not matter. For that moment, Neymar was a boy again, juggling in the streets with his friends shouting at him to keep the ball in the air longer and kick it over his head once more.

“I just like playing with the ball,” he said. “I always have. I play on the street even now. When we’re on vacation — it doesn’t matter where — I will go and look for a game.”

There were never enough games to satisfy Neymar, and by the time he was 11, teams throughout Brazil coveted him. His father took over full-time care of Neymar’s career at that point, handling the crush of scouts and club representatives who came to try and sign him. One of them was the Brazilian legend Zito, who scored 57 goals with Santos F.C. and won two World Cups with the national team. That Neymar rooted for Santos made the connection even sweeter.

Neymar ultimately joined Santos’s youth team, but at 14 he was offered the chance to play for Real Madrid, a Spanish power and one of Europe’s most famous clubs. Brazilian stars like Ronaldo and Robinho played for Madrid, and Neymar traveled there with his family.

The allure of Europe was powerful. “I have always dreamed of playing there,” Neymar said, and he could have stayed, could have made his life there. No one in Brazil would have begrudged him using that opening as the start to a long career playing in a more visible league like those in Spain or England or Italy. But Neymar Sr. said the family ignored the popular sentiment.

“We’re from a humble family, and in a humble family there is always the question of cultural values,” he said. “We thought he had to grow up in Brazil. That was the first serious choice we had to make.”

So Neymar did not rise up through the ranks at Madrid. And he did not receive the exposure guaranteed to South American prodigies who opt to play in Europe like, say, the Argentine Lionel Messi, to whom Neymar is so often compared. Instead, he returned home. He rejoined Santos and re-entered a life that quickly developed into something he never could have imagined.

A Life Closely Examined

One afternoon, before a Santos game in 2010, Neymar and his friend Andres decided to give themselves new hairstyles. Neymar had previously kept a simple, basic look, but after toying with a razor for a while the pair settled on something akin to a Mohawk.

“It was just messing around,” Neymar said recently, in the way mischievous children do.

At the game later, Neymar Sr. had just settled into his seat when he saw his son — and his son’s hair — on the field. While he managed to restrain himself from running out there and wringing Neymar’s neck (a thought, he acknowledged, that crossed his mind), there was a conversation — the father’s word — afterward about Neymar’s impulsiveness.

Still, little could be done. After all, Neymar had scored two goals with his new haircut, so it was not going anywhere, and the haircut quickly became a national phenomenon. Children got the Mohawk. Adults got the Mohawk. “In Brazil, only the president doesn’t have a Mohawk,” Neymar Sr. said, sighing. Even now — with Neymar back to a more standard appearance — fans still pay homage. A teenage fan with a spiky Mohawk approached Neymar at the New Jersey restaurant recently, and Neymar rubbed the bristles as they took a picture together.

Neymar’s fame, particularly at home, is difficult to quantify. He returned to Santos at 14 and made a first-team impact at 17, scoring 14 goals that season. At 18, he scored 42 goals in 60 games and led Santos to the championship of the Campeonato Paulista, the top league in the country.

It was not long before he could barely go out of the house. Neymar likes food — Italian, Japanese and, of course, rice and beans, he said — but going to restaurants became troublesome. “And I only know how to make scrambled eggs myself,” he said a bit sheepishly.

There are safety issues as well. While hooliganism is not as prevalent in Brazil as in some European countries, the public scrutiny of Neymar and his teammates seemingly knows no bounds. Once, after Santos lost a match, 6-2, the fans were so angry that they threw eggs at the players.

The public examination of Neymar may never have been higher than in 2011, when he became a father at 19. His father had cautioned him against the dangers of what he called the “chemical and the physical,” but while Neymar had avoided issues with alcohol or drugs, the uproar over his baby out of wedlock was brutal.

Journalists pried. Fans speculated. Television shows and news reports inspected all aspects of the situation. Eduardo Musa, one of the 14 members of Neymar’s team of advisers, said: “It was overwhelming, and what we did not want people to forget was that it was not a money issue or anything else. It was a baby. That was the important thing.”

The baby, a boy named Davi, was born last August, and Neymar said the ugliness surrounding the news of the pregnancy had been far overshadowed by the joys of fatherhood. Davi lives with his mother, but Neymar said he saw him often; in New York, he and his sister both shopped constantly for presents for Davi, Neymar Sr. said.

“Everything in my life has happened very early, personally and professionally,” Neymar said. “I’m always learning. I have to.”

Lately, the focus on Neymar has become almost exclusively about where he plays. On his 20th birthday, Feb. 5, 2012, he scored his 100th professional goal, and Santos has turned down advances from several English clubs, including Chelsea, attempting to take Neymar to Europe.

This is not new. Neymar Sr. recalled a stranger confronting him at a grocery store when Neymar was 16 and haranguing him about how he owed it to everyone — his son, his family and Brazilians as a people — to send Neymar to Europe to play.

But Neymar Sr. said the family was sticking to its plan. “It was hard to stay in Brazil,” he said. “But we are achieving, we are doing this, at least until he matures. Then we will go out and show the world.”

A Sense of Purpose and Place

At times, Neymar Sr. sounds a bit like Tiger Woods’s father, Earl, when he talks about his son. Earl Woods was known for his (often bombastic) pronouncements of Tiger’s importance and impact, perhaps most notably when he suggested Tiger would have more influence on the world than Jesus Christ. Neymar Sr. is more measured — he at least says his son is still developing — but preaches, all the same, about how Neymar will help change the style of soccer around the world.

Initially, it seems overwrought, a reaction to the increase in rugged play (both in Brazil and elsewhere) and the deterioration of the so-called beautiful game, which features artistic dribbling and, at its best, stunning sequences of ball movement around the field.

And yet, then, one must consider this: There is a video on YouTube titled, in part, “Neymar Super Drible,” which contains footage from a match last year between Brazil and Argentina. In it, Neymar takes a pass on the left sideline, coolly drags the ball downfield and proceeds to do a series of feints, fakes and what looks like a sort of rudimentary samba before slyly pushing the ball past the defender.

There is no amazing goal scored on the video. There is not even a shot on goal. There is just dribbling and running and the most graceful kind of movement, and to date the video has been viewed more than nine million times.

Neymar Sr. believes that sort of reach is proof that the risks the family has taken for Neymar have been worthwhile. “If my son were not a soccer player today, he would be unemployed,” the father said, but it is more than that. He would have no purpose, Neymar Sr. went on. No place.

Now, Neymar is compared to Messi. Some, like Messi’s former teammate Thierry Henry, see no comparison. “I think Neymar is amazing; I think Messi is more than amazing,” Henry said. But there are people like Pelé, perhaps the greatest ever to play, who said he believed Neymar was more technically advanced than Messi.

Neymar is diplomatic, saying, “I have a long way to go to be compared to him for real.” If he and his father are to be believed, Neymar will leave London after the Olympics and return to Brazil, as he intends to honor his contract with Santos, which runs through 2014.

It is a risk, of course. Neymar could get hurt, could lose his form. He could be surpassed by another wunderkind who can do even more with the ball. And, as the man in the grocery store said years ago, how will the family feel if Neymar never plays on his sport’s biggest stages?

Father and son say they do not care. These are the chances they have taken, and these are the choices they have made. This is their path.

“Everyone thinks money is everything, but it isn’t,” Neymar Sr. said, sipping his coffee. “We’ve lived on very little.”

He gestured out the window. “Maybe the boldness, the daring of having said ‘no,’ signifies something to people everywhere. Maybe it says something important. Doesn’t it?”

Neymar Sr. laughed then, because he knew. Of course it did. The chase for velvet pants never ends.

source:http://www.nytimes.com

Diver sujo! Neymar tenta um golpe penalidade (Brasil) v Equipe GB

Dirty Diver! Neymar tries to scam a penalty (Brazil) v Team GB

He is one of the world’s great players, but Neymar appears to have a diving problem.

Just a couple of weeks ago, the Brazilian starlet attracted a large amount of criticism after he managed to get Gremio’s Wesley booked for a phantom foul, that ultimately lead to a goal for Santos.

Unfortunately, on Friday night Neymar was at it again at the Riverside stadium.

After working his way into the Team GB box on the half hour of the Olympics warm-up match, the teenager fell unconvincingly in the box as he tried to con a penalty under the watched gaze of Ryan Bertrand.

What makes Neymar’s dives all-the-more galling is that having so much ability in his arsenal, it should be beneath him to resort to shady tricks. In short, Neymar should never reduce himself to cheating, but sadly it appears to happen with regularity.

Watch Neymar’s latest dirty dive below.

source:http://www.101greatgoals.com

Neymar: caixa de truques não é o principal

Brasil Mostrar Grã-Bretanha Gold Standard

Brazil Show Britain Gold Standard

MIDDLESBROUGH, England : Neymar turned in a fine individual display by scoring one goal and setting up another as Brazil warmed up for the Olympics with a 2-0 victory over Britain on Friday.

The 20-year-old striker whipped in a free kick for Sandro to head the gold medal favorites in front in the 12th minute.

Neymar got on the scoresheet himself in the 35th with a penalty after Hulk was tripped by Britain defender Micah Richards.

The British rarely looked capable of scoring as they were outclassed ahead of their first appearance in the Olympics since 1960.

Britain started with Daniel Sturridge playing as a lone striker as he attempted to prove his match fitness after a bout of viral meningitis.

But they relied on goalkeepers Jason Steele and Jack Butland, who each played a half, to ensure Brazil didn’t leave the Riverside Stadium with a bigger victory.

Leandro Damiao, supported by Oscar, Neymar and Hulk tormented England’s back four from the start.

But the hosts could have leveled after Sandro’s opener. Richards met Ryan Giggs’ free kick beyond the far post, although defender Thiago Silva was on hand to clear a downward header.
After Neymar extended Brazil’s lead from the spot, the Santos star forced a save from Steele at his near post and saw a long-range effort deflected over the bar.

After the break, Butland was forced to save from Oscar and Damiao in quick succession with his defense offering little protection.

There was a glimmer of hope for Britain when Danny Rose crossed to Craig Bellamy, but the Welsh forward’s effort was denied by a point-blank save.

There was a lively finale, with Butland making a one-handed save to block Neymar’s shot towards the bottom corner and then palming Alexandre Pato’s header over the crossbar. Britain has not fielded an Olympic team since the 1960 Games in Rome because football federations in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland feared losing their independence within FIFA.

The world body assured the football associations their status won’t be affected by participating in the 16-team competition as the Olympics return to London for the first time since 1948. There are no players from Scotland or Northern Ireland in the squad, with only England and Wales represented.

In Middlesbrough, England, Britain’s women’s soccer team, who take part in the first event of the Olympic Games when they play New Zealand in Cardiff next Wednesday, drew 0-0 with Sweden in their first official match at the Riverside Stadium on Friday.

The game, the first half of a double-header with the men’s Olympic team due to play Brazil later, was full of fine technical play from two evenly matched teams making their final preparations in a low-key encounter before the start of the soccer tournament next week.

The British team, whose only other match was a behind closed doors training game which ended in a 3-1 win over South Africa this month, came closest to a goal when Rachel Yankey, making her 120th appearance for England as a second half substitute, hit a post with a well-taken left-foot shot after 70 minutes.

Sweden, who finished third in last year’s women’s World Cup and are fourth in FIFA’s world rankings threatened several times and Sofia Jakobsson, who plays professionally in Russia, wasted a good scoring chance just before halftime.

Caroline Seger, winning her 93rd cap for Sweden, had her side’s two best scoring chances, but failed to take either.

The two sets of players will be seeing plenty of each other over the next few weeks, whether they meet in the later stages of the Games or not as they are sharing the same accomodation block in the Olympic Village.

Britain, taking part in the Olympics for the first time, face Cameroon and gold medal favourites Brazil in their opening group matches, while Sweden are grouped with world champions Japan, Canada and South Africa, their first opponents in Coventry next Wednesday.

The soccer tournament traditionally starts before the opening ceremony to accommodate the competition programme which features 16 men’s teams and 12 womens.

source:http://www.arabtimesonline.com

Saturday, July 21, 2012

Tentativa GB tudo misturado

GettyImagesA subdued crowd watched on as Great Britain battled against their Brazilian rivals

GettyImagesAll eyes will be on Neymar at the Games

Neymar - Brazil

Brazil Olympics scouting report: Neymar, Oscar & Thiago Silva among Selecao danger men with a point to prove

The South Americans face Team GB in a friendly as both teams continue their London 2012 preparations and Goal.com looks at what the Brits ought to know ahead of the game
ANALYSIS By Miles Chambers

Brazil travel to the 2012 Olympics with just Spain more favoured among the general public to win gold in Great Britain.

Most UK football fans only started to get excited when the Selecao’s mouth-watering squad was announced, shortly after Team GB’s uninspiring team selection caused more eye-rolls than interest.

A look down the player names is like reading a list of the most high-profile transfer targets in the world right now: Lucas Moura, Neymar, Ganso, Leandro Damiao, Oscar, Hulk.

Goal.com looks at who the danger men are, why the Olympics is craved so much in the South American nation, who their coach is and unearths intriguing facts about this summer’s Samba Boys.

OLYMPIC HISTORY

Forever the bridesmaid, never the bride - the Olympics is a major tournament that has so far eluded the five-time World Cup winners and seven-time Copa America champions.

Romario (pictured above) was part of the Brazil side that reached the final in Seoul 1988 and scored in the 2-1 extra-time defeat to the Soviet Union.

This last-gasp loss came four years after being beaten 2-0 in the gold medal match by France and those consecutive silver medals are the only final appearances in 11 qualifications for the historic sporting event.

Sixteen years ago they picked up a bronze medal by thrashing Portugal 5-0 after being stunned by Nigeria in the Atlanta Olympics semi-finals 4-3 in extra-time.

Four years ago they repeated that achievement after perennial South American rivals Argentina knocked them out 3-0 in the semis, before the Brazilians put three goals past Belgium to help the nation finish 23rd in the overall medal table.

This summer they will be desperate to put past woes behind them to give them a welcome boost with the 2014 World Cup, being hosted in Brazil, less than two years away.

PLAYERS TO WATCH

Hulk

One of many Brazilians linked with a move to Chelsea (and Tottenham) this summer, the Porto star is likely to be at the heart of many successful attacks at London 2012.

Picked as one of the three over-23 players in the Olympic side, Hulk has 13 caps and three goals for the senior side but all of these have come in the last three years. He has performed notably in recent friendlies and, now he is a key figure in the Selecao step-up, he will be eager to prove he can shoulder the responsibility.

Neymar

Described in some quarters as the most exciting player of this generation, the Santos striker is a potential leading figure for the Brazil national side in the future.

At London 2012, eyes will be fixed upon the 20-year-old to see if the tricky attacker is as talented as many say he is. How he performs on the major stage could affect future moves to vaunted clubs such as Real Madrid and Barcelona.

Oscar

The Internacional midfielder will be one of the most keenly watched by British eyes seeing as the 20-year-old has been heavily linked with a Chelsea move.

The starlet has shown tidy performances in recent Selecao matches which has allowed him to leapfrog Ganso in the Mano Menezes’ preferred starting line-up. Whether he keeps his place for the duration of the tournament could depend on his creative impact in the group games.

Sandro

One of only two Premier League stars in the Brazil squad, Sandro ensures the hard graft is achieved alongside the Samba-style and attractive attacking that many of his compatriots prefer.

Linked with Real Madrid (where Tottenham team-mate Luka Modric looks destined to go this summer) not so long ago, the Spurs central midfielder still has plenty to learn but is fast becoming lauded for his solid showings in north London. The Olympics should allow critics to see how far he has come in his time at White Hart Lane.

Thiago Silva

Having just secured a move to cash-rich Ligue 1 club (and a second-home for Serie A stars) PSG, the team captain is undoubtedly Brazil's best central defender.

The oldest player will have the duty of leading the younger defenders like Juan Jesus and Bruno Uvini to glory against teams that will be fighting for their survival in the competition. A commanding presence in the centre of the back-line always helps teams progress into the final stages of a tournament.

COACH

The man to lead the Brazil Under-23s throughout London 2012 will be the senior squad’s head coach - Mano Menezes.

The manager was expected to bring in a more experienced player to team up with Thiago Silva in defence, so David Luiz's absence has taken pundits in Brazil by surprise.

However, the coach has been coherent in keeping Hulk in his first-team plans - the Porto attacker had top form during friendlies earlier in the summer.

Brazil legend Romario said to reporters at the start of July when the squad was picked: “It's rubbish. Nothing against the over-23s who were selected, but this should have gone to players who are more experienced.

“I'm not the coach, but I disagree with this selection. I would take three defenders over the age of 23.”

Despite Brazil dropping out of the Fifa top 10 for the first time since it was created in the early 1990s, Menezes has largely done a good job with the Selecao.

Two losses in June were a set-back to the coach but Hulk, Oscar, Thiago Silva, Marcelo, Alexandre Pato and Neymar - all in the Olympic squad - have scored in the last three senior games.

DID YOU KNOW?

The national side has only missed the men’s football event at the Olympic Games three times in the last 52 years.

According to Goal.com Brazil’s Matheus Harb: “The gold medal is one of the international trophies that Brazil has never won, despite holding five World Cup and several Copa America titles at its tab. So the top of the podium is met as an obligation in every edition of the Games.”

Brazil hosts the next World Cup in 2014 and the next Olympics in 2016. Plenty of major tournament football on home turf coming up for these players, then.

Mano Menezes's men’s opponents in the group stage are Belarus (who they face second at Manchester United’s ground, Old Trafford), Egypt (their first game of London 2012 in the Millenium Stadium in Wales) and New Zealand (at Newcastle United’s St James’ Park to conclude their group games).

If the Selecao top Group C and Spain finish second in Group D, the footballing giants will face each other in the quarter-final stage at St James’ Park on Saturday August 4.

Senior players who are missing out on the Olympic finals include Barcelona’s Dani Alves, Chelsea duo Ramires and David Luiz, Inter right-back Maicon, former Ballon d’Or winner and Real Madrid midfielder Kaka and Ronaldinho, who has been capped 94 times for his country.

Can Brazil win genuinely go for gold? Matheus Harb believes so. The Brazil expert said: “If they manage to defend way better against good opponents, and run away from the predictable style of play they have been showing, then the gold medal may become a reality.”

source:http://www.goal.com