Brazil at the 2006 FIFA World Cup

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At the 2006 FIFA World Cup, Brazil participated for the 18th time in the event. The country remained as the only national team to have participated in every installment of the FIFA World Cup.

The Brazilian team played until the Quarterfinals, where it was defeated by France, finishing the tournament in the fifth place — for the third time in history (1954 and 1986 were the previous instances).

Contents 1 Qualifying 2 World Cup preparation 3 Draw 3.1 History 4 World Cup Squad 5 Matches 5.1 Round Robin 5.2 Knockout Stage 6 Brazilians in other national teams

[edit] Qualifying

Brazil's qualifying for the event marked the first time in history in which a returning champion (the country had won the 2002 FIFA World Cup) had to play for a berth in the next World Cup — that had a direct effect in the organization of the 2006 World Cup: since the 1990 FIFA World Cup, the competition has had an opening match, which is played immediately after the Opening Ceremonies; until the last World Cup, this match was a privilege of the winner of the previous World Cup, who would play its first match as the first match of the given World Cup, against an opponent from its group, as decided by the official draw (in the 1990 World Cup, Argentina, winner of the 1986 FIFA World Cup, played Cameroon in the opening match; in 1994, Germany, winner of the 1990 World Cup, played Bolivia; in 1998, Brazil played Scotland and in 2002 France played Senegal). As of the 2006 World Cup, because of the change in the rules, with the last champion no longer having a secured berth in the competition, the opening match has become another privilege of the host nation (in the 2006 World Cup, Germany, as the host nation, played Costa Rica in the opening match). Despite being the returning champion, the Brazilian team debuted, against Croatia, only four days after the Opening Ceremonies and the opening match.

The national team qualified with more ease than in previous years — for the 1994 FIFA World Cup, Brazil only qualified in the very last match, against Uruguay, where a defeat would have meant missing the finals; For the 2002 FIFA World Cup, Brazil had four different managers, and was once in serious jeopardy of being left out of the event.

The Qualifying for the 2006 World Cup repeated the format installed for the previous Qualifying tournament, in 2000 and 2001 (for the 2002 World Cup): all ten South American countries played each other, in two-leg matches, with the top four teams qualifying automatically for the World Cup, whereas the fifth best team would play the champion of Oceania, which was Australia, for a berth in the World Cup.

Brazil finished first, winning the Qualifying tournament. The results were the following:

Results
Date	Venue	Opponent	Score
September 7, 2003	Estadio Metropolitano, Barranquilla	Colombia	2:1
September 10, 2003	Vivaldão, Manaus	Ecuador	1:0
November 16, 2003	Estadio Nacional, Lima	Peru	1:1
November 19, 2003	Pinheirão, Curitiba	Uruguay	3:3
March 31, 2004	Defensores del Chaco, Asunción	Paraguay	0:0
June 2, 2004	Mineirão, Belo Horizonte	Argentina	3:1
June 6, 2004	Estadio Nacional, Santiago	Chile	1:1
September 5, 2004	Morumbi, São Paulo	Bolivia	3:1
October 9, 2004	Estadio José Pachencho Romero, Maracaibo	Venezuela	5:2
October 13, 2004	Estádio Rei Pelé, Maceió	Colombia	0:0
November 17, 2004	Estadio Olímpico Atahualpa, Maracaibo	Ecuador	0:1
March 27, 2005	Serra Dourada, Goiânia	Peru	1:0
March 30, 2005	Centenario, Montevideo	Uruguay	1:1
June 4, 2005	Beira-Rio, Porto Alegre	Paraguay	4:1
June 7, 2005	Monumental de Nuñez, Buenos Aires	Argentina	1:3
September 3, 2005	Estádio Mané Garrincha, Brasília	Chile	5:0
October 8, 2005	Estadio Hernando Siles, La Paz	Bolivia	1:1
October 11, 2005	Mangueirão, Belém	Venezuela	3:0

The final standings were the following:

Final Standings
Country	Pts	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD
Brazil	34	18	9	7	2	35	17	18
Argentina	34	18	10	4	4	29	17	12
Ecuador	28	18	8	4	6	23	19	4
Paraguay	28	18	8	4	6	23	23	0
Uruguay	25	18	6	7	5	23	28	-5
Colombia	24	18	6	6	6	24	16	8
Chile	22	18	5	7	6	18	22	-4
Venezuela	18	18	5	3	10	20	28	-8
Peru	18	18	4	6	8	20	28	-8
Bolivia	14	18	4	2	12	20	37	-17

[edit] World Cup preparation

A month before the start of the competition, the Brazilian national team took quarters in the small Swiss town of Weggis, at the Weggis Park Hotel. The objective was to get the team accustomed to Germany's climate while maintaining the focus on the competition. The preparation started on May 22 and ended on June 4.

During this time, the Brazilian team played two friendly matches. The first was on May 28, against the under-20 team of the Brazilian club Fluminense, which was in Europe to play a tournament and took a detour to Switzerland to meet and play the national team. This match ended with a score of 13 goals to 1 in favor of the national team [1]. The second match was played against the state team of the Swiss Lucerne. The match took place in Basel, at the St. Jakob Stadion and was won by the Brazilian team with a score of 8 goals to nul [2].

For this period in Switzerland, the Brazilian Football Confederation sold the rights to explore the presence of the national team to a Swiss events enterprise. In exchange for the declared amount of 1.2 million United States dollars, the Swiss company was allowed to sell tickets for the practice sessions — which were sold at 40 euros each, for about 5 thousand people per session —, negotiate permissions for vending points to operate within the training facility and surrounding area — which were sold for about 2 thousand euros plus 10% of the profit — and to organize and explore the friendly matches that the national team was to play during its preparation in Switzerland.

On May 31, only 13 days away from the team's debut in the World Cup, defender Edmílson was cut due to a knee injury that had manifested during the practice session the day before. São Paulo's Mineiro was called to take his place.

Upon leaving Weggis, on June 4, the national team made a stop in Geneva, on June 5, to play its last friendly match before going to Germany. There, the team played New Zealand, at the Stade de Genève (refereed by Jerome Laperriere) which it defeated with a score of 4 goals to nul [3].

Finally, the team went to a German town named Königstein im Taunus, which invested the declared amount of 500 thousand euros in order to prepare for receiving the Brazilian team.

[edit] Draw

Traditionally, the host nation (in this case, Germany) is the first seed, being placed in Group A. On December 6, 2005, so as to prevent a possible match between Brazil and Germany before the final, FIFA placed the previous competition champion as the sixth seed, in Group F. The opponents of the Brazilian team in the first stage are, respectively, Croatia, Australia and Japan.

[edit] History

Round Robin

The Brazilian team has never faced any of its first round opponents before in World Cups. But other matches, both official and friendly ones, have taken place. The history of those matches until, but not including, the 2006 World Cup is as follows:

Opponent	Matches	Victories	Ties	Defeats	Goals scored	Goals conceded	First match	Last match
Croatia	1	0	1	0	1	1	1:1 (on August 17, 2005 at Poljud, Split)	1:1 (on August 17, 2005 at Poljud, Split)
Australia	5	3	1	1	9	1	1:0 (on July 7, 1988 at Melbourne Cricket Ground, Melbourne)	0:1 (on June 9, 2001 at Munsu Cup Stadium, Ulsan, South Korea)
Japan	7	5	2	0	16	3	1:0 (on July 23, 1989 at Estádio São Januário, Rio de Janeiro)	2:2 (on June 22, 2005 at RheinEnergieStadion, Cologne, Germany)

source

Round of 16

Prior to their meeting in the Round of 16 of the 2006 FIFA World Cup, Brazil and Ghana had played only one friendly match. Although this was officially a match between the two main teams, Brazil played it using its under-23 team (the so-called "Olympic squad"), as the match was a part of the preparation for the football competition of the 1996 Summer Olympic Games.

Opponent	Matches	Victories	Ties	Defeats	Goals scored	Goals conceded	First match	Last match
Ghana	1	1	0	0	8	2	8:2 (on March 27, 1996 at Estádio Benedito Teixeira, São José do Rio Preto, São Paulo, Brazil)	8:2 (on March 27, 1996 at Estádio Benedito Teixeira, São José do Rio Preto, São Paulo, Brazil)

source

Quarterfinal

Both the first and the last matches between Brazil and France prior to their 2006 World Cup quarterfinal encounter were friendly matches. The last one was a commemorative display for FIFA's centennial anniversary.

Opponent	Matches	Victories	Ties	Defeats	Goals scored	Goals conceded	First match	Last match
France	12	5	4	3	21	17	3:2 (on August 1, 1930 at Estádio das Laranjeiras, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil)	0:0 (on May 20, 2004 at Stade de France, Saint-Denis, France)

Sources: [4] / [5]

[edit] World Cup Squad

Number / Name		Club	Birthdate	Pld	Goals	YC	RC
Goalkeepers
1	Dida	A.C. Milan	10.07.1973	5	0	0	0
12	Rogério Ceni	São Paulo FC	22.01.1973	1	0	0	0
22	Júlio César	Internazionale	03.09.1979	0	0	0	0
Defenders
2	Cafu (captain)	AC Milan	07.06.1970	4	0	2	0
3	Lúcio	FC Bayern Munich	08.05.1978	5	0	1	0
4	Juan	Bayer Leverkusen	01.02.1979	5	0	2	0
6	Roberto Carlos	Real Madrid	10.04.1973	4	0	0	0
13	Cicinho	Real Madrid	24.06.1980	2	0	0	0
14	Luisão	SL Benfica	10.04.1973	0	0	0	0
15	Cris	Olympique Lyon	03.06.1977	0	0	0	0
16	Gilberto	Hertha Berlim	25.04.1976	1	1	1	0
Midfielders
5	Emerson	Juventus F.C.	04.04.1976	3	0	1	0
8	Kaká	A.C. Milan	22.04.1982	5	1	0	0
10	Ronaldinho Gaúcho	FC Barcelona	21.03.1980	5	0	0	0
11	Zé Roberto	FC Bayern Munich	06.07.1974	5	1	0	0
17	Gilberto Silva	Arsenal FC	07.10.1976	4	0	0	0
18	Mineiro 1	São Paulo FC	02.08.1975	0	0	0	0
19	Juninho Pernambucano	Olympique Lyon	30.01.1975	3	1	0	0
20	Ricardinho	Corinthians	31.05.1976	2	0	0	0
Forwards
7	Adriano	Internazionale	17.02.1982	4	2	1	0
9	Ronaldo	Real Madrid	22.09.1976	5	3	2	0
21	Fred	Olympique Lyon	31.10.1981	1	1	0	0
23	Robinho	Real Madrid	25.01.1984	4	0	1	0
Coach
	Carlos Alberto Parreira		27.02.1943

Pld = matches played, YC = yellow cards, RC = red cards.