Does Brazil have the quality to win the World Cup?

Brazilian international Neymar has moved to Spanish giants Barcelona and is expected be a star at next year’s World Cup

Brazil drew 2-2 with England at the Maracana Stadium last night. The game was an entertaining affair.

The draw means that Brazil has won just game in their last eight games.

That is not an impressive record for a team, who are usually considered genuine challengers for the World Cup.

Boss

Brazil boss Big Phil Scolari is currently in his second stint as the Selecao’s national team boss.

Bosses of the Brazilian national team do not tend to get long to be successful. The fans and Brazilian media tend to hype-up their national team, a bit like England.

Scolari will have to start winning games and developing a winnable system with just a year to go before Brazil hosts the World Cup. The former-Chelsea boss won the World Cup in his first spell in 2002, but has his work cut to repeat the trick with his current team.

Decent

Brazil’s performance against England was a decent one, but they did not manage to defeat the Three Lions. Scolari must re-instil the winning mentality into his team before the World Cup starts next year.

Competitive

In just under two weeks, Brazil will start their Confederations Cup campaign, which could be vital competitive action, as the Selecao’s only recent action has been friendly matches. The lack of competitive action has led Brazil to drop down to 19^th in the FIFA world rankings.

Usually the Confederations Cup is not considered that important to most nations, but for the Brazilian national team it will be important competitive football. Expectations of Brazil at the tournament will be high and they will be under pressure to claim victory on home soil.

Inexperienced

The current Brazilian team is relatively inexperienced compared to teams of the past. There is a lot of potential in the likes of Neymar (more on him later), Lucas Moura and Oscar. However, this Brazil is considered very much a work in progress and not one of the better editions of recent years.

Neymar

Neymar is one of the most talked about footballers on the planet. At 21 years of age, he was the most in-demand striker in world football. Spanish giants Barcelona managed to secure his signature and he has officially became a Barca player.

Neymar is believed to have chosen the Catalan club ahead of arch-rivals Real Madrid. The size of the fee has not been revealed, but the youngster is sure to have cost Barca a massive amount.

There has been a lot of hype about Neymar. The youngster is highly-rated, but he has only ever played for Brazilian club Santos and the Brazilian national side. Playing in La Liga with Barcelona should help Neymar improve his game and help him develop into the world-class star he is mooted to be.

Having only seen Neymar playing for the Brazilian national team, I cannot make a proper judgement on the youngster. The young striker has only produced flashes of his ability in recent games for the Brazilian national team.

Favourites

With the World Cup on home soil, Brazil will most likely go into the World Cup as one of the favourites to win the competition. With the tournament in their home continent, they will have the advantage of being accustomed to the weather conditions compared to some of the big European competitors.

However to win the World Cup then the Selecao will have to perform better than they have in recent friendly matches. If they do not then the home fans could be in for a disappointing World Cup on home soil.

Does Brazil have the quality to win the World Cup?