Football: Neymar returns as Brazil brush aside South Korea to reach World Cup quarters

DOHA, Qatar -- Neymar returned from injury to help inspire Brazil to a 4-1 victory over South Korea on Monday as the favorites cruised through to the quarter-finals of the World Cup.

The world's most expensive player had sat out his team's last two matches with a sprained ankle suffered in their opening 2-0 win over Serbia.

But he came back for this last-16 tie as Tite's team clicked into gear and delivered an ominous message to their rivals, at least before easing off in the second half.

Vinicius Junior opened the scoring inside seven minutes before Neymar added another from the penalty spot to move to 76 goals for his country, leaving him just one away from equaling Pele's all-time record tally.

Richarlison's brilliant goal made it 3-0 and Lucas Paqueta added another before half-time to leave South Korea shellshocked.

Paik Seung-ho pulled one back but by then Brazil were thinking about Friday's quarter-final clash with 2018 runners-up Croatia.

"The time has come to go further," Neymar told Brazilian broadcaster Globo, referring to their defeats in the semi-finals in 2014 and quarter-finals four years ago.

"We are dreaming of winning the title, that's obvious, but we have to go step by step.

"This was the fourth game. There are three to go but we are prepared. Our minds are focused on winning the title.”

The five-time world champions had not scored four goals in a knockout game at the tournament since 1998.

Here they played at times with the joy associated with the Brazilian national team, the players coming together to celebrate each goal by showing off their dance moves and their coach even joining in.

If they finished playing within themselves, their first-half display was superb and a fitting tribute to the great Pele.

The Brazilian legend had said he would watch the game from the Sao Paulo hospital to where he was admitted last week for cancer treatment, and supporters in Doha's Stadium 974 unfurled a banner with a get well soon message to him.

It was a chastening experience for Son Heung-min and South Korea, who have still never won a World Cup knockout match outside their own country.

Their coach Paulo Bento later announced he would not be continuing in the role.

"I believe we can be very proud of what we have done at this World Cup, and what we have done over the last four years to get here," said Bento.

Tite made 10 changes to the Brazil team after rotating his squad for last Friday's inconsequential 1-0 loss to Cameroon, with Danilo also returning from injury at left-back.

- Richarlison stars again -

With Alisson Becker back in goal and Thiago Silva and Marquinhos playing too, this was Brazil's first-choice defense but their forwards quickly put the tie to bed.

The opener came from their first shot on target as Raphinha burst away from Kim Jin-su on the right and his ball across goal came to the feet of Vinicius who coolly picked his spot.

They then won a penalty as Richarlison was caught by Jung Woo-young and Neymar duly beat Kim Seung-gyu -- his last six goals for Brazil have now all come from the spot.

Alisson was then called into action to tip over a vicious long-range effort from Hwang Hee-chan, but Brazil scored their third in style just before the half-hour mark.

Richarlison juggled the ball on his head three times just outside the area before laying it off to Marquinhos and then continuing into the box to get on the end of Silva's pass which he slotted home for his third goal at this World Cup.

Paqueta got their fourth nine minutes before the break with a first-time finish as he connected with a Vinicius ball held up from the byline.

They took their foot off the pedal in the second half, although Raphinha was denied on several occasions by the goalkeeper.

Korea though deserve credit for keeping going and were rewarded inside the final quarter-hour as substitute Paik brought down a clearance and sent in a ferocious shot from 25 metres that brushed off Silva to beat Alisson.

Agence France-Presse

Neymar set to mark 100th game with Brazil

SAO PAULO— Ahead of his 100th game with Brazil, Neymar is adamant that he still deserves special treatment in the national team despite never having won a major title in his nine years wearing the famous yellow shirt.

The 27-year-old forward will reach the century mark in a friendly against Senegal in Singapore on Thursday, and defended his status as the team’s biggest star even though Brazil won this summer’s Copa America without him.


“I was always one of the main figures and one of those carrying it all on my back,” Neymar said at a news conference Wednesday when asked about getting special treatment. “I never ran away from that. I always played my role in the national team very well. When a player reaches that level it is normal that there is a different treatment.”

“I was in places that had players with more history than me and I had to respect what coaches did for them,” the Paris Saint-Germain striker added. “Messi has a different treatment at Barcelona. Is it because he is better looking? No. It is because he is decisive. He earned it. I don’t say that only about myself, but I say it about everyone that has performances at that level. That is normal in soccer.”

Neymar’s comments come at a time when some Brazil fans have accused coach Tite and the Brazilian soccer confederation of being too lenient with the striker over his problems off the pitch. Those include his altercation with a fan after the French Cup final in April; his insistence that his father-agent was allowed into Brazil’s dressing room during a pre-Copa America friendly; and a rape allegation that was recently closed by police.

Neymar is currently at odds with PSG’s fans as well after trying to force a return to Barcelona during the offseason.


And in Brazil, he remains the country’s most polarizing player.

His statistics with the national team are impressive: 61 goals and 42 assists in 99 games so far. That puts him one goal behind two-time World Cup winner Ronaldo, who is in second place on Brazil’s all-time list of top scorers with 62. Pele tops the list with 77.

With Neymar in the team, Brazil has 70 victories, 19 draws and 10 defeats. But aside from the 2013 Confederations Cup, no titles.

At the 2014 World Cup at home, Neymar injured his back in the quarterfinal win over Colombia and the team was humiliated 7-1 by Germany in the semifinals without him. At least year’s World Cup in Brazil he was far from his best after recovering from a foot injury, and made little impact as Brazil lost 2-1 to Belgium in the quarterfinals.

And this summer he had to miss the Copa America because of an injury he sustained shortly before the tournament.


Asked about his best memories with the national team, Neymar picked his debut, his World Cup debut in 2014 and the goal he scored in the opening game of the tournament against Croatia.

“There is a positive balance, but it isn’t all about victories in the life of an athlete,” Neymar said. “There are many disappointments, defeats and mistakes. But if you fight for it, in the end, you make up for your mistakes. I am very happy to reach that mark of 100 matches. Not even in my best dreams I thought this could happen.”

source: sports.inquirer.net

Ref duped by Neymar play-acting, Mexico coach says

Mexico coach Juan Carlos Osorio hit out at Italian referee Gianluca Rocchi’s handling of their 2-0 World Cup quarter-final loss to Brazil, claiming Neymar play-acted.

Neymar broke the deadlock with a 51st minute opener at Samara Arena and set up Roberto Firmino for a late second.

But tensions flared following a tussle with midfielder Miguel Layun as Mexico battled to stay in the tournament.


Brazil coach Tite said Layun had “stepped” on Neymar.

But Neymar’s exaggerated reaction — the player dramatically writhed on the turf after Layun approached him — suggested a repeat of the play-acting that marred his play in the group phase.

The 56-year-old Osorio refused to identify Neymar by name following the defeat but claimed the play-acting, and the ensuing delays in play, had been badly handed by Rocchi.

“I think it’s a shame for football,” said Osorio.

“We wasted a lot of time because of one single player… we lost our style in the second half, because of the referee.

“There were too many stoppages and my players got more and more tired of that situation. At one point there was a four-minute stoppage.

“I think this is a very bad example for the world and the world of football.”

Neymar, voted man-of-the-match, was stopped by Tite afterwards as he was about to reply to reporters’ demands to clarify the incident.

Tite was adamant: “They stepped on him. I saw it on the screen.”

Neymar attempted to play down the incident.

“Look, I think it’s more an attempt to undermine me than anything else,” said the Brazilian.

“I don’t care much for criticism, or praise, because this can influence your attitude.

“In the last two matches I didn’t talk to the press because I don’t want to I just have to play, help my teammates, help my team.

“I’m here to win. I can always improve. Today I feel much better and I’m very happy for this win.”

As Brazil get set to face Japan or Belgium, who play later, for a place in the semi-finals, Mexico return home after the last 16 for the seventh consecutive edition.

Despite his complaints about Neymar, who now has two goals in this tournament, Osorio suggested Mexico’s main problem had been Brazil’s superior firepower.

“I’d like to say that playing at such a level against a team like Brazil, Mexico have shown they are a top team,” he added.

“I think Mexican football needs to have more players playing abroad, so they can match themselves up against the best.

“I’m deeply sorry for our fans, they’re the best fans in the world.”

source: sports.inquirer.net

Neymar fitness in the spotlight as Brazil face Croatia

Brazil will keep a close eye on the fitness of star striker Neymar when the World Cup contenders face Croatia in a friendly at Anfield on Sunday.


Neymar, who scored four goals in the 2014 World Cup, has not played any form of football since February after breaking his foot.

The 26-year-old Paris Saint Germain ace sat out training on Thursday as a precaution.


But his Brazil team-mate Fernandinho has given a positive assessment of Neymar’s condition just two weeks before the start of the World Cup on June 14.

“By the movements and dribbles he has been doing in training, he has shown he is well,” said the Manchester City midfielder.

“He is confident which is important, he shows that he isn’t scared of our defenders as he takes them on without fear.

“This is the first steps to getting his confidence back to 100 percent for the World Cup.

“We also support his recovery because without a doubt he will be the difference for our team.

“I’ve been in his position when I was younger, being injured isn’t easy even when getting back from injury doing daily workouts even when the bone is still hurting is still difficult.

“Neymar is ready. He is fit. He’s not had a good injury and it takes time to recover. But he’s training well, he’s feeling well.”

Neymar could play some part as a substitute at Anfield, but Selecao boss Tite is unlikely to take any unnecessary risks, with their opening World Cup fixture against Switzerland looming on June 17.


That said Neymar must surely have some game-time, with a friendly against Austria in Vienna on June 10 serving as Brazil’s other warm-up fixture.

Coutinho returns

Brazil, five-time world champions, have spent the week training at Tottenham ahead of their opening World Cup warm-up fixture.

The match with Croatia gives the Liverpool crowd the opportunity to see former Reds star Philippe Coutinho.

Brazil forward Coutinho left Liverpool for Barcelona in January, while his international colleague Roberto Firmino will also be hoping to feature on his home club ground.

It is uncertain what kind of reception Coutinho will receive, with Liverpool legend Kenny Dalglish this week requesting the “boo boys” to stay away from the match.

“We haven’t had that conversation about Philippe returning to Anfield,” Fernandinho said.

“But I believe he’s happy because he spent a couple years at Liverpool, had some fantastic games where his performances managed to take him to Barcelona and the Brazilian national team.

“I believe it will be an honor for him to return to a city and home he knows well.”

Brazil has an injury doubt over Renato Augusto and he is likely to miss Sunday’s fixture due to a right knee issue.

But Brazil’s squad has had a relaxed feel to it this week ahead of the more serious work.

There is a sense of wishing to right wrongs of the past, with the 7-1 semi-final defeat to Germany at their home World Cup four years ago still weighing heavily on their minds.

Yet Brazil has always been regarded as the most watchable team in world football and intend to carry on their role as great entertainers, win, lose or draw in Russia.

“We cannot promise the title, but we can promise great matches,” said captain Thiago Silva this week.

“By the time of the World Cup you will see great football.”

source: sports.inquirer.net

Neymar heading back to Barcelona after World Cup qualifiers

BARCELONA, Spain — Barcelona says that Neymar won’t rejoin the team until after he plays in Brazil’s upcoming World Cup qualifiers.

That means that Neymar will miss Sunday’s Spanish league match at Athletic Bilbao.

Brazil plays Ecuador in Quito on Sept. 1 and five days later it hosts Colombia in Manaus.

On Saturday, Neymar scored the decisive penalty in a shootout to help Brazil beat Germany for its first Olympic gold medal in men’s football.

Despite the striker’s absence, Barcelona has won all three of its matches this season.

source: sports.inquirer.net

Neymar defends his party boy lifestyle

Brazilian football star Neymar is a party boy and he’s not going to apologize for it.

At a sometimes tense press conference on Tuesday at the facility where Brazil’s Olympic football team is training for the Rio Games, the Barcelona striker told reporters he would not change his ways.

“I’m 24 years old. (…) I have my faults, I’m not perfect. I like to go out and have fun with my friends. Why shouldn’t I go out and party? I don’t see why not,” Neymar said at the training camp in Teresopolis, outside Rio.

Growing increasingly irritated, the Barcelona star went on: “I really don’t see the problem. It’s my private life. On the pitch, I always give everything I have.”

One of the journalists had asked Neymar how invested he was in the national team, given a recent spate of suspensions and the fact that he went out clubbing after a 2-2 draw with Uruguay in the 2018 World Cup qualifying rounds — a match that saw him earn a yellow card.

Directly addressing the journalist, he said: “If you were 24… wouldn’t you be the same way? I’m asking you.”

Last week, Brazil’s Olympic coach Rogerio Micale surprised some when he said: “I want to be dependent on Neymar.”

The next day, national coach Tite — who will take over the Selecao after the Olympics — warned against putting too much pressure on Neymar, saying it was “inhuman to put all the responsibility on one person.”

Brazil, a five-time World Cup champion that has never won Olympic gold, has struggled recently to escape accusations of being a one-man team with little threat beyond its Barcelona star.

When asked about Micale’s comment, Neymar compared himself to Argentina star Lionel Messi, his Barcelona teammate.

“We have great players, and wouldn’t we say that we rely on Messi? Of course we rely on him. We rely on the best players.”

Brazil’s Olympic squad will play a friendly against Japan on Saturday in Goiania.

The team is in Group A with South Africa, Denmark and Iraq.

source: sports.inquirer.net

Neymar on path to greatness with Brazil

SAO PAULO, Brazil—Despite being only 22 years old, Neymar has already done enough to be ranked among Brazil’s greatest players of all time.

If he can keep it up, not even the great Pele may be standing in front of him when the youngster hangs up his boots.

Brazil’s most promising player in decades is living up to expectations and has set himself on a path to greatness. He is enchanting with his brilliance and putting up numbers that few others have achieved at his age.

He is already Brazil’s fifth-greatest scorer with 40 goals with the national team, and is well on pace to surpass Pele’s record of 77 as the nation’s most prolific scorer.

If Neymar keeps scoring like this, he may break Pele’s record before he turns 28, in 2020. Pele was only two months older than Neymar when he netted his 40th goal. Only Pele and Romario have a better goal average than Neymar with the national team.

“I am very happy and proud of the progress of Neymar since he moved to play in Europe,” Pele told The Associated Press in an email. “This season, he keeps proving that he’s one of the best players in the world. His growth as a player is fantastic and very beneficial for the Selecao.”

Among the few Brazilians who have more goals than Neymar are Zico, Romario and Ronaldo, longtime heroes in the land of soccer.

Neymar reached his 40th goal after scoring four times in a friendly against Japan last month, and in the coming weeks he has a chance to move closer to Zico’s mark of 48 goals when Brazil plays friendlies against Turkey and Austria. Romario has 55 goals in official matches with the Selecao, while Ronaldo had 62.

“We both came from Santos FC where we developed the same set of skills: creativity, passing, clinical finishing and, of course, insatiable hunger for goals,” Pele told the AP.

While Pele spent most of his career in Brazil, Neymar was quick to move to European soccer. He went straight from Santos to Barcelona, and it didn’t take long for him to start succeeding alongside the likes of Lionel Messi.

In Brazil, many say Neymar already has what it takes to become the best player in the world.

“Maybe it won’t happen this year, but by next year he will be named the best in the world, I’m certain,” former Brazil coach Carlos Alberto Parreira told Brazilian media recently. “He’s already an idol.”

Neymar had just started to catch everyone’s attention when Zico, the star of Brazil’s 1982 World Cup team, said the youngster could become as good as Pele or Diego Maradona.

“He does things that Maradona was never able to do,” Zico told local channel Esporte Interativo a few years ago. “Maradona was as great as he was thanks to what he could do with his left foot, but he was never able to use his right leg effectively. Neymar has this ability to play well using both of his legs.”

But even Zico pointed to some of Neymar’s weaknesses at the time, including his less-than superb heading skills, an area where Pele thrived. Neymar also was criticized because of his dives and for failing to perform well with the national team early in his career.

He has steadily improved in most areas and is a much more mature player today. Neymar has been diving less often and is behaving better both on and off the field. A season playing alongside the best in the world in Europe helped him progress rapidly.

He also improved with the national team, becoming Brazil’s captain and the player carrying the fans’ hopes for a sixth world title.

“I don’t know what my limit is,” Neymar said after he surpassed Bebeto as Brazil’s fifth-best scorer. “I’m not thinking about surpassing Pele, that’s not my goal. My goal is to keep scoring to help the national team and to help my teammates.”

It’s not only the goals that make Neymar a special player.

He lacks the physical strength that Pele used to have, and also doesn’t seem to have the same above-average quick-thinking of the three-time World Cup champion, but Neymar has similar light-footed skills and uses his incredible speed to make up for some of his weaknesses. Like Pele, Ronaldo and Romario, he also has outstanding precision on his finishes.

Neymar does have some advantages over players such as Ronaldo and Romario, who became stars mostly because of their goal-scoring ability. Neymar is not only about scoring goals, he is more of a playmaker, and uses his ball skills and speed to create scoring opportunities for himself and his teammates. Ronaldo used mostly his strength to get past defenders, while Romario was more about using good positioning inside the area and precise strikes.

Contrary to a classic No. 10 such as Zico, who had outstanding ball control and was always trying to put his teammates in position to score, Neymar is constantly challenging defenders and using his dribbling skills to get near the opponent’s area.

Although it remains too early to tell how Neymar will be compared to other Brazilian greats, it’s likely that his success will depend largely on whether he can win with Brazil and lead the five-time world champion back to its glory days.

Pele had already won two World Cups by the time he was 22. Neymar missed out on a chance to win his first world title thanks in part to a back injury that ruled him out of some of this year’s tournament in Brazil.

And there is always the chance that Neymar may never be as good as everyone expects, as happened to Robinho, who also was touted as a promising star when he transferred to European soccer as a 21-year-old. Also a Santos player, Robinho moved to Real Madrid instead of Barcelona, but never played up to expectations.

He played in two World Cups and remains with the national team, but never became the type of star that Brazilians had hoped for after he started making headlines as a teenager.

Only time will tell if Neymar will be more like Robinho or more like Pele.

source: sports.inquirer.net

Brazil striker Neymar to miss rest of World Cup

FORTALEZA, Brazil—With tears streaming down his face after being kneed in the back, Neymar was carried off the field on a stretcher.

He won’t be coming back. Not to this World Cup, anyway.

The 22-year-old Brazil striker, the one with the hopes of a nation on his shoulders, was ruled out of the rest of the tournament after fracturing his third vertebra during Friday’s 2-1 quarterfinal win over Colombia.

“It’s a big loss for us,” Brazil midfielder Fernandinho said. “We need to find a way to stay together and become stronger after losing our greatest player. We will try to win this World Cup and for sure we will dedicate it to Neymar.”

Neymar is the biggest football star in Brazil, and one of the biggest at the tournament along with Argentina forward Lionel Messi. His face has been plastered on billboards and shown on television continuously, leading many of his staunchest supporters to copy his dyed-blonde fauxhawk.

His millions of fans had expected Neymar’s World Cup to end with him holding the trophy, not being carried off the field in tears.

Neymar was kneed by Colombia defender Juan Camilo Zuniga late in the second half at the Arena Castelao. He was taken to a private clinic and was released a short time later.

He was not expected to need surgery, Brazil team doctor Rodrigo Lasmar said, but he will also not be able to face Germany on Tuesday in the World Cup semifinals.

“He will not be in condition to play, he will need a few weeks to be fit again,” Lasmar said. “He is very, very sad.”

About 50 Brazil fans, many still wearing the team’s jerseys, crowded outside the clinic whereNeymar was taken, while the ambulance that carried him remained parked in front, lights blazing.

Neymar was hurt in the 86th minute, falling to the ground in pain after Zuniga jumped into him from behind.

Brazil teammate Marcelo quickly called for medical assistance when he saw Neymar writhing in pain. Neymar stayed face down until team doctors arrived and put him on a stretcher.

“Everybody knew that Neymar would be hunted,” Brazil coach Luiz Felipe Scolari said. “It’s been happening in the last three matches and we had been talking about it. But nobody listens to us.”

Friday’s match ended with 54 fouls in total — 31 by Brazil and 23 by Colombia. Scolari said Spanish referee Carlos Velasco Carballo should have done more to take control of the match.

According to Hulk, another of Brazil’s striker, Neymar needs more protection from the officials.

“Every time is like this. Players always come after Neymar,” Hulk said. “The referees need to do more to keep this from happening.”

source: sports.inquirer.net

World Cup: Winning ugly no issue for anxious Brazil

FORTALEZA — Brazil striker Neymar has admitted he is happy to win ugly as he looks to take another step towards delivering his country’s sixth World Cup on home soil against Colombia in Fortaleza on Friday.

La Selecao have been criticized for some of their less convincing performances on route to the quarterfinals, most notably in squeezing past Chile on penalties in the last 16.

“You can’t always enjoy yourself and win 4-0 or 5-0. Football nowadays is so difficult, so even, that the team who is most committed on the pitch ends up winning,” said the Barcelona man on Wednesday.

“I don’t want a show. That’s the last thing we are trying to do. We are not necessarily here to produce a spectacle. We are here to run to the end, until we are tired, and come out as winners.”

Neymar fell to the ground in tears as Chile’s Gonzalo Jara missed the decisive spot-kick in the shootout in Belo Horizonte with teammates Julio Cesar and captain Thiago Silva also seen to cry in relief as much as joy.

Worried that carrying the expectations of 200 million Brazilians is becoming too much for his squad, coach Luiz Felipe Scolari called the team’s sports psychologist Regina Brandao in for an extra session with the players on Tuesday.

And Neymar said the sessions were having the desired effect.

“I had never done anything like it before and I am quite enjoying it,” added the 22-year-old.

“It is not only us, in football, who are surrounded by emotion every day and need psychologists. I think it could do every person good, to make one more relaxed.”

Neymar also insisted he will be fully-fit to face the Colombians despite suffering thigh and knee injuries against Chile.

One of the major concerns for Scolari has been the lack of support for Neymar in attacking areas as he has scored half of his side’s eight goals after four games, whilst other forwards Fred, Jo and Hulk have struggled to make an impact.

Neymar, though, claimed the team isn’t overdependent on him.

Paulinho in for Gustavo

“I don’t feel overburdened either on the pitch or off it. I have team-mates who help me by winning the ball back, scoring goals, setting them up,” he said.

“The Brazil team doesn’t have just one person who has to do everything.”

Scolari will be forced into at least one change from the side that faced Chile as Luis Gustavo is suspended so Tottenham Hotspur’s Paulinho is expected to come back into the side.

Gustavo’s absence is even more critical for the hosts given the sensational form of the tournament’s top goalscorer, Colombia’s James Rodriguez.

The Monaco playmaker has taken on the mantle of his side’s focal point with ease in the absence of the injured Radamel Falcao with five goals in four games, including a sensational dipping volley to open the scoring in his side’s 2-0 win over Uruguay in the last 16.

A fourth consecutive win for Jose Pekerman’s men took them into the last eight for the first time and ahead of the biggest game in Colombian football’s history, midfielder Carlos Sanchez insisted they won’t be overawed by their opponents.

“Afraid? No, respectful, yes, because it’s Brazil, the organising country, because of its players, its coaches, and for everything Brazil represents,” he said.

And Rodriguez believes Brazil should be just as worried about him as his countrymen should be about Neymar.

“We’re facing a very tough rival, which has great players, but they also have to think that we have great players.”

History, though, is against the Colombians as they have only beaten Brazil twice in 25 previous meetings and only once in a competitive fixture at the 1991 Copa America.

source: sports.inquirer.net