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Brazil

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Brazil team kit

Current holders, five-time winners and worthy favorites this time around, who can stop the Brazilians from cruising to their sixth world title?

Impressive in winning the 2005 Confederations Cup, topping the South American qualification group (losing only to Argentina away and Ecuador at altitude) and with a seeminglyly endless supply of new talent, only injuries to key players look like derailing the Brazilian juggernaut.

Why even look for weak points in the Selecao when the sum of the parts threatens to conjure up the most potent attacking force in World Cup history? The embarrassment of Brazilian creative riches borders on the downright rude, with Ronaldinho, Kaka, Robinho, Adriano and Ronaldinho all commandeering the ball and the imagination, and in what order?

Not that the five-time winners have too many weak points. This is fifth-time around for coach Carlos Alberto Parreira, for a start, having steered Korea, UAE and Saudi Arabia at this stage besides lifting the actual trophy as Brazil coach back in 1994.

Goalkeeper? Not this time: Dida has held down his AC Milan berth for over five years and his judgement is just one of the many Euro-friendly strengths Brazil will bring to the table in Germany. Add the savvy and local knowledge of Lucio, Roque Junior and Ze Roberto and only the age of the defence could be considered a possible issue.

Difficult as it may be to accept, they really are human, famously succumbing as favourites in relatively recent memory.

But Brazil won't worry that only one non-European nation has won the tournament on European soil - as it was Pele's first, in 1958, and most of their players will feel at home. Whoever can beat them should win the big one - and will have earned it.

Brazil Matches

Match # Date & Time Group Teams Result Venue
11 Tue 13th Jun 21:00 F  BRA  CRO 1 - 0 Berlin
27 Sun 18th Jun 18:00 F  BRA  AUS 2 - 0 Munich
43 Thu 22nd Jun 21:00 F  JPN  BRA 1 - 4 Dortmund
55 Tue 27th Jun 17:00 R2  BRA  GHA 3 - 0 Dortmund
60 Sat 1st Jul 21:00 QF  BRA  FRA 0 - 1 Frankfurt

Match times shown are local times for Germany (CEST/GMT+0200). Click on match date/time to view match statistics.

Past World Cup performance

Key Players

World Cup 2006 Qualification

Squad

Total World Cup 2006
# Posn Name DOB Club Caps Goals Pld Goals OG YC RC
1 GK Dida Nelson 07-10-1973 AC Milan ITA 92 0 5 0 0 0 0
2 DF Cafu Marcos 07-06-1970 AC Milan ITA 143 5 4 0 0 2 0
3 DF Lucio Ferreira 08-05-1978 Bayern Munich GER 56 2 5 0 0 1 0
4 DF Juan Silveira 01-02-1979 Bayer Leverkusen GER 44 2 5 0 0 2 0
5 MF Emerson Ferreira Da Rosa 04-04-1976 Juventus ITA 74 6 3 0 0 1 0
6 DF Carlos Roberto 10-04-1973 Real Madrid ESP 126 11 4 0 0 0 0
7 FW Adriano Leite 17-02-1982 Inter ITA 37 25 4 2 0 1 0
8 MF Kaka Ricardo 22-04-1982 AC Milan ITA 44 15 5 1 0 0 0
9 FW Ronaldo Luiz 22-09-1976 Real Madrid ESP 98 62 5 3 0 2 0
10 MF Ronaldinho Gaucho 21-03-1980 Barcelona ESP 69 27 5 0 0 0 0
11 MF Ze Roberto Jose 06-07-1974 Bayern Munich GER 85 6 5 1 0 0 0
12 GK Rogerio Ceni 22-01-1973 Sao Paulo BRA 16 0 1 0 0 0 0
13 DF Cicinho Joao 24-06-1980 Real Madrid ESP 12 1 2 0 0 0 0
14 DF Luisao Anderson 13-02-1981 Benfica POR 19 1 0 0 0 0 0
15 DF Cris Cristiano 03-06-1977 Lyon FRA 16 1 0 0 0 0 0
16 DF Gilberto Da Silva 25-04-1976 Hertha Berlin GER 10 1 1 1 0 1 0
17 MF Silva Gilberto 07-10-1976 Arsenal ENG 40 3 4 0 0 0 0
18 MF Mineiro Carlos 10-07-1976 Barcelona ESP 2 0 0 0 0 0 0
19 MF Juninho Pernambucano 30-01-1975 Lyon FRA 40 6 3 1 0 0 0
20 MF Ricardinho Luis 23-05-1976 Corinthians BRA 21 1 2 0 0 0 0
21 FW Fred Chaves 03-10-1983 Lyon FRA 4 3 1 1 0 0 0
22 GK Julio Cesar Soares 03-09-1979 Inter ITA 11 0 0 0 0 0 0
23 FW Robinho De Souza 25-01-1984 Real Madrid ESP 28 5 4 0 0 1 0