“A year ago, I spoke to Brazilian midfielder Sandro a few minutes after he had made his debut for Tottenham. I caught up with him again a few days ago as, recovering from injury, he watched his international team-mates train for last Monday’s international against Ghana at Craven Cottage in London.” BBC – Tim Vickery

“One of my favourite pieces of football writing is by the splendid Argentine coach Angel Cappa, a romantic of the old school, reflecting on his good fortune at being in Spain to watch Brazil’s midfield in the 1982 World Cup.” BBC – Tim Vickery

Pablo Dorado of Uruguay, World Cup 1930
“Measuring 309m by 46m, the flag unfurled on 12 April by fans of Uruguayan club Penarol is apparently the biggest in the world. Draped across much of Montevideo’s Centenario stadium, it hung in celebration of the fact that the club had made it through to the knockout stages of the Copa Libertadores for the first time since 2002. Two months later, there is much more to celebrate. Penarol have gone all the way to the final, for the first since they won the last of their five titles in 1987.” BBC – Tim Vickery

“Towards the end of the group phase Vanderlei Luxemburgo’s Brazil, with Ronaldinho and Alex shining, had booked their place in the second round. Colombia seemed sure to join them. They had played well, and only needed to avoid a five goal defeat against the Brazilians to make sure of their slot. I interviewed the Colombian coach, Javier Alvarez, the day before the game.” Sambafoot

“The stocky shadow of Carlos Tevez is likely to be cast all over the Copa America in Argentina this July. The Manchester City striker will almost certainly not be picked for the tournament as Argentina coach Sergio Batista is apparently building a side without him. He is attempting to create an imitation Barcelona, with Lionel Messi in the ‘false number nine’ role that Pep Guardiola invented for him with the Catalan club. The back-up is to use Gonzalo Higuain of Real Madrid as a target man striker.” BBC – Tim Vickery

“The fascinating 51-year history of the Copa Libertadores has now been further enriched by the emergence of a goalscorer born in England. Antonio Pedroza’s journey has taken him from Chester to Chiapas, the town of his birth to the region in the south of Mexico where he now plays as a striker for Jaguares. The son of a Mexican father and an English mother, Pedroza ensured that the club’s debut campaign in the Libertadores got off to a good start when, just before his 20th birthday, he scored in both legs of their qualifying match against Alianza Lima of Peru.” BBC – Tim Vickery

Diego Amaya
“Asuncion is currently the capital of South American football – and not just because the offices of the continent’s governing federation are situated on the outskirts of the Paraguayan capital. Eight teams are left standing in the Copa Libertadores, South America’s Champions League, and two of them are based in the Paraguayan capital; Cerro Porteno, who have blown hot, cold and lukewarm during the competition, and Libertad, who have been consistently excellent. No other country can boast more than one club in the last eight.” BBC – Tim Vickery

“Supporters of Vasco da Gama filed away sadly — some of them angrily — on Sunday after their team suffered a defeat on penalties in a Rio championship final against great local rivals Flamengo. But along with the sorrow, the last few days also brought the fans a reason to be cheerful. One of their favorite players is returning to the club, and the story has an uplifting twist.” SI – Tim Vickery

“The memories came flooding back last week when the draw was held for the Under-20 World Cup, which kicks off in Colombia at the end of July. Ten years ago I travelled up there for the Copa America. It was the first time that Colombia had staged a major tournament, and some doubted that they could do it. The political moment in the country was tense, with guerrilla forces offering a threat. In the build-up to the tournament there were car-bomb attacks in some of the major cities, and then the vice-president of the Colombian FA was kidnapped.” BBC – Tim Vickery

“On the pitch, last week was a splendid one for Brazilian football. Fluminense’s dramatic qualification for the knockout stages of the Copa Libertadores meant that Brazil did not have a single team eliminated in the group phase – while Argentina lost three. The Brazilian sides also managed to avoid each other in the second round, creating the possibility of the competition’s last eight featuring five teams from the same country.” BBC – Tim Vickery

“The Copa Libertadores can seem like a slow burner, but it is about to catch fire. The final group games are taking place in South America’s equivalent of the Champions League. Next week, the 16 remaining teams kick off the knockout stage. Come June 1, just two are left standing — and it is a fair bet that one of them will be from Brazil. In the last 20 years, only three times has the final not featured a Brazilian club.” SI Tim Vickery

“Have Chelsea done a good deal acquiring Sao Paulo striker Lucas Piazon, who joins the club next year when he turns 18? Sao Paulo are certainly happy. The deal enables them to sell a player who has yet to appear in their first team, bring top-class centre forward Luis Fabiano back to the club – he scored 118 goals in 160 appearances for Sao Paulo between 2001 and 2004 – and still have some money left over.” BBC – Tim Vickery

“Giuliano is one of the brightest prospects produced by Brazilian football in recent years. A midfielder of talent, versatility and intelligence, he captained Brazil’s Under-20s with distinction in the 2009 World Youth Cup. Last year he was chosen as the star player in the Copa Libertadores — his goals, many of them after coming on as a substitute, helped Internacional of Pôrto Alegre claim South America’s premier club title. And a few months ago he made his debut for the senior Brazil team.” SI – Tim Vickery

“The countdown is on towards the Copa America, this year’s top senior international competition. Over the next couple of months, though, the focus will be firmly on club football, with the closing stages of domestic championships, the Champions League and the Libertadores. In the wake of the two recent Fifa dates, this would seem to be the appropriate moment to look back at the recent international friendlies and reflect on how South America’s teams are preparing for the Copa.” BBC – Tim Vickery

“When Roma signed Brazilian striker Adriano last year, the club directors may as well have lit their cigars with high denomination banknotes or poured their money down a rathole. They were quite happy to tear up his contract earlier this month and received no money in return. This, though, is not the story of a player unable to adapt to life in a foreign country.” BBC – Tim Vickery

“I took a wander from my apartment here on Monday and one of the first people I saw was Ronaldinho, sitting enjoying a leisurely beer in a temporary break from the revelries of Carnaval. Seated to his right was another Ronaldinho, doing the same thing. On his left, yet another … In truth, they were all just people wearing Ronaldinho masks, one of the big hits of this year’s festivities. But the real thing has been just as omnipresent, making up in 2011 for all those carnivals he missed while he was freezing on the other side of the Atlantic.” SI

“Is David Luiz destined to be a pillar of the defence and a leader of men for club and country? With their latest Brazilian acquisition, have Chelsea signed the new Lucio? There are clear similarities, not all of them complementary. Luiz, already in Portugal with Benfica, first appeared on the radar screen of the average Brazilian fan during a disastrous World Youth Cup campaign in Canada in 2007, mixing up some slipshod defending with disciplinary problems.” BBC – Tim Vickery

“There is no doubt about my favourite performance so far in this year’s Copa Libertadores. It is that of veteran Colombian playmaker Giovanni ‘The Prince’ Hernandez for Junior Barranquilla against Gremio of Brazil. The 34-year-old may have run out of puff in the second half, while Gremio tightened up their marking, but Hernandez took control, giving an exhibition of old style number 10 play after the Colombian side had gone behind to an early goal.” BBC – Tim Vickery

“Of the field of 32 teams in South America’s Copa Libertadores, only two have not yet been in action in the group phase – and the pair are among the most famous names in the competition’s history. Independiente of Argentina have a record seven titles to their name. Uruguay’s Penarol are five times champions and were winners of the first version back in 1960. Neither club have lifted the trophy since 1987 but they have won nearly a quarter of all the Libertadores titles between them. And they meet on Thursday.” BBC Tim Vickery

“Last July, in his first press conference as Brazil coach, Mano Menezes said that he was aiming to include a sports psychologist in his back-up staff. In South Africa, of course, Brazil had just lost their heads as they lost to Holland in the quarter-finals. And Menezes was aware that in 2014, on home soil, the pressure would be much greater. The events of the last few days have shown just how important the mental aspect is likely to be for the next World Cup hosts.” BBC – Tim Vickery

“Here’s a date for your diary. On Sunday Feb. 6 I can’t believe there’s anything more fascinating taking place in the world of soccer than the clash between Argentina and Brazil in the South American U-20 Championships. Whatever might be happening in England, Spain or anywhere else, this is the date when the city of Arequipa in the south of Peru can claim to be, for 90 minutes at least, the capital of the global game.” SI – Tim Vickery

“More than eight years after combining to such good effect in South Korea and Japan, the 3 Rs of Brazil’s last World Cup win are now all back at home playing for major clubs. As discussed in this space last week, Ronaldinho has joined Flamengo. On Saturday, Rivaldo was snapped up by Sao Paulo. And, of course, there is Ronaldo at Corinthians.” BBC – Tim Vickery

“In Rio Flamengo fans came out in their thousands to give a euphoric welcome to new signing Ronaldinho. Some pundits have tried to pour water into their beer — such as former top class referee Jose Roberto Wright, who argued in the sports daily Lance! that Flamengo had done a bad deal.” SI – Tim Vickery

“The season kicks off on my side of the Atlantic this weekend with one of the great hidden gems of the footballing calendar – the South American under-20 Championship.” BBC –  Tim Vickery

“One of the many wonderful things about covering South American football is the opportunity to watch young talent bloom. Yet too often that process is interrupted prematurely, the player sold off to Europe at a dangerously early stage in his career. That is what has happened to Marcos Rojo, who made such an impact in the second half of 2010 as Estudiantes won the Argentine championship. Could this be the attacking left-back that his country have been looking for?” BBC – Tim Vickery

“There’s an old saying in Brazilian soccer that organizing a team is like having a short blanket on a cold night — pull it over your neck and your feet get cold, cover your feet and your neck freezes. While Internacional of Porto Alegre is using the blanket to dry its tears, it might also reflect on the wisdom of the phrase.” SI – Tim Vickery

“For much of Sunday in Rio de Janeiro, televisions in bars and restaurants were all showing the massive operation of security forces and their invasion of the Alemao group of favelas. By late afternoon, though, they had switched to coverage of the penultimate round of the Brazilian Championship. Viewers were transfixed by both.” (BBC – Tim Vickery)

“A tragic, real-life soap opera unravelling in Brazilian football over recent months has been the story of Bruno, goalkeeper of Rio giants Flamengo, who is in prison accused of ordering the brutal murder of an ex-lover. Flamengo fans have found a way to extract some black humour from such horrific developments. Last year, Bruno captained the team to the Brazilian title. This season, they have struggled. And as they have slipped dangerously close to the relegation zone, the confidence of Bruno’s replacement, Marcelo Lomba, has seemed to suffer.” (BBC – Tim Vickery)

“Ronaldinho has been recalled to the Brazil squad for the forthcoming friendly against Argentina and there are some who might think the call has come six months too late. When it all went wrong in the second half of that World Cup semi-final against the Netherlands, and coach Dunga looked along his substitutes bench in search of a saviour, was he really more pleased to see the likes of Julio Baptista than Ronaldinho?” (BBC – Tim Vickery)

“In 1922, when English politician Stanley Baldwin wanted to launch a revolt against Prime Minister David Lloyd George, he described his adversary as ‘a dynamic force’. And, he added, ‘a dynamic force is a very terrible thing’. Those of us who love football will know what he means. The game runs on passion, from fans, players and coaches. Take the passion away and the game is nothing but too much is deadly.” (BBC – Tim Vickery)

“It is one of the ancient battles of sport, the struggle between talent and the ravages of time. And it’s being fought out as the Brazilian Championship reaches a thrilling finale. With eight rounds to go – and at least four clubs still in contention – one of the big questions is this: Can he really do it again? Is Ronaldo capable of staging yet another extraordinary comeback?” (BBC – Tim Vickery)

“Brazil will expect another commanding performance from Thiago Silva when they take on Ukraine at Derby’s Pride Park in an international friendly on Monday. The 26-year-old Milan defender was in fine form in last Thursday’s 3-0 win over Iran – especially important as his centre-back partner David Luiz had a poor game, obliging Thiago Silva to show off his excellent sense of cover.” (BBC – Tim Vickery)

“The Mano Menezes roadshow rolls on. Brazil’s new coach and his young side chalked up their second triumph with a 3-0 win over Iran in Abu Dhabi Thursday. But though the margin of victory was greater than August’s 2-0 win over the U.S., this was the tougher game — and all the more fascinating for it. Brazil’s central idea was the same as for the debut match of Menezes against Bob Bradley’s team — a fluid, attacking game plan using a 4-2-3-1 system. (SI – Tim Vickery)