Vinícius Júnior and Brazil arrive in Townsville as post-World Cup rebuild begins
Vinícius Júnior and other members of Brazil’s national team arrived in Townsville on Thursday as the Seleção begin a reboot after their World Cup exit with fixtures against the Socceroos in Queensland.
Townsville, a North Queensland city better known for rugby league than for Brazilian football, has never hosted an A international for the Socceroos and has a population of just over 200,000; the town’s previous A-League representative collapsed in 2011. Brazil last toured Australia in 2017, and would have played Argentina at the MCG in 2022 had La Albiceleste not withdrawn. The Queensland government, working with promoters and the CBF, paid to bring the five-time world champions to the state as part of its major events strategy.
Locally, hotels are reported booked out and the arrival will coincide with a street party on Friday featuring Brazilian jiu-jitsu and capoeira demonstrations, a Brazilian band and line dancing. A Brazilian supporter carrying a prop World Cup trophy was among those travelling from Brisbane on Thursday. These matches are being staged overseas and, according to the report, will be lucrative for the South Americans.
The trip has produced incongruous scenes: Vinícius, who plays week in and week out for Real Madrid at the Santiago Bernabéu, and team-mates rubbing shoulders at Townsville airport with almost 80 junior rugby league sides who had flown in for the Gordon Tallis Cup. The article suggests some squad members are unlikely to be familiar with North Queensland Fury, and jokes that Barcelona forward Raphinha might post #BringBackTheFury on Instagram before leaving the Sunshine State.
Carlo Ancelotti is starting his first full World Cup cycle as Brazil coach while based a 10-minute walk from the Mad Cow Tavern on Flinders Street as he prepares for games in Townsville and Brisbane. Ancelotti described his relationship with Socceroos coach Tony Popovic: “We are good friends,” Ancelotti said. “Sometimes we have the possibility to meet to talk about football. We spent time together when I was in Milan, we spent time together in Brisbane two nights ago. It’s a pleasure to talk about football [with Popovic]. He’s doing a fantastic job here. A really passionate manager. I hope the best for him. I think the World Cup he had was a really good World Cup. The team showed strong quality, a compact team.” The report notes Popovic previously served as Ancelotti’s guest at AC Milan and Bayern Munich.
The visit comes with footballing context: these Queensland fixtures are Brazil’s first matches since their last-16 defeat to Norway at the World Cup, their earliest exit from the tournament since they were knocked out by Argentina at Italia 90. By 2030 it will be 28 years since Brazil’s 2002 World Cup win, which the article says would be the nation’s longest drought since their first triumph in 1958. Commentators quoted in the piece offer multiple theories for Brazil’s reduced dominance, including a suggestion that a rise in individualistic, prosperity gospel Pentecostalism at the expense of Catholicism may be a factor, and that fewer games against top European sides because of the Uefa Nations League has contributed to more revenue-focused tours.
On the pitch logistics, Brazil will act as the official ‘home’ side in Queensland and will play at Lang Park in Brisbane on a surface that will have staged the Dolphins v Roosters preliminary final just four days earlier. The tour includes the two matches against Australia followed by a game against India on 3 October. Ancelotti framed the first match as the start of a new cycle and a selection exercise, saying: “It’s difficult to say it’s a friendly. For Brazil, it will never be a friendly game. It will be an important game. A new season, we have a goal to find new players, to find a new generation of players for the World Cup and Copa America. And we start in the game tomorrow.”