Anyone of you is missing to see Kaka in his Brazil national squad jersey like I am? Great news for us! According to The Associated Press, the 2002 World Cup winning Brazil national team will play friendly match against Chechnya in March!

ROSTOV-ON-DON, Russia — Brazil’s 2002 World Cup-winning team will play a friendly next month in the formerly wartorn Russian province of Chechnya, a local official said Wednesday.

Chechnya’s government website cited sports minister Haidar Alkhanov as saying Kaka, Ronaldinho and the recently retired Ronaldo are likely to feature in the March 10 match. Chechnya president Ramzan Kadyrov will captain a team comprising local players.

There was no word of confirmation from Brazilian officials, but if the match goes ahead it will be the third major football coup in a month for Russia’s poverty-stricken Caucasus region, which is better known for separatist violence than sport.

Earlier this month, former Dutch midfielder Ruud Gullit agreed to coach Kadyrov’s team, Terek Grozny, and veteran Brazilian left back Roberto Carlos left Corinthians to join Anzhi Makhachkala in neighbouring Dagestan.
“This will be a powerful stimulus for Terek players and a huge present for Chechen supporters,” the site quoted Alkhanov as saying.

It is unclear how much the Brazilian team is to be paid for its appearance, but when it comes to raising national prestige through sport, money has been no object. The value of Gullit’s 18-month contract has not been disclosed but is thought to be around $5 million per year. Roberto Carlos’ reported two-year deal with Anzhi is worth $9 million per year.

Alkhanov said Gullit promised to use his connections to persuade as many Brazil players to come to Chechnya as possible for the friendly.

Following two separatist wars in the last 15 years, Chechnya now has a semblence of stability. However, attacks by lingering Islamist insurgents still occur.

Hopefully this will actually happen!! It’s been a while we haven’t seen him in the yellow jersey!

Even though our man Kaka has proved that he’s been in a good condition to play, Mano Menezes, the new coach of the Brazilian national squad didn’t include Kaka on his 23 men list. This means that we won’t able to watch our Kaka play at next month’s international friendly match against France. I’m sad, of course, but in the other hand it’s a good thing that Kaka will have more time to adjust and adapt himself more after 6 months of vacuum.

And here’s the full squad list of Brazil NT:

Julio Cesar (Inter Milan), Gomes (Tottenham), Neto (Fiorentina); Daniel Alves (Barcelona), Rafael (Manchester United), Marcelo (Real Madrid), Andre Santos (Fenerbahce), Breno (Bayern Munich), David Luiz (Benfica), Luisao (Benfica), Thiago Silva (AC Milan); Lucas Leiva (Liverpool), Sandro (Tottenham), Ramires (Chelsea), Elias (Atletico Madrid), Hernanes (Lazio), Renato Augusto (Bayer Leverkusen), Jadson (Shakhtar Donetsk), Anderson (Manchester United); Robinho (AC Milan), Andre (Dynamo Kiev), Hulk (Porto), Alexandre Pato (AC Milan).

Even though I’m not sure if this friendly match schedule has been fixed or if Kaka will participate, here’s a great news for all fans of Iran and Brazil national team:

Iran’s national football team play a friendly game against five-time world champions Brazil next week in the United Arab Emirates, ISNA news agency reported Monday.

A spokesman of the Iranian Football Federation (FFI) told ISNA that the friendly will take place on October 6 or 7 in Abu Dhabi.

Abbad Torabian said that Brazil have committed to playing a strong team and claimed that Iran paid no money to the Brazilians for the game.

He did not say why the game is set to be held in the UAE and not in Iran.

Due to political problems and especially because of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s controversial remarks about Israel and the Holocaust, the FFI has had problems in the last five years finding suitable national teams ready to play friendlies against Iran.

Iran have so far had only one friendly game against a world champion and that was in 2004 in Tehran against Germany. The DFB team had reportedly promised Iran the friendly in return for its vote for Germany to be the host of the 2006 World Cup.

The scheduled friendly against Brazil, the first ever encounter between the two teams, is believed by observers to be due to friendly ties between the presidents of the two countries.

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva is one of the few foreign heads of state supporting Iran’s disputed nuclear programmes and even voted against the latest United Nations Security Council sanction resolution against Tehran.

Iran are currently attending the West Asian Football Federation Championship in the Jordanian capital of Amman but the main aim is the Asian Championship to be held in January 2011 in Qatar.

Source: Times Live

Here are the first batch of Netherlands vs Brazil photos! Keep checking back for more!

• 049 x Brazil National Team: 2010.07.02 – Netherlands vs Brazil (Nelson Mandela Bay, Port Elizabeth)

    

Well, Brazil lost 2-1 to Netherlands, and this is the end of Brazil’s journey (as well as Kaka’s) in 2010 World Cup. But since they’ve done very well – even amazingly since the beginning, I still have the biggest respect for the team and will still support them no matter what! We might be sad and dissappointed but it doesn’t mean that our supports to Kaka will stop. Team Kaka as always! =D And congrats to Netherlands! What a great game.

Some photos of Ricky doing warming up before the Netherlands vs Brazil match!

• 008 x Brazil National Team: 2010.07.02 – Netherlands vs Brazil – Warming Up (Nelson Mandela Bay, Port Elizabeth)

    

The Brazilian squad has arrived in Port Elizabeth yesterday for the quarter final match against Netherlands. And here’s Ricky during the training session. =)

• 020 x Brazil National Team: 2010.07.01 – Training (Port Elizabeth)

    

Here’s a bunch of Ricardo Kaka photos during a training session yesterday, all of them in large quality. Enjoy!

• 019 x Brazil National Team: 2010.06.30 – Training (Johannesburg)

I’m pretty nervous about the next match against Netherlands, they’ve been doing great so far. But I believe Brazil can take care of it, and I hope they will make it to the semi-final! =)