With the season is moving towards the final stages, I thought it was high time I produced a follow up to last year's ‘Brazil: the talent factory' post. Once again, there has been an abundance of exciting new players that have caught the eye in their first season in Série A.

Of the players I picked out last year; Palmeiras' Keirrison was bought by Barcelona and has been loaned out to Benfica.

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All and sundry are reporting that Harry is close to agreeing a deal to bring in Sandro Ranieri Guimarães Cordeiro, or just Sandro to you and me.
This story popped up just before the summer transfer window closed and guess what, the same guys that stated we were about to sign him then, have gone all out on yet another exclusive and told us that now we're near to agreeing a deal to bring this lad in during the January sales. Click to continue reading...

Sandro Ranieri - Tottenham hope looks can be deceiving

Spurs are holding talks with Internacional over their defensive midfielder Sandro Ranieri.

Representatives from the North London club are in Porto Alegre and the fee is expected to be around €16 million 30% of which will got to an investors group that part own the player.

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Inter move back into the top four after a comfortable 3-0 victory over struggling Sport last night. Giuliano opened the scoring before half time before second half goals from Sandro and the returning Andrés D'Alessandro gave Inter a comfortable victory in Porto Alegre.
From xinhuanet. Click to continue reading...

Inter were crowned Copa Surugua champions this morning after a 2-1 victory over Oita Tinrita thanks to goals from Alecsandro and Andrezinho.
After a goalless first half on a poor surface at Oita's ‘Big-Eye' Stadium, Alecsandro (50) took full advantage of Andrezinho's threaded ball to put Inter front. Click to continue reading...

Inter got back to winning ways last night in an eventful 4-2 win over Fluminense at a cold, wet Beira-Rio.
In a much improved attacking performance, a spectacular strike from Andrezinho had put ten men Inter 2-0 up with the match appearing to be beyond Fluminense's reach. Click to continue reading...

On the verge of appointing a new coach, suffering from a run of poor results and they suffered defeat last weekend in the Campeonato Brailseiro. You could easily be mistaken for thinking I'm talking about Inter and not tonight's visitors to the Beira-Rio – Fluminense for tonight's midweek 11th round (21:50 local time). Click to continue reading...

Inter coach Tite now finds himself under considerable pressure after struggling Atlético Paranaense defeated Inter 3-2 last night in Curitiba. The defeat allows Atlético Mineiro to climb top of Série A after they defeated city rivals Cruzeiro.
Inter's latest run of poor performances are becoming increasingly concerning ahead of next Sunday's Gre-Nal as popular ex-coach Muricy Ramalho watches on after rejecting the chance to take over Palmeiras. Click to continue reading...

Six games without victory, three consecutive defeats and a two goal disadvantage to turn around in Wednesday's decisive Copa do Brasil final, Inter are in free fall as Coritiba visit the Beira-Rio tonight (18:30 local time). Despite the negativity surround Inter at the moment, Atlético-MG's defeat last night means that an Inter victory can put the Colorado back top of the Campeonato Brasileiro. Click to continue reading...

Inter are rewarded by last year's Copa Sudamericana triumph with a place in the ‘Recopa' against 2008 Libertadores winners LDU, albeit a very different side from that which unexpectedly defeated Fluminense a year ago.

Tite will undoubtedly be look to use tonight's first leg to turn around an uncharacteristic and untimely run of five games without victory which cumulated in a crippling 4-0 defeat to Flamengo on Sunday night. Click to continue reading...

Internacional crashed to their first Brasileirão defeat last night as Adriano led Flamengo to a 4-0 victory at the Maracanã. The former Inter Milan striker grabbed a hat-trick to leave Inter empty handed from what was another unconvincing Colorado performance.
Inter began the game with D'Alessandro, Nilmar, Bolívar and Magrão all unavailable whilst Taison was also omitted from the squad with an injury concern as Bolaños started his first game for Inter. Click to continue reading...

After defeat in the first leg of the Copa do Brasil final, Inter will be looking for their first win in five games when they visit the Maracanã to take on Flamengo this evening (18:30 local time).
A victory against 14th placed Flamengo could put Inter back top of the Brasileirão with Atlético-MG facing a difficult trip to Santos, but Tite still finds himself without several key players. Click to continue reading...

Inter find themselves 2-0 down at the half way stage of the Copa do Brasil final after a disappointing defeat to Corinthians last night.
Jorge Henrique (26) capped off a well worked move to put Corinthians in front midway through the first half before Ronaldo (53) finished past a hapless Índio to score Corinthians' second. Click to continue reading...

In the biggest game so far of the Colorado centenary year, Inter face Corinthians tonight in the first leg of the Copa do Brasil final at the Estádio Pacaembu (21:50 local time).
Inter arrived in São Paulo last night minus four key players with Kléber, Nilmar, Bolívar and D'Alessandro all unavailable as Tite looks to take a positive result back to the Beira-Rio for the second leg. Click to continue reading...

Inter have slipped off the top of the Brasileirão table after a reserve Colorado side drew 0-0 with Vitória at the Beira-Rio last night.
After a scrappy opening exchange between the two sides, Vitória came closest to opening the scoring midway through the half as reserve goalkeeper Michel Alves was at full stretch to deal with Roger's deceiving cross-cum-shot. Click to continue reading...

Undefeated Inter face their most difficult challenge of the Brasileirão to date as they face fellow title challengers Cruzeiro in Minas Gerais state (18:30 local time).
Inter's task is not made any easier as Álvaro and D'Alessandro have not travelled as the pair rested as a precaution. Click to continue reading...

Internacional have made it through to the 2009 Copa do Brasil final after Coritiba were unable to turn around a 3-1 deficit from the first leg.
A 1-0 victory to Coritiba at the Estádio Couto Pereira saw the tie finish 3-2 to Inter on aggregate. Under pressure for much of the game, Inter relied on the impressive Lauro to keep Coritiba and finished the match with ten men after Bolívar recieved his second yellow card late on. Click to continue reading...

Marcelo Cordeiro and Alecsandro are both expected to start in Inter's crucial semi final second leg away to Coritiba tomorrow night.
The pair are likely to replace Kléber and Nilmar who are both away with the Seleção.
"I come in to have an increasing role this season, with a good run of games. Click to continue reading...

Inter must put aside their dramatic win against Flamengo and focus on the Campeonato Brasileiro once again, as Inter travel to central Brazil to face Goiás (18:30 local time).
Inter arrived in the state capital Goiânia yesterday without Nilmar, Álvaro, D'Alessandro and Kléber as Tite plans are making changes throughout the side to keep players fresh for next Wednesday's Copa do Brasil semi final with Coritiba. Click to continue reading...

Cordeiro, Morais and Sandro celebrate Inter's first vs Palmeiras

Internacional maintained their 100% record with a 2-0 win over a disappointing Palmeiras. With a second leg match vs Flamengo in the Copa do Brasil coming up, Inter rested most of their key players but were still too much for Palmeiras.

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The Colorado continued their 100% record in the Campeonato Brasileiro at the Beira-Rio tonight with a scrappy 2-0 victory over Palmeiras.
Despite making a total of eight changes throughout the entire team, Tite's side took an early lead as defender Danny Morais (11) marked his first Brasileirão appearance of the season with a goal after Taison and Andrezinho linked up following an Inter corner. Click to continue reading...

An experimental Inter side were defeated 3-1 yesterday afternoon by Figueirense in Florianópolis.
The match was an opportunity for Inter to field players who had not featured heavily so far in the first team this season.
Figueirense took the lead at the Estádio Orlando Scarpelli after Rafael Coelho (24) took advantage of poor Inter defending. Click to continue reading...

Inter take a three goal advantage into the next weeks second leg at the Beira-Rio after Nilmar, Taison and Marcelo Cordeiro struck to give Inter a comfortable victory at the Estádio dos Aflitos.
More to follow...
NÁUTICO 0-3 INTERNACIONAL
Nilmar 33
Taison 51
Marcelo Cordeiro 83
NÁUTICO
Eduardo; Gladstone , Negrette, Asprilla; Sidny, Vagner, Juliano (Thiaguinho), Carlinhos Bala, Wellington (Anderson Lessa); Gilmar, Adriano Magrão (Kuki). Click to continue reading...

Inter have arrived in the state of Pernambuco ahead of tomorrow's match against Náutico.
Arriving at Recife airport the squad were greeted by around 50 supporters who sung the club's hym. The Inter squad also received support from supporters of Santa Cruz and Sport, Náutico traditional rivals. Click to continue reading...

After a long boring winter solace with no new news of player acquisitions, we finally come upon the start of Training Camp 2009. We've got some fresh new faces, and some surprising absences. As Goff and BTB are reporting, the only new addition besides our draft picks is Kyle Veris, a 6'-3" defender who rode the bench in the Norwegian first division in 2008, last seen playing for that defensive juggernaut LA in 2007. Click to continue reading...

What better way to end 2008 than to post one of my patented roster resets. Things have changed dramatically around here with the new roster rules for 2009, but I think it's important to take a look at where United stands at the moment, if only just to highlight how many question marks there are going into next season. Click to continue reading...

Goff revealed yesterday several changes for 2009 that were unveiled in the Board of Governors meeting yesterday prior to MLS Cup. In summation of the most important change, the league has added senior roster slots, but trimmed the total roster size. Instead of 18 senior roster slots and 10 developmental roster slots as we had in 2008, we will have 20 senior roster slots and 4 developmental roster slots in 2009. Click to continue reading...

Our first recipient in the inaugural Benny Awards is Clyde Simms, who won the Richie Award with 53% of the vote. I thought this award would be much closer with heavy competition from Bryan Namoff early on, but Simmsy eventually pulled away for the victory.
In a bit of a surprise, the Nelly Award for the biggest contribution from a newcomer went to Louis Crayton. Click to continue reading...

In my last post, I claimed that Tom Soehn had an ADR this year of 3.11. What does that mean? Is that good or bad?
Well as readers of this blog know, I've been passing down player ratings of either "Top Shelf", "Call", or "Rail" to players after every match. I've also been tracking those ratings over the course of the year, and displayed all of them here. Click to continue reading...

By definition the Convey award goes to the team's Rookie of the Year. But there's a couple of different ways you could interpret that. Do you give the award to the young player who has made the biggest contribution so far this season? Or do you give it to the guy who has the best chance of being a star in the MLS? Click to continue reading...

A tie at home against a lesser Western Conference opponent certainly should feel like a loss. Somehow for me though, this one doesn't. Maybe it's because we outplayed Dallas, to the point where I think we really deserved the win. This felt like it should have ended at 2-1. Oh well. I guess we'll just have to steal back those extra two points when we play them again on the road in two weeks. Click to continue reading...

In a match where we were missing Emilio, Moreno, Namoff, Fred, Vide, and Peralta, a loss wasn't necessarily surprising. I guess the bright side is that we escaped without any more injuries! Also, I saw tonight that we've got some young players with a lot of heart, and that's got to count for something, even if it didn't earn us any points. Click to continue reading...

Greetings from RFK Stadium, home of D.C. United. The stadium is old but comfy for the home side usually, but they've struggled recently at home.
Will Daniel is in town for this match again. If you don't recall a story from earlier this year, check it out here. Daniel first met Jimmy Conrad back in 1997 when Conrad was a member of UCLA's NCAA Final 4 team. Click to continue reading...

We bring you this brief interruption to the MSR with the news that DC United has acquired Ivan Guerrero from the Earthquakes. The best endorsement of Guerrero has to be this one (http://blog.washingtonpost.com/soccerinsider/2008/07/greetings_from_rfk_1.html) from Bryan Namoff: "He took us apart in the playoffs [with Chicago].

Click to continue reading...

Given the focus that this blog has given to United's roster this year, I thought it would be appropriate to base our Mid-Season Review specifically on the roster moves that the team has made. In part 1, we will look at United's acquisitions, meaning the players that the team added since the end of last season that they didn't have to give up anything for. Click to continue reading...