The Brazilian Football Federation announced today that the Brazilian team will play two friendly matches before the World Cup.
Brazil will play against Zimbabwe on June 2nd and against Tanzania on June 7th; the venues were not informed yet.
Update, May 27th: CBF confirmed today that the match against Zimbabwe will be in the National Stadium of Zimbabwe, and the match against Tanzania will be in the capital of that country, Dar es Salaam.
Brazil won Zimbabwe by 3 x 0, goals by Michel Bastos, Robinho and Elano.
Brazil won Tanzania by 5 x 1, goals by Robinho, Kaka and Ramirez.
Zimbabwe and Tanzania are African countries, with very little tradition in football; both teams rank worse than #100 in the FIFA ranking.
According to coach Dunga, there is not much more to improve in the team; the matches will be useful to change Brazil’s mode from training to playing. The last serious friendly match, which Dunga probably used to define the lineup of Brazil in South Africa, was against Ireland, last March.
Brazil is training in the Brazilian city of Curitiba. The team will fly to South Africa on May 26th. The first official match of Brazil in the World Cup 2010 will be on June 15th, against North Korea.
Note: besides not being useful to help in the preparation of the team, some say that the game against Zimbabwe could raise political problems, as that country is ruled by a dictator, Robert Mugabe. However, these friendly matches are arranged by CBF, the Brazilian Confederation, which is guided primarily by financial reasons (Brazil doesn’t set foot in an stadium for less than US$ 1 million).
