Portugal struggled early but came back to defeat Northern Ireland on Friday to further improve their World Cup qualification hopes. Tuesday however is not about qualifying and instead is a trip to the United States for a friendly against Brazil.
Brazil and Portugal will wage what should be an entertaining friendly on Tuesday at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts.
This will give Americans a golden opportunity to witness some scintillating, upper-echelon soccer. Unfortunately, this will not be a chance to witness that soccer from Cristiano Ronaldo.
After a few years of subpar play (for Brazil, anyway), this team is bearing the fruit of developing young players in that period.
Neymar led the charge in the Confederations Cup as he came up huge time and again. That run culminated with the domination of Spain in the championship, and it alerted the world that Brazil are a force to be reckoned with once again.
Cristiano Ronaldo will not be with Portugal -- no doubt a disappointment to those who overpaid for tickets to the match -- as he deals with tendonitis. Neymar will be available for Brazil though which should help with the star power, though Luiz Felipe Scolari will be missing defender Dani Alves and striker Hulk for the match due to injuries.
This is the first meeting between the two countries since 2007 when late goals from Simao and Ricardo Carvalho led Portugal to a 2-0 win.
Match Date/Time: Tuesday, 9:00 p.m. ET
Venue: Gillette Stadium, Foxborough, Massachusetts
