South American U17: Patetuci backs Brazil’s bid for third title | OneFootball

Coach Carlos Eduardo Patetuci emphasized that the goal of the Brazilian National Team in the upcoming South American U-17 Championship is to win the tournament for the third consecutive time. In an interview with CBF TV at Granja Comary, where Brazil began training for the tournament this Wednesday (18th), the coach highlighted the responsibility that the Seleção carries to always pursue titles.

“The Brazilian National Team always competes with the aim of winning titles and holds the hegemony of world football. In 2023 and 2025, we were champions of the South American Championship. And this year, with the 2009 generation, expectations are very high. It’s a generation with great potential,” he pointed out.

In December 2025, the U-17 National Team achieved two victories over Paraguay, both by 2-1. In the most recent call-up, at the end of February this year, they played two friendlies in Colombia against the hosts, the current South American runners-up: they won the first match 3-1 and drew the second 1-1.

“We are coming off two friendlies with Colombia, in Colombia, where we played two good matches, and the expectation is that we will have an excellent South American Championship and that we will pursue the title and the U-17 three-peat,” he explained.

Dudu Patetuci during U-17 National Team training in preparation for the 2026 South American U-17 ChampionshipCredits: Rafael Ribeiro/CBF

Preparation

The Seleção will be based at Granja Comary, in Teresópolis (RJ), until March 31. In total, the coaching staff will have 14 days to lead activities and prepare the players, with two pillars in mind: studying and adapting to the qualities of their opponents without losing the offensive identity of the Brazilian National Team.

“The idea is to develop and improve our game behaviors and concepts, to prepare the team for the various situations that may arise. That’s why we are already observing the opposing teams in our group so we can work according to our opponents, without neglecting our style of play and our aggressive approach, with the ball, always looking to dictate the game,” he stressed.

The trip to Paraguay, host of the South American U-17 Championship, will be on April 1, two days before the debut against Bolivia, at 8 p.m., at Estádio Ameliano, in Villeta.

The team reported this WednesdayCredits: Rafael Ribeiro / CBF

Despite the work of building a new championship team, the coach explained that the monitoring of promising athletes begins when they are in lower age groups – in this case, in U-15 and U-16 call-ups. There are also players like midfielder Vinicius Rocha, who, even though he is from a previous generation, played in last year’s U-17 World Cup and will compete in this season’s South American U-17 Championship.

“We are always following the previous generation, so we are aware of what we will have next year. A year in advance, we also try to bring in the athletes who are performing well to integrate them into the work, as we did with Vinícius Rocha. Last year, he played in the U-17 World Cup and is the only returning player,” he said.

“It’s a mission, a new construction. These are athletes from different clubs, with different training methodologies at their clubs, and here we bring them together and build a new generation, making them understand our style of play, our training methodology, and, most importantly, ensuring they have the winning mentality of the Brazilian National Team,” he concluded.

U-17 National Team coach, Dudu Patetuci, during a friendly with Colombia, in BarranquillaCredits: Nelson Terme/CBF

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇧🇷 here.