Uncertain about giving its all
RIO DE JANEIRO – Brazil planned to take its best soccer team to the Confederations Cup in June, after a disastrous showing in 2003. But coach Carlos Alberto Parreira is having second thoughts. Parreira wants to field a strong team and avoid a repeat of the 2003 Cup, when Brazil fielded a mixed squad and was embarrassingly eliminated in the first round. Brazilian media called the team’s play «disgraceful.» But Parreira doesn’t want to deprive his top players of needed rest and vacation in their last summer before the 2006 World Cup in Germany. «The idea is to take the strongest possible team at that moment, but I could test a few players,» Parreira said in an interview published yesterday in the Rio daily O Globo. The Confederations Cup, to be held June 15-29 in Germany, brings together eight top teams in a dress rehearsal for the World Cup. Brazil, the only five-time winner of the World Cup, is the seeded team in Group B, and will face Greece – the surprise winner of Euro 2004 – as well as Asian champion Japan, and Gold Cup winner Mexico. Argentina, Germany, Tunisia and Australia will compete in Group A. Parreira’s problem is that nearly his entire team plays in Europe, where the grueling soccer season ends in the summer. If he takes Brazil’s best team to the Confederations Cup, Ronaldo, Ronaldinho, Kaka and the rest of the starting squad will not have had a lengthy vacation for nearly two years by the time of the World Cup. Still, the Confederations Cup will be a good dry run for the World Cup, Parreira said. A handful of players compete for German clubs, but the others could get a rare chance to play in German stadiums that will host World Cup matches. The Confederations Cup will be played in Cologne, Nuremberg, Leipzig, Hanover and Frankfurt, at stadiums that will also be used for the World Cup. «For the coach, the most important thing is to define at least two players for each position, so we can use them in the World Cup,» said Parreira, without saying which players he might rest. Parreira’s immediate concern is qualifying Brazil for the World Cup. The team is in second place in the South American qualifying group, two points behind leader Argentina, and faces Peru on March 26.
