The who’s who of international football has been on a European tour. With the World Cup looming, the Champions League quarterfinals proved essential viewing for a host of coaches looking to hone their squads.
Italy’s Marcello Lippi played the host in Milan, popping into Sir Alex Ferguson’s hotel to pass on a couple of bottles of wine. France’s Raymond Domenech casually took in a couple of matches, doing his best to look like an ageing pop star with his jeans, untucked shirt and shaggy haircut. Sweden’s Lars Lagerback flew in to check up on a couple of his key players. But none had quite as many notes to make as Brazil’s Carlos Alberto Parreira. Italy may have had three teams in the quarterfinals, but there were 13 Italian players in the eight starting line-ups compared with 19 Brazilians — the biggest contingent by far. A positive sign for Parreira? Not necessarily.
His scouting trips to Europe this season have revealed a multitude of worries. From his expected starting line-up in Germany, there is only one player whose excellence is beyond debate — the peerless Ronaldinho. As for the rest, the form guide is littered with inconsistency, injury, complacency and some downright awful displays.
Goalkeeper Dida has developed a tendency to flap. Playing for Milan against Lyon, he made two horribly fluffed attempted clearances that had the San Siro gasping and should have been punished.
Right-back Cafu, who turns 36 on the eve of the finals, has just returned from knee ligament surgery and is short of fitness. Left-back Roberto Carlos, so regularly embarrassed at Real Madrid this season, is losing defensive composure at a rate of knots. After he was sent off against Barcelona in La Liga this month, Real made a striking improvement. But as Tostao, the 1970 World Cup striker pointed out: ”There isn’t a convincing substitute for Roberto Carlos.” Serginho, who has been playing that position with more defensive acumen for Milan, is 34, and Parreira is conscious his squad is already old enough. ”If we have a last-minute emergency we can contact Serginho,” he said.
At the heart of defence the form of Lucio, a powerhouse at Bayern Munich, has dipped from his force-of-nature best. But that is a minor concern compared with the issue of who partners him. Neither of the two contenders from Bayer Leverkusen is in good shape. Kicker magazine’s critique underlines the bafflement that Parreira can find nobody steadier.
”Juan and Roque Junior are both Brazilian internationals and one of them is even a World Cup winner, but they often look anything but champions of the world. They have gone from being solid defenders to grilled chickens, and from stress-resistant ball artists to security risks in front of their own goal.” Juan looks likely to get the nod as the lesser of two evils. As Brazil’s top TV commentator famously said of Roque Junior: ”Every time the ball is crossed into the box it’s ‘God help us all’.”
Defence is obviously Brazil’s problem area, so it was a blow for Parreira to see midfield shield Emerson made to look geriatric by Arsenal. On the creative side of midfield, wonderboy Kaka has lost a shade of the sparkle that accompanied his emergence on to the big stage at Milan — he has been performing in flashes rather than dictating games — and although Ze Roberto has been effective for Bayern Munich he is less influential than one of the talents he keeps out of the team, Juninho Pernambucano.
And finally to the goal scorers, Ronaldo and Adriano. In a nutshell, they look like two unhappy footballers. One is carrying too much around his waistline, the other too much on his shoulders. Adriano’s private life is a mess. Newspaper gossip has centred on rumours of a split from his pregnant girlfriend and critics lambasted him for overindulging on nights out. Jokes on the popular television show Controcampo suggested he was playing badly because he was having too much sex with prostitutes. Adriano, needless to say, did not see the funny side.
Meanwhile, back in Brazil, the merry band of footballing superheroes are fronting all manner of advertising campaigns, cashing in on the fever as the country aims for ”Hexa Campeon”, their sixth World Cup crown.
They are all talking a better game than they are playing. ”I hope to win the tournament by scoring as many goals as possible,” enthuses Ronaldo. ”I think Brazil are building a very, very strong team,” adds Roberto Carlos. ”I have a simple message to our fans: Don’t worry — I’ll be doing everything possible to bring home the Hexa,” claims Adriano.
The general view among Brazilians is that the players are saving themselves for the World Cup. But, just because it worked last time around — when Brazil were so listless in the build-up to World Cup 2002 they almost failed to qualify, and we all know what happened next — does not mean they can turn it on again when it matters.
Fans are banking on Ronaldinho’s sense of mission about this World Cup raising the bar. The theory goes that the best player in the world can make enough of a difference to coax more out of his teammates. He is the one player Parreira is worried about, however.
”It’s obvious that Ronaldinho is not going to be fresh at the start of the World Cup,” he said. ”He is in exceptional form right now, but will he be able to keep it up until July? I don’t think he will if he continues to play all these tournaments with Barcelona up to mid-May. Barcelona have recently had three players go down with muscular problems.”
Parreira was just about the only neutral who wanted Barca to go out of the Champions League. — Â