Brazilian media pile pressure on squad
Brazilian media place an unusually heavy emphasis on what happens in a practice sessions, which are often broadcast live on television.
Parreira, who has already named his team to face Croatia in the world champions’ opening match tomorrow, has held several games between them and the reserves.
“I’ve been coach for three-and-a-half years, we’ve played around 50 matches and I can’t believe people are going to judge me by what happened in one 40-minute training session,” said Parreira.
“We’ve had eight or nine of these games and when the first team wins, nobody asks anything. As soon as the reserves win, I get lots of questions.”
Striker Ronaldo, whose weight has been one of the main talking points of the training camp, agreed with his coach.
“We have two first teams here,” he said. “Our reserve team is good enough to play in a World Cup.”
Both agreed that the world champions were getting itchy feet as Brazil waited for their first game.
“These players are used to playing every three days, they’ve been here for three weeks,” said Parreira.
Brazil began their training camp in Switzerland on May 22 and arrived in Germany on June 4. They played one friendly international during that period, beating New Zealand 4-0 in Geneva.
“I want it to start more than anyone so that we stop talking nonsense and start playing football,” said Ronaldo.
“Of course, you get a few butterflies before the first game but when the game starts, everything changes and it’s just happiness because what everyone wants is to be playing.”
Parreira said physical strength and preparation would play a bigger role in this World Cup than in past tournaments.
“This will be the World Cup of health,” he said. “Physical condition is going to be fundamental. The teams have had more time to prepare than before and you can see this already, with the intensity of the marking and the speed of the games.”
Parreira, a former fitness trainer, has placed a lot of emphasis on Brazil’s physical preparation in their three-week build up.
The tournament favourites have played only one friendly, instead concentrating on recovering from the European season and recharging their batteries.
Parreira’s captain Cafu agreed with his coach.
Asked if he had seen anything new in the finals, Cafu replied: “I don’t think so, the main thing has been the physical strength of the teams.
“We saw how Ecuador ran from start to finish, for example (in a 2-0 win over Poland on Friday).”
Parreira said hosts Germany, who beat Costa Rica 4-2 on Friday, had impressed him the most.
“They looked strong, they were well-positioned and they imposed themselves from the start,” he said.
He also praised Argentina’s first-half performance in the 2-1 win over Ivory Coast on Saturday.
“I liked them, especially in the first half,” he said.
“The most important thing was they won and they did it with the Argentine style, confirming they are among the eight favourites.”
Cafu predicted few shocks. “The traditional teams will be the ones who get to the final,” he said. “Of course there are others who are good enough but from what I’ve seen so far it will be the traditional ones.”
Records are made to be broken and in World Cup terms they don’t come tumbling down more often than when Brazil are in town.
If the rest of the squad will content themselves with extending their overall title successes to six, Ronaldo, his reputation on the line for being a little more portly than he once was, has something else in his more immediate sights.
Three more goals will mean he becomes the World Cup finals’ all-time top goalscorer, moving from his current 12 beyond Germany’s Gerd “Der Bomber” Muller’s 14.
At a time when the media, and even Brazilian president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, have wondered aloud if he is still up to it, Ronaldo can cock a snook at his detractors.
“For me personally, its important, but what is more important is how the team does.”
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