Brazil on Saturday got Turkey, China and Costa Rica in Group C in
the first round of the 2002 World Cup finals, which was widely
considered as a walkover for the four-times world champions, though
Brazilian coach Luiz Felipe Scolari said, "We can't make the same
mistakes again.''
"The group is great, but we have to make it good,'' a beaming "Big
Phil" said from Pusan, South Korea, whose team struggled to qualify
for next year's event after losing six of their 18 matches in the
South American group.
Turkey is in the finals for the first time since 1954, China is
making its debut, though their coach Bora Milutonivc, according to
Scolari, "has a lot of experience" and Costa Rica is there for the
second time.
Milutinovic, who also coached Costa Rica in 1990, has now taken
five different nations to the World Cup finals and reached the
second round with all of his previous four teams.
"We have to change our way of thinking and realize that all
opponent have their qualities even if we're not playing Argentina
or England. The most important thing for me is that we don't leave
it until the last match to qualify as we did in the preliminaries.
" Scolari added.
To
Brazil technical director Antonio Lopes, "Brazil had a lot of luck
with this draw because our group is paw-paw with sugar," he told
reporters, using a local expression which means easy on the
palate.
Carlos Alberto Parreira, who led Brazil to the last of their four
titles in 1994, also showed confidence. "Brazil have never had a
draw like this when all three of the first round opponents are
teams with no real tradition at the World Cup," he said.
"Hopefully, we can play with personality and confidence, win all
three games and start with our best foot forward."
But others feared that Brazil could be their own worst enemies.
"It appears to be easy but the team's situation at the moment does
not permit me to say that Brazil are favorites," said Carlos
Alberto Torres, who captained the successful 1970 team and is now
coach of Flamengo.
Brazil is the only country to have played at every World Cup.
( December 3, 2001)