WORLD CUP USA ’94 / THE FIRST ROUND : Brazil’s Victory Needs No Explanation : Group B: Favorites impressive in opening 2-0 victory over Russia, and are expected to improve.
After his team’s World Cup opener against Brazil, Russian Coach Pavel Sadyrin had little analysis to offer. The loss, he said, was “more or less explainable.” He did not elaborate. Nor was it necessary.
The less of it was that the Russians were so overmatched that they were fortunate to leave Stanford Stadium while the scoreboard still showed only 2-0 in favor of the Brazilians.
End of story?
Not quite. Whereas the Russians no doubt were eager to start looking ahead to their next first-round game, against Sweden, the Brazilians wanted to savor their victory as long as possible.
Of all the teams in the 24-team World Cup tournament, perhaps none is under more pressure than Brazil. Not only do Brazilian fans expect their team to win the World Cup, they demand it.
They are so demanding that, even though Coach Carlos Alberto Parreira has put together a team that most experts contend is the favorite, he was booed in Monday’s pregame introductions. And the overwhelming majority of the crowd of 81,061 was Brazilian.
So Parreira was glad to be able to calm them for at least one afternoon.
“In spite of (a score of) just two-nil, Brazil’s advantage was very big,” Parreira said. “Not at any time did I feel Brazil was threatened.”
He also had some ominous words for his team’s next opponent, Cameroon.
“So far, Brazil is the only team in the competition that had the ability to hold the ball throughout the game,” he said. “Certainly, Brazil is going to raise its level further in the games to come.”
No one could argue on this day that Parreira had not made all the right moves, but then a lot of coaches would look like geniuses with his players. After his exquisite forward, Romario, placed a shot into the right corner of the net after a corner kick in the 26th minute to give Brazil a 1-0 lead, Russian goalkeeper Dmitri Kharine could only shake his head in admiration.
“Unfortunately, Romario is a Brazilian, and he plays extraordinary,” Kharine said later. “A European player would have tried to score in a different corner. So he used a different approach.”
With Romario and Bebeto, Brazil has the best forward combination in the tournament. Sadyrin tried to neutralize them with three defenders, but the Russians did not have the quickness necessary and decided early that they would have to resort to thuggery.
Such tactics sometimes distract Romario and Bebeto, but that was not the case Monday. The referee, An Yan Lim Kee Chong of Mauritius, was often overmatched, but he eventually caught on and dispensed three second-half yellow cards to the Russians.
He also granted the first penalty kick of the four-day-old tournament, calling defender Vladislav Ternavsky for tackling Romario from behind in the penalty area in the 53rd minute. Ternavsky earlier got away with wrestling Romario down in the penalty area, but not this time. Midfielder Rai did the honors and easily beat Kharine to the right corner.
Poor Ternavsky. This is the third time this year that he has been called upon to mark Romario. The first two times, he was playing for Spartak Moscow against Romario’s FC Barcelona team, and although this might have been Ternavsky’s best game against him, it will not be one he will want to recall in his memoirs. As a final indignity, he was called upon afterward to submit to drug testing.
But Romario and Bebeto can make even the best of defenders look flat-footed. Brazil’s fans were concerned about the midfield, where Rai, the captain, has been little better than sufficient, and the defense, where injuries have struck.
No less an expert than Pele said recently that Brazil had much individual talent but little organization.
That was not the case Monday.
Rai found space in the midfield with the same creativity that he used in 1992, when he was considered among the world’s best playmakers, and the defense was superb. To compensate for the lost defenders, Parreira substituted players who could handle the ball like midfielders. Not only did they easily parry Russia’s few well-conceived counterattacks, they often initiated attacks of their own.
As a result, there was a flow to Brazil’s game that was not present during the 1990 World Cup in Italy, where the former coach, Sebastiao Lazaroni, insisted that his team establish its defensive credentials. Parreira said last week that his team will protect its end of the field, but will not betray its followers throughout the world who expect Brazil to play its traditional jogo bonito , beautiful game.
So far, he is a man of his word.
