WORLD CUP USA ’94 / THE FIRST ROUND : SPOTLIGHT : WE ADVANCED, GUYS

Brazil Coach Parreira’s appointment with the media Thursday at the team’s headquarters in Los Gatos was advertised as a news conference, but it was more like a firing squad.

“This is going to be dynamite,” Pedro Bial, a correspondent for Brazilian TV network O Globo, told U.S. colleagues while waiting for Parreira to appear in a tent raised on the grounds of the Villa Felice resort.

“Any other country that qualified in first place in its group with no losses would be happy,” Bial said. “But to Brazil, the 1-1 draw with Sweden was like a tragedy.”

Except for the few minutes he spent with them outside the dressing room immediately after that game Tuesday, Parreira had not been available to reporters since. So the more than 100 Brazilian reporters in Los Gatos were impatient to fire their questions at him.

Although the language of the press conference was Portuguese, it was obvious even to those who do not speak it that most of Parreira’s answers began with, “That’s your opinion.”

The team’s liaison to the organizing committee, Francisco Marcos, later said, “The Brazilian reporters start with a question, but it quickly becomes advice.”

In a subsequent news conference with English-speaking reporters, Parreira said, “Brazilian public opinion is more critical than anywhere else in the world. No team was able to advance to the second round as peacefully as Brazil, but, still, people complain.

“If we were 30% as good as the fans and the media expect us to be, we would be unbeatable.”