Brazil in Unfamiliar Spot
Considering the long-standing and often bitter rivalry between his own country and Brazil, it was quite an extraordinary remark that Marcelo Bielsa made the other day.
“Brazil has always been the team that brings the World Cup to life,” Argentina’s national soccer coach said. “We can’t think of one without them.” But if Argentina defeats Brazil today at River Plate Stadium in Buenos Aires, the Brazilians might not make it to the 2002 tournament, thus ending a proud era. Brazil is the only nation to have taken part in every World Cup since the first in 1930.
A Brazilian loss would leave Coach Luiz Felipe Scolari’s team still in fourth place, ahead only on goal-differential in front of fifth-place Uruguay, which used goals by Dario Silva and Alvaro Recoba to defeat Peru, 2-0, Tuesday night in Lima, thereby eliminating Peru from further contention.
In Tuesday night’s other game, last-place Venezuela, traditionally the weakest team in South America, scored its first-ever road qualifying victory, upsetting Chile, 2-0, in Santiago, to end Chile’s interest in this World Cup.
“I cannot find any logical explanation for this,” said Chile Coach Pedro Garcia, whose team had upset world champion France in the same stadium last Saturday.
“I’ve said on more than one occasion that I have regretted taking this job. My resignation has been signed and accepted. I’m leaving as a coach who has one of the worst records, but I’m also the one who beat the world champions.”
Only the top four South American teams qualify, with the fifth advancing into a two-game playoff against Australia.
Brazil, beaten by Australia at the Confederations Cup earlier this year, is fighting to stay among the top four.
“If necessary we are going to commit fouls,” defender and team captain Mauro Silva told Reuters. “When we don’t have the ball, the marking will have to be tough. We have to stop their moves. We can’t let them think in midfield and organize themselves.”
Argentina’s all-time leading goal scorer, Gabriel Batistuta, will miss the game because he’s not in playing shape. Also missing will be midfielder Juan Sebastian Veron, who is suspended. All the same, Argentina’s fans will expect nothing but the most purposeful performance from their team.
The Argentina-Brazil clash is the most glamorous--but not necessarily the most decisive--of a host of World Cup qualifying games that will take place today in the Americas and Europe.
Two countries have the chance to clinch their places in Korea/Japan 2002. Sweden, a third-place finisher at the 1994 World Cup, will qualify if it defeats Turkey at Istanbul. If Turkey wins, it can qualify for its first World Cup since 1954 by defeating Moldova on Oct.7.
“They [the Swedes] have a two-point lead and we have home advantage,” Turkey Coach Senol Gunes said Tuesday.
“We want to be first [in the group] and more importantly, we want to show that we’re better than Sweden.”
Spain needs only a tie at Liechtenstein to clinch a spot and should have little difficulty showing it is the better team.
Coach Jose Antonio Camacho’s team is coming off a 4-0 victory over Austria, its closest group rival, and is in good form.
“The best thing about the performance [against Austria] was that we kept looking for goals up until the final whistle,” Camacho said.
Unless Sweden defeats Turkey earlier in the day, Spain will become the 11th country to claim its World Cup berth.
In addition to Argentina, others already qualified are Cameroon, Nigeria, Poland, Senegal, South Africa and Tunisia. In addition, Japan and South Korea qualified automatically as co-hosts and France qualified as defending champion.
Today’s other games offer teams the opportunity to position themselves to secure their places next month.
Paraguay, for instance, can assure itself of finishing no less than fifth in South America if it defeats Bolivia at home in Asuncion and Colombia loses at home to Ecuador in Bogota, which seems unlikely.
England, coming off an astonishing 5-1 victory against Germany in Munich, returns home to play Albania at St James’ Park in Newcastle, and Coach Sven Goran Eriksson has warned his players against overconfidence.
“When you have done something great, there is a danger you wake up the next day with a negative surprise,” the Swedish coach told Reuters.
“You should want to show yourself every time you step on the pitch. The day you don’t show anything is the day you are finished. The beginning of the end.”
England can move ahead of Germany into first place in its group with a victory against Albania and can clinch a World Cup spot with another home victory on Oct. 6 against Greece.
Three-time world champion Germany, once the group favorite, appears destined to be one of nine European second-place teams that will be joined in a playoff by the third-place team from Asia.
Rudi Voeller, Germany’s coach, said Tuesday he would resign if Germany fails to qualify.
