KOENIGSTEIN, Germany, 10 June 2006 — Having someone on the bench to replace players like Ronaldo, Kaka and Cafu is Brazil’s biggest strength.
“That’s the good thing about the Brazilian national team,” Brazil coach Carlos Alberto Parreira said. “We are not only 11 players, we can replace any player at a good level.”
Brazil, the defending champion which is trying to win its sixth World Cup title, is so deep that some say its second stringers could contend for the title.
Standouts such as Real Madrid’s Robinho and Lyon’s Juninho have to fight for a spot in the starting lineup. Cicinho also is left on the bench, along with Arsenal’s Gilberto Silva. Valencia’s Edu and Real Madrid’s Julio Baptista were left off the final roster.
“This is the strongest point of the Brazilian national team,” Parreira said. “I don’t think any other team will have 23 players as good as we have.”
Parreira also said he is expecting opponents to play very defensively against Brazil.
“I think very few teams will dare to face Brazil openly,” he said. “They will always try to set up a block with eight or nine players on the back.” Brazil will open against Croatia on Tuesday in Berlin. The five-time champion will then face Australia on June 18 in Munich and Japan on June 22 in Dortmund.
Brazil’s only public training session since arriving in Germany was held in nearby Offenbach on Thursday, and more than 22,000 fans showed up to watch.
In Shape: Argentina trainer Gerardo Pascual Salorio, who has worked with coach Jose Pekerman for more than a decade, has tried to erase any doubts about the team’s condition going into Saturday’s Group C opener against Ivory Coast.
“We’re really well, better than people think,” Salorio said. “I think we’re about 8.5 on a 10-point scale entering the tournament.” He said Gabriel Heinze, Lionel Messi and Juan Pablo Sorin had all recovered from injury. Heinze missed most of Manchester United’s season with a knee injury, and Messi had a severe thigh injury late in the season with FC Barcelona.
Persian Rug: What’s more Iranian than a Persian rug?
Ali Heidarzadeh, a carpet merchant from the city of Tabriz, has figured out how to combine his twin passions by creating a World Cup rug emblazoned with the flags of all participating nations, the images of World Cup organizer Franz Beckenbauer and FIFA president Sepp Blatter and other symbols of the tournament.
“It took six weavers five months to complete it,” he said holding up the silk and wool rug. The brightly colored rug is a departure from the world-famous Tabriz carpets, which traditionally have a harmonious floral design, characterized by a large central medallion giving the appearance of lacework.
Heidarzadeh, who exhibited his creation at Iran’s training camp in Friedrichshafen, said he has not set a price on the rug.
Fortune’s Choice: Seems like the crystal ball in Ecuador agrees with the experts: Brazil will either win the World Cup or make it to the final rounds, while Ecuador will exit in the second round.
Rebeca Pacheco, a “ witch” from Quito, said that a reading from three different cards shows that “Brazil and Germany will make it to the final,” and that Italy, Argentina, Mexico, Japan and England will advance far into the tournament. Brazil has “an incredible positive energy,” according to Irma Fiorello, an Ecuadorean tarot expert. The forecast for their local team wasn’t as good.
On TV: Morocco’s King Mohammed VI intervened to reach a last-minute deal with an Arab broadcaster to allow Moroccans to watch some World Cup matches for free. The deal with the Arab broadcaster ART will allow Moroccans to watch some matches, including the semifinals and final, for free on the two national public television stations. Officials and public TV executives in North Africa have been scrambling to strike deals with Saudi Arabia broadcaster ART, which has the rights to air the games in the Arab world — and which has levied fees too high for many in the region, where soccer is a national obsession.
