Inside scoop #3! Meet Parreira!

Ok, now to Parreira: coach and mastermind. He was trying to keep a serious look on his face and, to be honest, he succeeded most of the time, but Zagallo and Americo were very loose and managed to rip some smiles out of our coach. His number one message to everyone at the event was: “I will not give away information about my final roster today”. As you all might have heard, here in Brazil we have more than 180 million coaches so we must understand that he is under a great load of pressure.

Parreira doesn’t see any surprising results in this World Cup. No Bulgaria, no Croatia, no African team… he believes that there are only 8 teams eligible to the title this year. All the champions (except Uruguay) can get the title. The other two were not mentioned. Oh the mystery!!!

Of course he was asked about many players and choices to replace some of his favorites in the final 23 selection. His main message was: “You can’t please everyone. You must be true to yourself and deal with your choice’s consequences. You must choose your own path to be successful; the key is to work hard and to persevere. We can’t change the hard work we’ve done for the last three years. Everything we’ve done came after careful planning and I won’t change things now.”

About the goalkeeper matter he said that he would not comment at the situations of pending athletes because it could be harmful to the team spirit at this stage. Nobody even mentioned the name of Rogerio Ceni, unfortunately, but I can understand his position. Anyway, Marcos won’t be able to play again until may 14th, so I’m keeping hopes high for Rogerio.

He was also asked about Ronaldinho’s performance. People say that he always plays better in the Barcelona team than in the Seleção. Some say he have more freedom in the Spanish team. He was a little angry about this issue, saying that it is an outrageous claim. He pointed out that the two situations are completely different. “In my team he’ll have more freedom than in Barça, but you must understand that he plays every week with his mates at Barcelona and for Brazil he also must get used to play with his companions. We will have some time before the World Cup to get their chemistry working. I want him playing completely free, scoring, passing, marking and doing what he knows best”.

At some point, Parreira was asked if the Brazilian football was influenced by the poor background of its players… I loved his answer: “Our players are proud to represent the ‘Brazil that is successful’. In Europe the football players usually comes from clubs or football schools, but in Brazil you can find barefoot little children everywhere having fun just as much as Ronaldinho in European matches. The Brazilian players are proud to play in the Seleção and this drive is what motivates our players through the competitions”. I personally believe that this is one major ingredient behind Ronaldinho’s smile.

Parreira was asked about Brazil’s strengths and weaknesses. With a smirk in his face he said “I’m not telling our weaknesses… I’m not helping the enemy. The strength lies within the technical quality of our players and in the team spirit”.

Of course they didn’t speak in this exact order, I organized their opinions like this to make it more ‘reader friendly’. The final statement was Zagallo’s affair with the number 13, and after that we were told that they would have a little time with the press on the stage, and the rest of us should leave through the left door. Oh yeah, we won’t shake their hands, for sure. We can’t shake the player’s hands, but we had the opportunity to greet their commanders, so everyone climbed on the stage to wish them ‘good luck’ and to remember this day forever.

Parreira was almost crushed by the press and fans, so he was a little concerned about his way out the stage. He was saying “We’ll work out this picture thing later”, and I said “I’m sorry and good luck” while he held my shoulder to avoid falling to the ground, pushed by a hungry crowd.

These guys are real Brazilian heroes and I won’t forget this day.

Zagallo told the story behind Romario’s dismissal too, but that is a good subject for another post.