Brazil crush Swiss local side 8-0
Brian Homewood
SOCCER: Champions Brazil warmed up in style for next month's World
Cup with an 8-0 romp over a Lucerne select side in front of a capacity
30,000 crowd at the St Jakob stadium on Tuesday.
Ronaldo and Adriano scored twice while Lucio, Juninho Pernambucano,
Robinho and Kaka grabbed the other goals.
Their opponents were based on the FC Lucerne side which won promotion
from the second division this year plus several former players who are
now based abroad.
Brazil's last international before their opening World Cup match
against Croatia on June 13 will be against New Zealand in Geneva on
Sunday.
The South Americans, who are training at Weggis on the shores of Lake
Lucerne, kicked off with the side which coach Carlos Alberto Parreira
has already announced will face Croatia and which started their last
competitive game against Venezuela in October.
Ronaldo, who has not played since limping out of a Real Madrid match
on April 8 with a thigh strain, played for 67 minutes before being
substituted and showed no ill-effects from his injury.
"It was a training session which achieved what we wanted," Parreira
told reporters.
"It's the first time for eight months this team has played a game in
front of a crowd, live television and wearing the yellow shirt.
"It was time for the players to get to know each other again. This
was the eighth day of our preparation and it is still very early."
Kaka, who scored the first goal and set up the next two, agreed with
Parreira that the match, played on a chilly evening, was little more
than a training session in front of an audience.
"It's not really normal to play a club side so we don't analyse the
result, just as we don't analyse the result of a training session," he
said.
"But today we wore the yellow shirt and we had the responsibility of
having to win. It's a privilege, it's not the same as playing another
national team but it's still a Brazil game."
BASEL, Switzerland, Wednesday (Reuters) |