Brazil return to Rio de Janeiro’s footballing temple of Maracanã seven years after their last showing there. Time has flown with only Ronaldinho knowing what its like to don a Brazil shirt in the Carioca stadium; then playing as a newbie with the spotlight firmly focused on a Romário who netted a hat-trick in a 5-0 drubbing of Bolivia.
The 2007 seleção are back with an extra star above the CBF badge, but also feeling a bit on edge for two main reasons. Firstly Maracanã is an infamously unforgiving barometer for Brazilian public opinion of the national team – and the team has just trundled out the sort of performance that is sure to elicit a sonic boom of booing.
Secondly, Dunga is feeling under attack from the press given the weak cuppa brewed up in Colombia and has been snarling and snapping at the Brazilian press in the lead-up to the match. This seems to suggest that the testy tactician is nervous ahead of what will be ‘his’ Brazil’s first official match on home soil: a real acid test.
Fortunately for Brazil’s hopes of winning, visitors Ecuador arrive after falling at home to Venezuela. It may have been a rather fluky free kick from close to the centre circle, but the goal put an end to six years of home invincibility and mean that Ecuador arrive feeling doubly vulnerable – yet with very little to lose.
The last time both nations met across a football pitch dates back almost exactly a year. On the 9th of October 2006 a Friendly match in Sweden’s Råsunda Stadium saw Brazil beat Ecuador 2-1. ‘La Tri’ opened the scoring via Felix Borja (22 min), but Brazil turned it around through Fred (44 min) and Kaká (73 min). Team News
BRAZIL
Dunga and his men are back in Brazil, but aren’t exactly feeling wafted with sweet feelings of ‘home, sweet home’ as the press has hardly been kind to a national team that strained patience and eyelids with a poor showing in Bogotá. There’s a feeling of snappiness at having to field worries about the seleção style.
Dunga had little time for journalists’ questions about the team’s shortcomings in Colombia, interrupting many to shoot back rebuttals, ironic asides, sarcastic snippets and ill-concealed bad tempered responses. It’s hardly the behaviour of a man who feels that he’s in total control or answerable to the nation he represents.
The Brazilian highlight in Bogotá saw the limelight circle Júlio César with most of Dunga’s seleção getting low grades in a review of the Brazilian press ratings of how the national side performed in the first WCQ against Colombia. The average hovered between five and six out of ten in a series of broadsheets, tabloids and websites.
On the sporting side he seems unlikely to make any changes to his first eleven against Colombia; sticking to his guns with stubborn dedication. The Coach doesn’t have any injury problems accumulated from the Colombia match and therefore, should he choose, he can field exactly the same team and substitutes that he used in Bogotá.
He is also taking the visitors with deadly seriousness. “Ecuador were always difficult rivals for Brazil. They're very strong and have good technique and the result [versus Venezuela] was surprising. They will need a win to forget the bad start and we must be ready and not give them any chance to manage the game”, Dunga explained.
ECUADOR
Coach Luis Fernando Suarez has promised not to do what most are expecting and to field an attacking side at Maracanã on Wednesday. “The main characteristic of Ecuador’s game is the offensive attitude and I’m not going to play with five or six defenders just because we are playing Brazil in Brazil”, he explained.
The home defeat to Venezuela was a low blow after six years of home invincibility (the last time ‘La Tri’ fell at home was against Argentina back in 2001) and the tactician was aware of the collateral effects. “Our players are aware that they have a duty to recover lost ground away from home. If not against Brazil we’ll get the points back elsewhere.”
The main absence from the Maracanã match will be midfielder Antonio Valencia. The Wigan Athletic man ended the Venezuela match with an injured knee and didn’t even form part of the delegation that flew to Rio de Janeiro. His place was taken by Felix Borja who is in the front line for a first team place on Wednesday.
The absence will be felt by the guests, but striker Cristian Benitez echoed the main reason for confidence that’s been mentioned by a number of Ecuadorians in contrast to the Venezuela defeat. “Against Brazil it will be different because we'll have spaces in the rival defence, totally different from what happened against Venezuela”, he argued.
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