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Screensize: 640 x 480 800 x 600 1024 x 768 1280 x 1024 UserName: Password: Format Mode: Basic  Help  Prompt  Format: Font Andale Mono Arial Arial Black Book Antiqua Century Gothic Comic Sans MS Courier New Georgia Impact Lucida Console Script MT Bold Stencil Tahoma Times New Roman Trebuchet MS Verdana   Size 1 2 3 4 5 6   Color Black Red Yellow Pink Green Orange Purple Blue Beige Brown Teal Navy Maroon LimeGreen Message: * HTML is OFF * Forum Code is ON Smilies [quote][i]Originally posted by Mexxx[/i] [br]WHY THE 2002 CHAMPIONS ALMOST NEVER MADE IT TO THE WORLD CUP The final minutes until the final whistle of the 2002 World Cup final seemed to last an eternity. It started to sink in that it was another historic moment for my country. In 1958 I was five years old and cannot remember the euphoric celebration in my neighborhood as my country won its first World Cup. As the years passed, I was able to follow the World Cup closely and share in the happiness every time Brazilians took to the streets in mass to express their joy over another World Cup win. In 1962 we heard Brazil win over fading radio signals, and in 1970 I watched the first televised World Cup. In 1994, the feeling was even better, as many of the players had been my players at one point or another in their careers. In Brazil football is more than a sport. It is the collective dream of a nation that endures daily hardship. Nelson Rodrigues, a Brazilian writer, once said that our national team is the “nation in football boots.” In Brazil, no one says that he supports this or that club. When asked, people say “I AM Flamengo,” or “I AM Botafogo.” During an interview, a fan said that being Brazilian meant being a “pentacampeao,” which means five-time champion. To many, this may seem strange, but to a Brazilian, it was just the right thing to say because a great part of our identity is connected to football. When it was all over I was overpowered by emotions that I cannot put into words. Seeing Cafu (a player who in the beginning of his career was rejected by 12 teams) lift the Cup, the team kneel down in a circle to pray, and the messages players wrote on their shirts with mention of their home town (most of which were small towns), will be in my memory forever. So why is it that the nation that is now once again World Cup champion almost failed to qualify for the World Cup? And what made their return as the number one football nation in the world so special? After the 1998 World Cup, the Brazilian Football Confederation hired a talented coach, Wandeley Luxemburgo, who unfortunately got into some personal troubles that affected his command of the national team. The Confederation fired him and hired Emerson Leao, who like all national coaches before him, lost his first set of games. Brazil was never left out of a World Cup, and the pressure on the shoulders of the coach and the Confederation is great. Having international and previous world cup experience are factors that weigh heavily in the adaptation of a coach. A coach in Brazil will only go down in history if he does not qualify the national team, which means national shame. The Confederation mistakenly fired Leao before he could adapt and hired Luis Felipe Scolari. Scolari lost games too, but this time the coach was given a vote of confidence, and the Brazilian team received enough points in its last game to qualify. With a place in the World Cup guaranteed, Scolari went on to develop and put into practice a program based on the following points: 1 – Create a disciplined group 2 – Establish equal righst and duties for all players 3 – Put the interests of the national team above the interests of individual players 4 – Establish functions that faciliate the creative freedom of players on the field 5 – Allow the greatest number of players to play before the World Cup to experiment and maintain high morale 6 – Keep players informed about the public opinion in Brazil 7 – Train different defense styles to be used according to the opponent 8 – Believe and intensify the efforts to recuperate Rivaldo and Ronaldo 9 – Contact coaches who played against or worked with teams that Brazil would face in the first round of the World Cup 10 – Restrict the number of interviews that players could give, especially the most popular ones, making sure that all players felt important Even with all these points in place, there were many skeptics. The odds had Brazil as the number one candidate for disappointment in the Cup. Zidane, Vieira, Argentines and Englishmen, all said that Brazil had lost its touch. But while other countries sent to Asia their players, Brazil sent its “army in football boots” embodying the dreams and hopes of more than 160 million people. At the World Cup the effects of the preparation Scolari set for his players were evident. Alrnaldo Cesar Coelho, who was the referee at the final 1990 World Cup game, served as a consultant, providing information about the personality and style of every referee. Carlos Alberto Parreira, coach of the 1994 national team, lectured to the team before the final game, and Ronaldo was submitted to biochemical tests to diagnose possible problems he could have. In the technical and tactical aspect, we witnessed different defense styles. Against China and Costa Rica, Brazil marked the entire field and half field against all others. Against England, Roberto Carlos played a little more forward, forcing Beckman to play further back. In the same game, allowing Kleberson to play gave Rivaldo and Ronaldinho Gaucho more freedom on the field. During the final, Roberto Carlos and Cafu were heavily marked and moving Kleberson forward, gave Brazil its best chances for a goal in the first half. The greatest difference between Brazilian coaches and others is that we see ourselves as the directors of a play. We give a script , rehearse, create a chemistry among players, and show our actors a thing or two, but when it’s show time, we allow the actors to use their talent to imrpovise, creating some of the best scenes in the play without damaging the overall script. Another display of perfect simplicity I will not forget, is Ronaldo’s gesture to apologize to all moms whose sons copied his much talked about hair style. I hope he read the letter by a mother published in a newspaper about her son’s hair cut. She told Ronaldo that although her son’s hair had seen better days, his mind (what really mattered) was never better because of the example of courage, determination, persistence and humility Ronaldo set for youngesters all over the world. Ronaldo had his best World Cup but never put himself above the team or stoped believing that he could imrprove and overcome the many challenges he faced. He left a powerful message that life is made of constant challenges and the losers are only those who are too afraid to fight. Many think Brazil won because it has good players. What made the difference from being almost disqualified to play in the World Cup to winning it, were not the individual talents of our players, but rather the program that was put into place allowing these players to show their collective and indvidual talents. If this World Cup showed the world something it was that even a country like Brazil can do badly if it does not have a strong, determined and well-thought project for success. The gap separating the main teams and new teams is closing fast. Korea, Senegal, Turkey and the US proved that. I am expected to sign a contract with a national team very soon where I will be putting into practice a project too. Believe in yourselves and develop a strong program. I hope that however undecided the future of football in this country may be now, that God holds many moments of glory for it. I am cheering for you. With faith, Rene Simoes [/quote]   Check here to include your profile signature.