Forget beautiful game, let's win, says Parreira

By Staff
|
Google Oneindia News

DORTMUND, June 27 (Reuters) Ever since Pele labelled football the ''beautiful game'' Brazilian sides have been expected to be in the vanguard of winning with panache.

However, Brazil coach Carlos Alberto Parreira today said that enough is enough after again being forced to defend the style of his team's 3-0 second round victory over Ghana.

Parreira admitted that his team had made mistakes and hurried their passing, particularly in the first half, but became exasperated when asked if he had abandoned the concept of the beautiful game.

''History doesn't talk about the beautiful game, it talks about champions,'' he said. ''Why do we have to play beautiful football when the others don't? ''History records five world championships, not the beautiful game.

''Playing very well is not important, winning is. I have to congratulate the fibre of my team. The ball wasn't moving as smoothly as we wanted but we showed good spirit.

''Nobody is going to change the way they play at this stage.'' The coach said that to criticise his side did not give credit to a Ghana team who pushed them for long periods, especially in the first half.

''We knew it wouldn't be easy today, 3-0 seems like an easy game but it wasn't,'' he said.

''Ghana had four games here, they could have drawn with Italy, they played very well against the Czechs and played good games against the United States and us today.

''We made many mistakes, we gave away a lot of ball - speed is co-ordinated, hurry is speed without co-ordination and we hurried the ball. We lacked that co-ordination.

''We knew they pushed up, we'd seen that in the videos, but we hurried it. We could have made more use of the wings, we were offside too often or lobbed the ball on to their centre backs' heads.

''In the second half we improved and we put the ball on the ground and when we do that Brazil are superior to any opponent.'' Parreira, who led Brazil to their fourth World Cup triumph via a penalty shoot-out in 1994, said he was excited now that the competition was approaching the quarter-finals.

''When the draw was made last December it looked like eight teams would be going for it and those eight, the big teams are all, or nearly all, in the last eight. ''It's going to be nice.'' Brazil will face either France or Spain in the quarter-finals but Parreira was unconcerned about who it would be. ''You don't choose your opponents in the quarter-finals of the World Cup,'' he said.

Reuters SK VP0142

For Daily Alerts
Get Instant News Updates
Enable
x
Notification Settings X
Time Settings
Done
Clear Notification X
Do you want to clear all the notifications from your inbox?
Settings X
X