From villain to hero in two weeks

Press, 21 July 1989, Page 27

From villain to hero in two weeks

The Brazilian coach, Sebastiao Lazaroni, whose team won the South American soccer championship last Sunday, went from villain to hero in two weeks. When he decided against including a striker, Charles, in Brazil’s 20-strong squad for the Copa America, Lazaroni appeared to be digging his own grave. Charles was the star of Sport Bahia in Salvador where Brazil’s games were to be held. Fans in Salvador retaliated, denying the Brazilian side their support. For a week Lazaroni and his players prayed for time to pass so they could leave Salvador.

When they did things changed for the better. Brazil scored a moraleboosting victory over Paraguay in Recife and qualified for the final round of the tournament, which Brazil had not won since 1949.

As Brazil celebrated its 1-0 victory over Uruguay in the final at Rio de Janeiro’s Maracana Stadium, Lazaroni claimed the decision he had taken in Salvador was correct.

“I’m interested in doing my work for the benefit of a group as a whole, not thinking in terms of individuals,” he said. “Now that we’ve won, I’m a hero. I’m used to it.If anything goes wrong during the qualifying matches, I’ll be called incompetent. That’s the rule a coach must grow to accept,” he said. Originally a physical trainer, the 38-year-old Lazaroni likes to recall that he was a disciple of the late Claudio Coutinho, coach of Brazil’s 1978 World Cup team in Argentina and responsible for years of glory at Rio’s Flamengo club, which dominated Brazilian football between 1978 and 1981.

Lazaroni was promoted from physical trainer to

coach at Flamengo at the start of the Rio de Janeiro state season in 1986. Flamengo won the championship and he was confirmed in the job. The following year he was sacked after Flamengo lost a match against a lowly rated side. He was signed by Flamengo’s arch rivals Vasco da Gama, winning the Rio league title in 1987 and 1988.

His prestige crossed Brazilian boundaries and Lazaroni was hired in Saudi Arabia where he signed a lucrative contract.

When invited earlier this year to take over Brazil’s national team, he negotiated a breach of his contract with the Arabs and rushed back home.

A good reader of the game, Lazaroni saw that unless changes were made Brazil would have trouble overcoming European teams. He said that .as far as tactics are concerned the Europeans are currently well ahead of the South Americans.

“I knew that testing a new system during the Copa America could be dangerous. But since we had decided that our main target was the qualifying round of the World Cup, we decided to go ahead with our plans. "As expected, things did not work 100 per cent well at the start. Now that we have won the tournament, conceding only one goal in seven matches, while scoring 11, some of my critics are hailing me. But I’m sceptical about this praise,” he said. Lazaroni’s revolutionary tactics include the use of a libero, three defenders, four men in midfield and only two strikers, who receive strong support from the right and left backs.

Considering that several of Brazil’s goals originated from crosses from the right and left flanks, Lazaroni’s system appears to have passed its first test. NZPA-REUTER