Robinho stars to ease Brazil pressure
MATURIN, Venezuela: Robinho scored a hat-trick to give Brazil a badly-needed 3-0 Copa America win over Chile on Sunday, while Mexico reached the quarterfinals after beating Ecuador 2-1.
Mexico's win, which started with another goal by striker Nery Castillo, made them the first team to reach the final eight of the tournament.
They lead Group B with six points, followed by Brazil and Chile on three. Ecuador are virtually out of the running after two defeats.
The 52,000-capacity Monumental stadium, built from scratch in less than a year, was ruled fit to stage the games even though it was clearly not ready.
The area around the arena was a sea of mud strewn with building materials and piles of debris. Inside, dust covered the seats and more debris was piled into corners of the stadium.
The competition's ticketing crisis continued, leading to queues of several hundred meters built up under a baking tropical sun.
Many fans who had booked tickets online and by telephone had not received them, even though their credit cards had been debited.
The fans inside the ground were treated to Robinho at his best although Brazil needed a controversial penalty to get off the mark in the 36th minute.
Paraguayan referee Carlos Torres apparently gave the kick for pushing and Robinho calmly scored with a low shot amid Chilean protests.
Chile squandered several chances to equalise after halftime before Robinho added two more in the last 10 minutes.
He latched on to Vagner Love's pass to chip the ball over Claudio Bravo in the 84th minute and was on target again after a dazzling 40-metre run three minutes later.
Chile coach Nelson Acosta, whose team have conceded 12 goals and scored none in their last three meetings with Brazil, was unimpressed.
"He scored at the end of the match when our defence was completely open," said Acosta.
"It's very easy to score when your opponents are tired and chasing the game."
Team spirit lauded
Brazil have tried to play down the importance of Robinho's hat-trick , preferring instead the usual discourse of team spirit and unity.
The Real Madrid player has tended to play second fiddle to the more experienced players in his international career.
But the decision of Kaka and Ronaldinho, who asked to skip the tournament, and Dunga's decision not to call up Adriano and Ronaldo has finally given him a chance to shine.
"I played well but so did the other players," he said.
"I haven't come here to be the star, but to help out," added Robinho, whose last international goal was against the same opponents in a 5-0 win in 2005.
"If that means a performance like today's, then that's fine. But if they want me to mark and tackle from behind, I'm going to do that as well."
The players' standard responses appeared to have been pre-planned by coach Dunga, who has tried to put the emphasis on collectivity since taking over from Carlos Alberto Parreira last year.
"Individually, Robinho was the high point but the whole team was excellent, you can't say that any player was a let down," said team captain Gilberto Silva.
"Everybody did their job. It's normal for somebody to attract attention when they score three goals but the whole team got the result."
Dunga, who gives the impression that he sees every press conference question as a potential threat to his team's stability, was also sparing in his praise.
Asked if he thought Robinho had produced his best performance for Brazil, the former captain said: "He's played other good games as well. But three goals puts a different light on things."
In the second match of the double bill, Castillo - scorer of a superb effort against Brazil -took advantage of hesitation in the Ecuador defence to slot the ball home after a Rafael Marquez pass in the 22nd minute.
Two Mexican substitutes combined to produce the second in the 80th minute when striker Cuauhtemoc Blanco floated over a superb cross from the right wing and Omar Bravo bulleted home a diving header.
Blanco's participation was the perfect answer to media reports that he had considered quitting the team because he was not being picked.
The player known as the Camel because of his hunched-back style had angrily denied the reports.
Ecuador looked demoralised but they gave themselves a glimmer of a chance with a deflected strike from more than 20 metres out by Edison Mendez.
"Yes, it's a failure and I'm not thinking of resigning for the moment," said Ecuador coach Luis Fernando Suarez.
Agencies
(China Daily 07/03/2007 page24)
