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Former coach Luxemburgo worried about Brazil's future
(Ticker)
Updated: 2006-06-06 09:24

BERLIN, Germany  - It's Brazil and 31 other teams. That is the prevailing belief of many soccer experts for the 2006 World Cup.

Nothing short of a sixth World Cup title is going to satisfy Brazil's fans. The foundation of that optimism is a slashing quartet of creative attackers.

Ronaldinho, recently voted the best player in the world, and Ronaldo, the top goal scorer of the 2002 World Cup, are the marquee players. They are joined by two rising stars who are only 24 - Adriano and Kaka.

But the future may not be as bright. Former Brazil national coach Wanderley Luxemburgo believes his country will struggle to continue to produce world-class players.

"There will be no more fine individual talents in the future," said the former Real Madrid coach. "We don't have these players here in Brazil nowadays. If we look back two years ago, here at Santos we had Robinho and Diego, and there were other players in other teams who could make the difference. Now, all of them are in Europe and players go there younger year by year.

"We're losing players who are just 13 or 14 and I'm sure we'll see some of them playing the 2014 World Cup for other national teams."

However, Luxemburgo admits that will not stop Brazil from always being regarded as the team to beat in the World Cup.

"I think the Brazilian national team will always be favorites in World Cups," Luxemurgo said. "But not as much as they looked on as favorites for this World Cup."

Brazil is scheduled to play its first Group F match on June 13 against Croatia in Berlin.

Ronaldo is confident he will recover from a foot problem in time for Brazil's opener. The Real Madrid forward scored the first goal in last Sunday's 4-0 triumph against New Zealand but struggled throughout the game.

"I have five blisters on my left foot," Ronaldo said. "But only one really affects me and it's very sore. I will have to put some cream on it in order to speed up the healing process but I don't think it will be a problem for the World Cup."

Many of the Brazilians played in Europe and the emphasis in Switzerland had been on getting them fit again ahead of their World Cup opener.

"Players arrived in here exhausted after such long seasons in Europe," Brazil coach Carlos Alberto Parreira said. "But they showed a great recovery in terms of physical preparation."

Meanwhile, Parreira claimed that the term "magic square" coined to describe Kaka, Ronaldinho, Ronaldo and Adriano was not one used inside the team.

"You journalists used that name but we don't use that name inside the team," he said. "They are four very talented players but they will have to do better than they do for their club teams as they will play in different positions. On the national team, they will have to do their share of the marking."

Australia and Japan are the other teams in Group F and will face each other on June 12 in Kaiserslautern.