Friday, July 2, 2010

Dunga predicts 'beautiful' match



Brazil coach Dunga says he anticipates a "beautiful game" when his side take on the Netherlands in Friday's FIFA World Cup™ quarter-final.
"We expect it to be very open," said Dunga. "At this knock-out stage we can't expect a closed, defensive encounter. From now on each game is a World Cup Final. All the players are first class, I expect a beautiful game against the Dutch."
Kaka is one of ten players going into this mouth-watering encounter already on a yellow card and risks missing out on a potential semi-final should he get a second booking. The Real Madrid playmaker had to sit out Brazil's closing group game against Portugal after being sent off for two yellow cards in the 3-1 win over Côte d'Ivoire.
Dunga confirmed Elano, who has scored twice, will miss the game with an ankle injury, while defensive midfielder Felipe Melo, who was suffering from the same problem, had trained normally at Port Elizabeth's Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University stadium earlier. "We will have to see how Felipe is," Dunga said.
Dunga was on the pitch on the last two occasions Brazil met and beat the Dutch, in the 1994 quarter-finals and the 1998 semi-finals, when the Oranje lost out on penalties. Dunga recalled: "That penalty shoot-out win was very important, very decisive. We wanted to confirm our victory in 1994. In the end we couldn't win the Final, but it was still an excellent result. We didn't play as well as we had done in the Final itself but we did give our best up to the last minute."
In a stifling room in the bowels of the stadium full to the rafters with journalists hanging on his every word, Dunga concluded the briefing as he had started it, with another prediction. "The tendency has always been for us to improve [in a competition]. Our players' confidence levels are increasing, so yes, the tendency is for our level of play to improve."

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Thursday, July 1, 2010

Elano's a miss for Brazil



Brazil will be without Elano for Friday's FIFA World Cup™ quarter-final against the Netherlands.
The team's medical staff said the former Manchester City midfielder has not recovered from an ankle injury and could be out for the rest of the tournament.
Elano, 29, suffered the injury in a challenge by Côte d'Ivoire defender Cheik Tiote in Brazil's 3-1 win and limped out of a training session yesterday.
Brazil's team doctor Jose Luiz Runco told reporters: "I'm not saying that he won't be able to play again at this World Cup but he won't be ready for Friday.
"He has bad bruising and it was after he trained on Sunday that he said that he was having problems.
"The bone is swollen and we have to release the pressure on it so he will do nothing strenuous for the rest of the week."
"We still hope he can play next week but I can't say that he will be able to categorically."
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