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Humiliated Brazil to play Panama after being snubbed by Honduras
RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) -- Brazil has unveiled lowly Panama as its opponent for a friendly next month after being humiliated by snubs from Jamaica, Guatemala and Honduras. All three countries decided they had better things to do as they turned down invitations to travel to southern Brazil for a friendly in Curitiba on August 9. The match is a warmup for a World Cup qualifier at home to Paraguay one week later in which defeat would leave Brazil on the brink of missing out on next year's finals in Japan and South Korea. Brazil, in freefall after defeats earlier this year by Ecuador and Australia, suffered one of the worst results in their history as they were beaten 2-0 by Honduras in their Copa America quarterfinal in Colombia on Monday. But that result could pale into insignificance if they were to lose to Panama, a country where soccer lags behind baseball as the most popular sport. While Honduras are 48th in the FIFA rankings, the Panamanians are languishing in 112th place. Their attempt to qualify for the World Cup ended in humiliation as they picked up one point out of 18 in their group in the CONCACAF region. Results included a 6-0 drubbing by Trinidad and a 7-1 thumping at the hands of Mexico. Honduran officials in Tegucigalpa said at one point on Wednesday that they had agreed to play Brazil but backtracked after talking to coach Ramon Maradiaga, who favored Argentina. Challenging opponents The Rio newspaper O Globo said it was not clear if the Hondurans "feared spoiling Monday's achievement or if they are looking for more challenging opponents." In Rio de Janeiro, lifeguards baptized a lone penguin "Big Phil" -- the nickname of Brazil coach Luiz Felipe Scolari -- after finding the bird washed up on a beach. "He was wobbling all over the place; he was on his last legs," they said, adding the penguin was lost in the American continent. And the criticism continued to pour in, most of it aimed at the directors of the Brazilian Football Confederation (CBF). "Why is it that the players and the coaches -- be they good, mediocre or terrible -- are changed and the directors are always they same," asked Juca Kfouri, the outspoken columnist in the sports daily Lance. Former Brazil captain Socrates said in an newspaper interview that he was launching a campaign for people to stop watching televised coverage of the national team. He said his aim was for ratings on the Globo network to drop below a 20 percent of the viewing figures. The logic behind his thinking was that he believed the network had enough power to force a change in the way the Brazilian game is administered. "If we destroy Globo's audience, they will start losing money. Then, they will pressure the leaders of Brazilian football to make changes. What they [Globo] can do is to get rid of the guys who are there and bring in more competent people," said Socrates. He added: "We need a revolution and if we can bring Globo on to the side of transformation, it will be much quicker." Tele Santana, who coached Brazil at the 1982 and 1986 World Cups, said: "I never expected to live to see Brazil lose to Honduras. The supporters can't accept so much humiliation."
Copyright 2003 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
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