Latin American Roundup

World champion Brazil comes to China for friendly

BEIJING (AP) -- The morning after Brazil won the World Cup last year, a little Chinese boy begging in Beijing's embassy district showed up with a brand-new look -- the shaved head and rakish wedge of black hair adopted for the tournament by Brazilian forward Ronaldo.

"Brazil is the world's best," the boy bragged to passers-by, a tattered soccer ball under his arm.

That's precisely the problem facing China's national team Wednesday when it takes on Brazil in the southern city of Guangzhou.

Brazil -- complete with the high-powered triumvirate of Ronaldo, Rivaldo and Ronaldinho -- is due in China for a "friendly" expected to end with the South American powerhouse in complete control.

The A-class international match will be a high-profile international debut for Arie Haan, the Dutchman hired as China's coach in December to replace Bora Milutinovic, who became something of a national hero last year after he led China to its first World Cup finals.

Haan was brought aboard to sharpen the Chinese squad's scoring ability after it was knocked from the first round of the World Cup finals without netting a single goal.

This is certainly a daunting way for him to make a first impression: Twelve of the players on Brazil's 22-man lineup were on last year's World Cup championship team.

"The coach isn't worried about losing. He is afraid of losing really badly," PeoplesNet, an online sports service run by China's main Communist Party newspaper, said of the 54-year-old Haan.

Last June, Brazil easily beat China 4-0 in the first round of World Cup play, easing off later in the match apparently to avoid running up the score.

Haan has recalled Everton midfielder Li Tie for the Brazil match, and Manchester City's Sun Jihai is also expected to play. Li, on a one-year loan from Chinese team Liaoning Bodao, has been doing well for Everton and may be in line for a long-term contract with the English Premier League club.

The Chinese team arrived in Guangzhou late last week and promptly sequestered itself. A planned open practice was closed on Friday, the newspaper China Sports Daily reported.

In an exhibition match Saturday against second-division Guangzhou Xianglei, the national team was held to a 0-0 draw and only a handful of shots on goal as Haan fielded almost completely different lineups for the two halves. Afterward, the new coach was visibly displeased.

"The team's overall performance was really disappointing," the official Xinhua News Agency said Sunday.

China, which succumbed to soccer fever before the World Cup, has chilled noticeably since its national team's lackluster performance. These days, the talk is more about the Houston Rockets' Yao Ming and China's growing role in basketball's premier competition, the NBA.

Still, the arrival of the Brazilians in their world-renowned yellow-and-green uniforms is an event unto itself.

Last month, the Beijing Youth Daily said Brazil would be paid $1.25 million for the friendly and China would receive no more than $100,000. The terms of the deal stipulated that Ronaldo, Roberto Carlos and Cafu must play. All were on the lineup announced last week by Brazil's coach, Carlos Alberto Parreira.

Not everyone is happy about the match. Several European clubs -- including Real Madrid and AC Milan -- complained when their players were plucked for the matchup of the two national teams.

An official from the G14 association was quoted as saying the body would complain to FIFA, the sport's world governing body, that they should not be required to release their Brazilian players because the China-Brazil match is for financial gain, not competition.

Parreira, though, insists Brazil must train its "A" team regularly to prepare for the 2006 World Cup qualifying and avoid the chaos of the last campaign, when the team qualified only in its final game.

Mexico: Guadalajara's Chivas beat the Tecos 3-2

Bravo scored two goals in the 24th and 62nd minutes, while Mora made his in the 66th minute. Bolivian Jose Alfredo Castillo scored the Tecos goals in the first and 30th minutes of the game.

In other games, Atlante beat Puebla 3-1, aided by two goals from Chilean Sebastian Gonzalez in the 68th and 90th minutes.

Pachuca tied with Nuevo Leon University's Tigres 1-1. Argentine Victor Muller scored Pachuca's goal in the 87th minute, while Brazilian Joao Kleber made the Tigres goal in the 52nd minute.

America beat Necaxa 2-0 on goals by Pavel Pardo and Argentine Hugo Castillo in the 78th and 89th minutes, respectively, and the Jaguares of Chiapas defeated Santos 2-1.

On Saturday, Argentine Guillermo Franco scored a goal in the 54th minute, leading Monterrey to a 1-0 victory over the Colibries of Cuernavaca.

Also Saturday, Morelia defeated the Gallos Blancos of Queretaro 2-1 while Toluca lost to Veracruz 1-0.

 

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