Brazil watch on Aussies

Scout has keen eye on team

“At 60 years old, that would have been the best result of my footballing career.” — Scotland manager Gordon Strachan after his side was denied a famous win over England after conceding a stoppage time goal, as their World Cup qualifying match ended 2-2. THE Socceroos will want to hope they have Brazil all figured out — because the South Americans have been watching Ange Postecoglou’s men very closely.

Brazil has revealed it sent a scout to Adelaide for Thursday night’s 3-2 World Cup qualifying win over Saudi Arabia, in a bid to glean as much tactical and personnel information as possible before tomorrow night’s clash at the MCG.

It’s a sign of how seriously the world’s No.1 team is taking every ounce of its World Cup preparation that, even on the eve of a fiery 1-0 loss to archrival Argentina at the MCG on Friday, the next friendly with 48th-ranked Australia was already front of mind.

“We sent someone to watch the game,” said Brazil team coordinator Edu Gaspar. “It’s important for us to follow the team and learn about the team, and Australia is the same.”

The Socceroos face a Brazil team stacked with English Premier League stars that has already qualified for Russia 2018, streets ahead of its South American counterparts.

Yet Edu, the former Arsenal midfielder, felt it would nevertheless be unwise to underestimate Australia.

“They are doing well — they won the game so they have nearly qualified to the World Cup as well,” he said.

“When teams are close or already qualified for the World Cup, something special they have.

“Nobody can go to the World Cup because they’re lucky, they have to do something important.

“That’s why we respect them a lot and are focused to play against them very well.”

Even more so given Brazil is out to rebound quickly from the first loss of Tite’s year-long tenure as coach.

He was still unsure whether he would move the magnets around or stick with a similar starting XI that, even without Barcelona superstar Neymar, dominated chunks of play against Argentina in a manner sure to have any Socceroos scouts on high alert.

“It’s something I’m going to have to think about,” Tite said.

“The intention will be to play with coherence, we have a lot of things to look into here.

“The disorganisation is something that can be prejudicial to us and we have to look at playing in a more organised form.”