‘World Cup has too many contenders’
STAR GAZING Real Madrid bound Vinicius Jr will lead Brazil’s attack as they look to end a 14 year wait for the title
MUMBAI: A day before they kick off their under-17 World Cup preparations here in Mumbai, Brazil coach Carlos Amadeu stated it won’t be an easy task for his side to break the 14-year trophy drought, given that there were “too many title contenders”.
“All the European teams are very strong, including Spain and England, while Mexico, United States and the South American sides will pose a threat. Also, if you sum up the statistics, African teams have eight trophies between them at this stage while the combined tally of European and South American teams stand at six. It’s always difficult to face an African side in this age. I think this will be a World Cup of equality,” said Amadeu
Brazil take on New Zealand in a friendly at the Andheri Sports Complex on Thursday. The Kiwis, who will take part in the under-17 World Cup for the sixth consecutive time, were knocked out of the previous edition after they went down to the green-andyellow brigade on penalties in the Round of 16 tie.
“They (New Zealand) are also a strong team and in the last under-17 World Cup they had beaten Paraguay, a strong team. We faced them and it was a difficult game and we won on penalties,” Amadeu recalled. This year, however, Brazil seem to be a stronger outfit having outscored (24) all their opponents and conceded fewer goals (3) en route to lifting the South American under-17 title.They also boasted of the highest goalscorer — Vinicius Junior who will join Real Madrid in July 2018 — and in Alan had the player with maximum assists.
“Vinicius is our main player. Since the under-15 level he has caught attention all over the world. He is proud to serve his country and that’s the most important thing for us,” Amadeu stated. “The boys have been playing together with these guys since the under-15 days and there won’t be a problem for him integrating in the squad.”
Like Vinicius, there’s always a constant threat of potential youngsters to move abroad in lucrative deals. But does that hurt building a champion side? Amadeu doesn’t think so. Reiterating that there are pros and cons of playing abroad, the Brazilian said: “Not being able to train together is indeed a problem but also, the positive is that the players are learning the game from a different school of thought and different training systems. These things are important to help a player in their career and thus, we can’t look at these aspects in a negative manner.”He also shared the secret that he believes helped Brazil end up as the side to have conceded the least number of goals. “Our defence system starts with our first forward. It can be Vinicius or whoever is out there… The reason we have a solid defence is because the defending started far up on the pitch. When people look to Brazil, they always try to find players who score or dribble but we have quality goalkeepers and defenders,” he further added.