World champions Brazil take on Asian
minnows Hong Kong on Wednesday in a lopsided international friendly
overshadowed by the no-show of star striker Ronaldo.
Coach Carlos Alberto Parreira confirmed the three-time world player of
the year had not been released by his club Real Madrid for what would
have been his 100th appearance for Brazil.
"There's no FIFA regulation that players have to join their national
teams if they don't want to play outside of Europe," he said.
"We tried our best but from the beginning Real Madrid said they wouldn't
release him."
Organisers had delayed confirming the absence of Ronaldo, who has
recently returned to Spain after a trip to Brazil and is due to marry
model Daniella Ciccarelli on Valentine's Day .
Ticket sales have been slow for the Lunar New Year's day event, blasted
by FIFA president Sepp Blatter as a mere "money-making" exercise, with
15,000 still unsold a day before kick-off.
But the Hong Kong Football Association said it had no intention of
cutting the price and was confident that most of the tickets, at 800
Hong Kong dollars (102.6 US dollars) or more, would be snapped up.
Captain Cafu, who has represented Brazil at a record three World Cups
and led them to their 2002 success, also said he was unconcerned at the
lack of fans on hand to greet the team at the airport late on Monday.
"It doesn't matter that not many fans were there last night," he said. "Tomorrow
the stadium will have a lot of fans to support us, that's the important
thing."
Even without Ronaldo and injured Inter Milan striker Adriano, Brazil
boast a star-studded line-up including FIFA world player of the year
Ronaldinho, Real Madrid galactico Roberto Carlos and Santos forward
Robinho.
Parreira, who guided Brazil to World Cup glory in 1994, said the
five-time world champions would use the match as preparation for next
month's qualifiers for Germany 2006.
"For us it's a friendly game, it's preparation for our games against
Uruguay and Peru next month," he said.
"The team is in good shape. If we do have a little problem it's
understanding, because of the new faces, and the travelling, but we hope
tomorrow to overcome all these problems and play a beautiful game."
For Hong Kong it's all about damage-limitation, although they will be
hoping to improve on their 144th FIFA world ranking and restore some
pride after their 7-0 hammering by China in their last outing in
November. |
