WITHIN 24 hours of arrogantly naming his team to meet Scotland in the World Cup opening game on June 10, Brazilian coach Mario Zagallo was given a scare when one of his top strikers, Romario, received an injury that could have put him out for the entire tournament.
The 32-year-old, who was the most influential player in the side that triumphed in the US four years ago, will be able to return to football after 10 days, but it is kind of incident that shows the folly of Zagallo's decision to tempt fate with his team announcement. Romario suffered a strained thigh muscle during a match on Wednesday night after which his club doctor, Jose Luis Runco, warned that tests ''could determine whether or not he goes to the World Cup next month.''
Romario had pulled up lame just after half-time during Flamengo's 1-0 victory over Friburguense in a game for the Rio de Janeiro state league. Sprinting upfield on a breakaway, he suddenly stopped, put his hand to the back of his right thigh and hobbled off the field.
Romario said: ''I felt a stab, a very sharp pain.''
However, last night Runco said the results of MRI testing showed the player suffered only a contraction of the back thigh muscle and should be able to play again within 10 days.
He had feared that a serious distension would take three weeks to cure and Zagallo may not have been willing to wait that long. Brazil's training camp starts next week, and the team flies to France on May 21. A day earlier, Zagallo had named Romario in the starting team for the game against Scotland. He declined to speculate on changes in the team if Romario cannot play.
Even without learning a lesson of his own, Zagallo would have found that his intimidatory tactics could not disturb the determination of Scotland's international team leaders to get their own game plan right for the grand opening day meeting with the world champions in Paris on June 10.
Even the alarming brilliance of Ronaldo, as he demonstrated his range of exquisite skills in Inter-Milan's 3-0 win over Lazio in the UEFA Cup final in Paris on Wednesday to confirm his title as the world's best player, will not deter the Scots' management from tackling the champions with as much confidence and commitment as the team has shown throughout the qualifying stages.
Alex Miller, assistant to Craig Brown, acknowledges that the 21-year-old is a formidable opponent and allowed himself a little quip that the Tartan Army would appreciate when asked the best way to stop him. ''Burst the ba','' he replied. More seriously, Miller insisted: ''We will work hard on a game plan for the Brazil game, just as we will for the other games in the group.''
Typically of the Aberdeen manager, whose analysis of players and teams is renowned in Scottish football circles, is his breakdown of Ronaldo's abilities. ''His greatest asset is his injection of pace,'' he said.
''Most international players are fast and can work up to impressive pace, but Ronaldo does it inside five or six yards from a standing start. He has powerful thighs and calves that give him the surge that makes him a very difficult player to play against.
''He also works very hard. Lazio tried to close down the areas where he works, but that allowed other good players in the Inter side to cause them problems.''
However, he insisted that, whoever plays and however talented, he and Brown will work as diligently as ever and retain an upbeat attitude. ''I am sure Craig could have told you 10 of the side they named, anyway, maybe all of it, and the fact that they have declared it now is no problem for us,'' said Miller.
''I don't think, in all the time I have been working with Craig, that we have failed more than a couple of times to tell the players at least 10 of the 11 they would face and what the shape would be. Knowing it now only confirms what we expected.
''That is what all the homework and research is about. In the end, it is what we do that matters to us and we will have a game strategy for the Brazilian game devised in the way we always have.
''We will be working on that with the players in America, but not too much in the games we play because people will be watching us there. We will do the hardest work in training, simulating other players and other styles. We always do that.
''Most of all, though, it is important that we play to our own strengths. We have to be positive when we talk to the players and we will be positive.''
Ronaldo, whose penalty gave Barcelona victory over Paris St Germain in the European Cup-winners' Cup final a year ago, has never lost in a final. He has won domestic cup finals in Brazil, the Netherlands, and Spain
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and the world youth championship and Copa America, among others, with Brazil.
Ronaldo said: ''I knew we wouldn't lose because I'm a specialist at finals. I never lose them. Now my new goal is to win the final of the World Cup with Brazil. It seems like Paris brings me luck.''
Ronaldo, voted man of the match, scored the third goal to take his UEFA Cup total to six - one fewer than Auxerre's French international striker Stephane Guivarc'h - and hit the post with a volley.
Zagallo's team for the great day was: Taffarel, Cafu, Aldair, Junior Baiano, Roberto Carlos, Dunga, Cesar Sampaio, Giovanni, Rivaldo, Ronaldo and Romario. Zagallo, has never fielded this line-up in his four years and 63 games in charge. Now fate may have stepped in to make sure he does not.
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