No fun for Falcao
About the article
This is a digitised version of an article from The Cayman Compass's print archive. Occasionally, the digitisation process introduces transcription errors, or other problems.
See the article in its original context from March 1991.
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When he took on the job last September the former World Cup hero was one of the country's most respected soccer personalities.
Six months, four draws, one defeat and no victories later, Falcao's dream has become a nightmare.
Brazilian newspapers are alreadyspeculating on who might replace the elegant and courteous Falcao. Pele and Carlos Alberto Parreira have both been mentioned.
Recent results have caused a drop in Brazil's prestige. There was a time when countries queued to play them, even when a 250,000 dollars appearance fee was introduced in 1989.
Now the queue has gone. Brazil are simply not good enough to merit such a large sum.
On February 28, the day after a frustrating 1-1 draw at home to Paraguay, the national coach woke up to headlines such as 'Falcao's Brazil can't beat anybody'.
Falcao insists that he is preparing a team for
Correction
The lady whose photograph appeared on page 24 of yesterday's Caymanian Compass, Mrs Martha Robinson, is the grandmother of Bodden Town Pee Wee player Carlington Dawson, and not Howard Pandohie as stated. the defence of the South American championship in July and results are not important at present. But critics say Brazil needs to win even friendlies. "It's a very dangerous situation because Brazil lives on results and you cannot have a Brazil team that goes five games without winning, no matter how many experiments are done," said ex-international Zico.
Unfortunately, Falcao cannot count on his best players. Nor does he have enough time for training. He has had his players together for more than one day only twice and until the end of last year he was prevented by the Brazilian Football Confederation (CBF) from using players based abroad. This meant the likes of strikers Careca and Romario and goalkeeper Taffarel were unavailable.
When the ban was lifted, Falcao found the European clubs would not release their prized players anyway. Only two of the five exiles called up for the match against Paraguay made it back to Brazil.
Falcao was clearly upset by the three absentees, Aldair, Mazinho and Romario.
He has also frequently complained that Brazilian clubs are forced to play too many matches and his players are usually tired.
Many say the real blame lies with the CBF which has failed to ensure that players are available. In addition, critics say political infighting among directors has left the federation on the brink of chaos. Hew d McCullum 3-1; Cameron d Foster 3-1; Narborough d Walker 3-0; Cameron d Bodden 3-0; Hew d Blair 3-1; McCullum d Foster 3-2.
The competition for places in the team continues this weekend.
Saturday will see the conclusion of the first round of the men's matches. The second round begins on Sunday. The schedule for this weekend is: Saturday: Men - 1.45pm Dilts v Thompson, Hew v Narborough; 2.30pm Johnson v Cox, McCullum v Bodden; 3.15pm Goldenberg v Widmer, Foster v Blair; 4.00pm Mucklow v Parchment, Walker v Cameron.
Ladies - 5.30pm Evans v Stradling; 6.15pm Taylor v Gordon. Sunday: Men - 10.00am Mucklow v Strobridge (2nd round).
Ladies - 5.30pm Taylor v Stradling; 6.15pm Gordon v Lawrence.
