Brazil on Saturday got Turkey, China and Costa Rica in Group C in the first round of the 2002 World Cup finals, which was widely considered as a walkover for the four-times world champions, though Brazilian coach Luiz Felipe Scolari said, "We can't make the same mistakes again.''
"The group is great, but we have to make it good,'' a beaming "Big Phil" said from Pusan, South Korea, whose team struggled to qualify for next year's event after losing six of their 18 matches in the South American group.
Turkey is in the finals for the first time since 1954, China is making its debut, though their coach Bora Milutonivc, according to Scolari, "has a lot of experience" and Costa Rica is there for the second time.
Milutinovic, who also coached Costa Rica in 1990, has now taken five different nations to the World Cup finals and reached the second round with all of his previous four teams.
"We have to change our way of thinking and realize that all opponent have their qualities even if we're not playing Argentina or England. The most important thing for me is that we don't leave it until the last match to qualify as we did in the preliminaries. " Scolari added.
To Brazil technical director Antonio Lopes, "Brazil had a lot of luck with this draw because our group is paw-paw with sugar," he told reporters, using a local expression which means easy on the palate.
Carlos Alberto Parreira, who led Brazil to the last of their four titles in 1994, also showed confidence. "Brazil have never had a draw like this when all three of the first round opponents are teams with no real tradition at the World Cup," he said.
"Hopefully, we can play with personality and confidence, win all three games and start with our best foot forward."
But others feared that Brazil could be their own worst enemies.
"It appears to be easy but the team's situation at the moment does not permit me to say that Brazil are favorites," said Carlos Alberto Torres, who captained the successful 1970 team and is now coach of Flamengo.
Brazil is the only country to have played at every World Cup.
(People's Daily December 3, 2001)
