football test

GREAT HEADLINE, ISN'T IT? THERE WAS CERTAINLY NO LACK OF INTEREST WHEN CARLOS ALBERTO

PARREIRA, WORLD CHAMPION WITH BRAZIL IN 1994, JUMPED ON THE STAGE AT THE UEFA NATIONAL

TEAM COACHES CONFERENCE IN VIENNA TO MAKE A PRESENTATION BEARING THAT RIVETING

TITLE TO AN AUDIENCE OF COACHES WHO ARE NOW ACCELERATING THEIR TEAMS INTO THE FINAL LAPS

IN THE RACE TO QUALIFY FOR THE 2010 FIFA WORLD CUP FINALS IN SOUTH AFRICA.

Carlos certainly knows his way around the world of national team football. Apart from Brazil, he's taken charge in Ghana, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and South Africa. And, as he was quick to point out, he's learned that there's no secret formula, no magic potion and that the title of the presentation he has now allowed UEFA to publish on our website might easily be "How To Have a Half-Decent Chance of Winning the World Cup". Let's face it, if you ask the winners of World Cups, EUROs or UEFA Champions Leagues to name a key factor, they might well mention "a smile from Lady Luck in a penalty shoot-out."

Indeed, the list of past winners reveals that there's no common denominator in terms of personality. How do you compare Sir Alf Ramsey with César Luís Menotti; Enzo Bearzot with Franz Beckenbauer? On the other hand, it is interesting to look for traits that Carlos has shared with Aimé Jacquet, Luiz Felipe Scolari and Marcello Lippi, the technicians who have followed him to the top of the world podium.

Carlos expresses admiration for Germany's 1954 champion Sepp Herberger, who developed tactical discipline along with physical and mental strength, aiming to attack and defend with maximum efficiency. Carlos admits to finding inspiration in some of Sepp Herberger's strikingly simple statements such as "the ball is round" and "the game lasts 90 minutes" because those stripped-down concepts are an invitation to reflect on what the game of football is about.

Flicking through the pages of World Cup history, Carlos traces trends through the winners: the birth of 'art football' in 1958 based on the Brazilians' outstanding technical ability, the play-and-don't- let-them-play philosophy of Sir Alf Ramsey's winger-less England in 1966, the quality and team balance of Brazil in 1970, the compact German unit which overcame Total Football in 1974, the different styles which took Argentina to the summit in 1978 and 1986, and the tactical, counter-attacking excellencies of the Italian sides which triumphed in 1982 and 2006.

The question is whether today's ambitious national team coach needs a compendium of all those qualities or whether a winning team can be built on a small number of them, yet be prepared to cope with opponents who base their footballing cuisine on different ingredients. Carlos believes that a successful team needs to be built on the foundations of the country's culture, history and traditions. He quotes César Luís Menotti: "You have to understand that, if you are a musician and you don't know who Beethoven was, you are lost. If I ignore my past, I cannot plan my present or my future." On the other hand, Argentine football has, in recent times, diverged into two schools of thought spearheaded by their two World Cup winners - and Carlos Bilardo maintains "there is no Argentine style: to win is the only thing that matters."

In modern-day Europe, the theme is by no means irrelevant. Many of the nations who have expanded UEFA's membership from 31 to 53 in a short space of time may face a need to rediscover their footballing genes. Carlos, of course, is steeped in Brazilian culture and philosophy. And he points to Mario Zagallo, four-time World Cup winner as player and coach, as the man who managed to combine method with the Brazilians' traditional fantasy by focusing on off-the-pitch facets. His revolution in 1970 was based on a meticulously planned training programme along with a totally new team infrastructure in which the technical staff was increased from 4 to 12. Although science and technology have been increasingly applied to the game in the last half-century, Carlos admits that it's difficult to equal the 1958 experience in terms of preparation time. "In those days," he remarks, "the Brazlians were in Brazil, so preparations started in February. These days, that is simply impossible."

The challenge facing today's national team coach is that cultures, philosophies and playing concepts need to be implanted in short periods of time and, in many cases, among footballers who, since adolescence, have been playing the game against completely different cultural backdrops. Technology can assist the modern national team coach in terms of, for example, logging each player's training and match-play workloads via internet, but technology cannot provide national character or team unity.

Carlos therefore maintains that a key element in the coach's work is to evaluate and assess the players who are available and to select those who, in his opinion, can interpret his philosophy. Again, Carlos likes to quote César Luís Menotti: "You need to look for quality and for team players. A good squad is like a symphonic orchestra. You can't manage with violins. You also need pianos, basses, wind instruments and a good maestro."

"The music keeps changing," Carlos reflects. "If you go back to Brazil in 1958, it was essentially a 4-2-4 but Mario Zagallo's ability to attack and defend made it more or less a 4-3-3. When Brazil won it again in 1970, you could say it was with a 4-5-1 formation. But the five consisted of Clodoaldo and Gerson in the holding roles with Jairzinho, Pelé and Rivelino operating behind Tostão." In 1994, Arrigo Sacchi described Carlos's Brazilian team as "the most organised in their history". It was based on a flat, zonal back four and, as Carlos recalls, "a positional passing game with fast counters and changes of rhythm. It was about zero mistakes and maximum efficiency."

Playing styles come and go - Carlos points out that, at the 1990 finals, 14 of the 24 teams operated with a three-man defence. In 2006, 5 out of 32 used three at the back - a trend underlined at EURO 2008, where only Austria and Greece sporadically opted for this shape. But Carlos insists that the characteristics required by the coach who aspires to win a World Cup have remained fundamentally unchanged. He needs a solid track record, a real football background, along with enough top-level experience to earn credibility in the dressing room. He requires a coherent playing philosophy which he can communicate to the players. His leadership qualities must be channelled into creating a positive ambience. He must always be prepared to, as Carlos puts it, "defend the tribe". He needs to remain composed, focused and graceful under extreme pressure. And he needs to be relaxed and purposeful in his relationships with the media, "even when you get the feeling that it's you versus the rest of the world. There were times, I admit, when I asked myself if it was really worth it. You need to be Robocop..."

Carlos also maintains that, apart from outstanding players, a team capable of winning the World Cup needs "to win outside the field of play. You need a mission, a vision, a target. You need to defend the myths and legends of the country."

Who will successfully do this in South Africa?