Putting a decision on the back burner as to who will succeed Luiz Felipe Scolari as national coach, Brazil on Thursday revealed a revamped technical commission. Following their failure to win the World Cup on home soil, Scolari and his backroom staff resigned and the Brazilian Football Confederation (CBF) fired the team doctor and communications head.
The new technical coordinator will be Gilmar Rinaldi, replacing Carlos Alberto Parreira, the coach of the Brazil side that won the World Cup in 1994. Outgoing CBF president Jose Maria Marin, who will give way next year to septuagenarian lawyer Marco Polo Del Nero, said the federation would reflect further on the top job. But he implied that a choice was as good as made as the five-times world champions look to bounce back from their 7-1 World Cup semi-final mauling by Germany.
"We are thinking of announcing the new coach at the start of next week perhaps. If all goes as we expect I hope to be back here in this same place making a further announcement," Marin said at the CBF's headquarters in western Rio de Janeiro. Gilmar, 55, and Brazil's third-choice goalkeeper at the 1994 World Cup, which Brazil won in the United States, said: "Now we must listen a lot." He added: "We don't have to copy anybody. The most important thing now is to define what we want" and produce a solid base for the future.
Referring to the Germany humiliation, Gilmar revealed that he had been irked by the team's sea of messages of support for injured Neymar, even wearing hats with his name on. "Instead of a hat with Forca Neymar (go Neymar) I would have preferred 'go Bernard," who came into the team in the starlet's place, Gilmar said. The loss to Germany, Brazil's worst ever at a World Cup, was followed by a 3-0 third-place play-off humbling by the Netherlands.
Those two setbacks combined to transmit an urgent message to the CBF that top to bottom reform is required. Although former Corinthians coach Tite is the name on most lips as favourite to succeed 2002 World Cup-winner Scolari, the CBF is holding back any appointment for now in order to build from lower down, putting in place a new backroom team.
Although indications are now that the CBF will choose Tite, some in the Brazilian game, although fretting about the team's "Europeanization," favor bringing in a foreign coach. "We have talked a lot. We are in touch directly. But I am not naming any names," said Gilmar after reporters pressed him on Tite, full name Adenor Leonardo Bacchi, who won the the Copa Libertadores and FIFA Club World Cup, at Chelsea's expense, in 2012.
Another domestic possibility mooted as Brazil look towards next year's Copa America in Chile is Sao Paulo's Muricy Ramalho. He was chosen to replace the sacked Dunga in 2010, but then team Fluminense did not release him. Muricy went on to lead Santos to the Copa Libertadores in 2011 with Neymar on board. Marin paid tribute to Scolari and to Parreira for their efforts, despite Brazil's miserable exit when they had sought to go better than the 1950 side who lost the final match to Uruguay in Rio. "Of the five (champions) stars that we have, Scolari was responsible for one and Parreira for another. We must respect them," he said.
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