Brazil says winning Confed Cup opener is crucial

BRASILIA, Brazil (AP) — Brazil will be playing for more than a victory when it faces Japan in the Confederations Cup opener on Saturday.

Coach Luiz Felipe Scolari said Friday that a victory in the first match will be crucial to winning the support of demanding home fans and to put the squad on the right track for its fourth title in the World Cup warm-up tournament.

"It's fundamental to win this match and that's what I've been telling the players." Scolari said. "We need to have the fans on our side, so it's important we get off to a good start."

Brazil hasn't won a significant title since the 2009 Confederations Cup in South Africa and home fans have criticized and jeered the national team following a series of poor results recently.

"We need to take advantage of the home fans, and to do that we need to play well," Scolari said. "Our team is not fully ready yet and we know it's not going to be easy, but we need to work hard to keep the fans on our side."

Scolari led Brazil to the 2002 World Cup title but has endured disappointing results in the seven matches he coached since returning to the national team in December. Brazil is coming off a convincing 3-0 win over France in its final warm-up, but it had won only one of its six matches until then, against Bolivia.

Scolari and the Brazilian players were loudly jeered and booed by nearly 50,000 home fans after a 2-2 draw in a friendly against Chile in April.

Scolari knows first-hand how an opening loss at home could make the team's path to the title more difficult. He was head of the home team when he coached Portugal at the 2004 European Championships, when the hosts lost the opening match but eventually reached the final.

"It's horrible to lose the first match at home, just horrible," he said. "It's tough to handle and that's something we have to avoid at all costs. If we lose, it's going to be difficult with the fans, the media, with everything."

Scolari said it's even tougher because Brazil is not as respected at home as it is abroad. Brazilian fans often feel distant from the national team, in part because most of the players are from foreign clubs.

This time the coach included 11 players from domestic clubs in the Confederations Cup squad, repeating the winning formula of the 2002 team that thrived in South Korea and Japan, when 13 members played at home. Since then, the national team has had only a handful of domestic players in most tournaments.

The current players know the responsibility that comes with playing at home.

"There's always a lot of pressure when it comes to the 'Selecao,' but even more now here at home," said Neymar, the 21-year-old Barcelona striker touted to lead Brazil to the title. "We know there is a lot of pressure and we know of our responsibility. But we have a great group and we will do everything we can to reach our goal of winning the Confederations Cup and then the World Cup next year, which everybody knows is the most important thing for us."

Brazil has won the last two Confederations Cups, in 2005 in Germany and in 2009 in South Africa. It also won the 1997 tournament in Saudi Arabia. The five-time world champions haven't won a significant title since the 2009 tournament. Only goalkeeper Julio Cesar and defender Daniel Alves were in that squad.

"The team has been revamped and it's always hard when you start from scratch," Neymar said. "But we are starting to put a team together and that's the most important thing right now. We know we have talented players who can make a difference in the end."

Brazil beat Japan 4-0 in a friendly last October, when coach Mano Menezes was still ahead of the national team.

"We won that match but it wasn't easy," Brazil striker Hulk said. "We faced a lot of difficulties in the beginning of that match and we expect the same in the opener here."

Japan arrived just two days ago because it was playing World Cup qualifiers in Asia, and Italian coach Alberto Zaccheroni said he expects his team to face some difficulties against the hosts on Saturday.

"Our team has improved lately and our goal in this competition is to show the world how we improved," he said. "We are going to be playing against teams that are ahead of us in the (FIFA) rankings, so I'm curious to see what happens. Maybe we are not the best team in the world but we know how to play football and we have very good players."

Italy and Mexico are the other teams in Group A.