The Hindu : Luizao may get chance to silence doubters

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Jun 24, 2002

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Sport - Football

Luizao may get chance to silence doubters

SAITAMA (Japan) June 23. Reserve Brazil striker Luizao, one of Luiz Felipe Scolari's most controversial World Cup selections, may finally get the chance to silence his doubters on Wednesday if Ronaldo fails to shake off his thigh injury.

Coach Scolari will also have to decide on a replacement for attacking midfielder Ronaldinho, who serves a one-match suspension for his sending-off in the 2-1 quarterfinal win over England.

Edilson, Denilson, Juninho and Kaka, who has not yet played at the tournament, are his four possible replacements.

Brazilians will inevitably be asking if any of them are up to the task of standing in for two of the world's most exciting players.

Although Ronaldo is expected to recover in time for the second meeting with the Turks in Wednesday's semifinal, team doctor Jose Luis Runco has not yet guaranteed he will play. If the worst happens, then Luizao will finally get a chance to repay Scolari's faith in him and silence the doubters.

Luizao, who was surprisingly picked ahead of players such as Elber, Jardel, Franca and veteran Romario, has so far made only a brief appearance at the World Cup, coming on as a substitute for the last few minutes of the 2-1 first round win over Turkey.

While Elber, Jardel and Franca have all been regularly knocking in goals for their clubs over the last year, Luizao has spent much of the time sidelined. He spent six months out of action with a knee injury and this year was forced to stop playing for three months because of a legal dispute with his club Corinthians.

The row ended with Luizao joining Gremio, where he has yet to make a major impact. Throughout all this, Scolari has stood by the player, reminding critics that Luizao scored twice in the 3-0 win over Venezuela in November, when Brazil finally clinched its place in South Korea and Japan.

So far, Luizao has justified Scolari's confidence. He scored the winner in a friendly international against Yugoslavia in March — when he still had to endure cries of ``Romario'' from a fickle crowd in Fortaleza — and won the penalty from which Rivaldo scored the late winner against Turkey.

``Luizao has my full confidence and he knows it,'' said Scolari on Saturday, confirming that he was Ronaldo's natural replacement.

Although Luizao does not have Ronaldo's ability to terrify defenders by running straight at them at high speed, his is deadly in the penalty area and had a prolific scoring record at club record before his injury problems.

Ronaldinho's possible replacements are a mixed bag.

Juninho has already started three games for Brazil at the World Cup, has had a reasonable tournament but most observers agree he has lost some of the electrifying form he showed at his best for Vasco da Gama two seasons ago.

Denilson, a left-footed player often compared to an old-fashioned winger, has come on three times as a substitute and often looked as if he is about to do something spectacular without every quite managing to pull it off.

Edilson is another player full of tricks — and sometimes too individualistic — who does not always produce as much as he promises.

Twenty-year-old Kaka would be the most interesting choice.

One of the outstanding revelations of Brazilian football in the last year, the Sao Paulo player has sometimes been compared with former captain Socrates for his apparently effortless style.

Scolari has so far been proved right on all counts, from his bold pre-tournament prediction of a top-four finish to his tactics, team selections — including his controversial omission of Romario and his faith in Rivaldo — and substitutions.

Turkey will discover on Wednesday whether he gets it right again.— Reuters

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