We might please half the people. One team should be attacking. One should play defensive, another creative, one could be a fantasy team . If I listened to all these suggestions, I'd go mad. Parreira is the first coach to put his own stamp on the team, says Francisco Marcos, the team's liaison and translator during the World Cup.
Some Brazilian players are happy for that.
And some are resentful, because it has detracted from their ability to show their flair. And so, despite having been pilloried in their respective countries for making their teams look too much like each other's, here they nonetheless were, Sacchi and Parreira, Italy and Brazil, in the final. And one of these dilettante apostates was going to be acclaimed a visionary Renaissance man. One of them was going to guide a team to a world championship. The Brazilians sometimes play as if the goal is a frame, and they're trying to create the prettiest possible canvas to mount inside it.