By Brian Homewood
BASEL, Switzerland, May 30 - Champions Brazil
warmed up in style for next month's World Cup with an 8-0 romp
over a Lucerne select side in front of a capacity 30,000 crowd
at the St Jakob stadium on Tuesday.
Ronaldo and Adriano scored twice while Lucio, Juninho
Pernambucano, Robinho and Kaka grabbed the other goals.
Their opponents were based on the FC Lucerne side which won
promotion from the second division this year plus several former
players who are now based abroad.
Brazil's last international before their opening World Cup
match against Croatia on June 13 will be against New Zealand in
Geneva on Sunday.
The South Americans, who are training at Weggis on the
shores of Lake Lucerne, kicked off with the side which coach
Carlos Alberto Parreira has already announced will face Croatia
and which started their last competitive game against Venezuela
in October.
THIGH STRAIN
Ronaldo, who has not played since limping out of a Real
Madrid match on April 8 with a thigh strain, played for 67
minutes before being substituted and showed no ill-effects from
his injury.
"It was a training session which achieved what we wanted,"
Parreira told reporters.
"It's the first time for eight months this team has played a
game in front of a crowd, live television and wearing the yellow
shirt.
"It was time for the players to get to know each other
again. This was the eighth day of our preparation and it is
still very early."
Kaka, who scored the first goal and set up the next two,
agreed with Parreira that the match, played on a chilly evening,
was little more than a training session in front of an audience.
"It's not really normal to play a club side so we don't
analyse the result, just as we don't analyse the result of a
training session," he said.
"But today we wore the yellow shirt and we had the
responsibility of having to win. It's a privilege, it's not the
same as playing another national team but it's still a Brazil
game."