Brazil coach Dorival Júnior speaks during a press conference in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on September 27, 2024.
Mauro PIMENTEL
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Brazil needs a “rapid improvement” in the South American qualifier for the 2026 World Cup, said Brazilian coach Dorival Júnior at the beginning of training camp for the matches in the coming days against Chile and Peru.
“They will be two fundamental, very important games. We are in a phase in which we need a lot of results, for the moment, because of the situation, because of the position in the table,” said the coach in a video released this Monday by the Brazilian Confederation of Football (CBF).
“We need to accelerate our process because our moment is a moment that requires rapid improvement, and I hope that happens in these two games,” he added.
With four defeats in the last five qualifying games and located in the middle of the table, on the verge of the play-offs, the Seleção will visit the Chileans on Thursday in Santiago and will host the Peruvians in Brasilia on Tuesday of next week.
The possibilities of improvement seem feasible for the five-time world champions, because Chile (9th) and Peru (10th) are at the bottom of the classification.
But they may have problems after losing five of the 23 players initially called up by Dorival Júnior to injury, including four starters: goalkeeper Alisson, left back Guilherme Arana, center back Éder Militao and attacker Vinicius Jr.
“I hope we are very well prepared and play two games of a very good level. That is all we hope will happen. We are going to look for those two results, respecting our opponents a lot,” said the coach.
Dorival Júnior, 62, considered that Chile, his rival on Thursday for the ninth round of the tie, has a team with good ball handling and players of “very good level.”
“It is a team that we already know, that we have followed for some time. I hope that we can have the conditions to play a very good level game, within our conditions, looking for the rival goal, working offensively,” he stated.
The five-time world champions, who have ten points in eight games, began work this Monday at the Palmeiras training headquarters in Sao Paulo.
