(Reuters) – Costa Rica coach Gustavo Alfaro said his side will not be intimidated by the challenge of facing Brazil as they seek a level playing field when they kick off their Copa America campaign on Monday.
The continental showpiece will be a chance to learn where players stand tactically and what the keys to beating a big team like Brazil are, the Argentine added.
“The hierarchy (of Brazil) is respected, but not feared. If you’re afraid to play, you don’t show up,” the coach told a press conference on Sunday.
“The difference in hierarchy can be fought, first with order, with a lot of determination and a lot of conceptual clarity about what needs to be done, and basically by running. If there are two Brazilians, there must be three Costa Ricans,” he added.
Alfaro insisted they could win because “football is the only sport where you don’t know if you’re going to win or lose before you start playing”, but they would have to play a “perfect game” to do so.
“It seems to me that Brazil’s irregularity after the World Cup, with Tite’s departure, came from the mistake of not defining a head coach. But now Brazil have defined an order of what they want, they have coach Dorival Jr, a clear head who projects and plans,” he added.
The former Boca Juniors and Ecuador coach added that, regardless of the result, they will be “fighting on equal terms” with all their rivals in Group D, which includes Colombia and Paraguay.
(Reporting by Angelica Medina in Mexico City; Editing by Lincoln Feast.)
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