Anniversary secondary to Olympic obsessed Brazilians

By Rex Gowar

LONDON (Reuters) - Brazil meet Sweden at the Emirates Stadium on Wednesday in a match marking the 50th anniversary of the 1958 World Cup final in Stockholm when the South Americans won the first of their five titles.

But for Brazil, and no doubt the Swedes too, the match is primarily an ideal warm-up for their forthcoming competitive commitments, coach Dunga said on Tuesday.

Dunga's Brazil, playing at the Emirates for the third time after a win over arch-rivals Argentina in 2006 and a loss to Portugal last year, are preparing for South American 2010 World Cup qualifiers against Paraguay and the Argentines in June.

Sweden are building up to the European Championship finals in the same month when they start off in the Austrian-based Group D against holders Greece before facing Spain and Russia.

"Sweden play a tight 4-4-2 and have always been very difficult to beat," Dunga told a news conference after a team practice at the stadium. "They have a great team."

The Swedes hosted the 1958 World Cup with a fine team, too, but lost the final 5-2 to one of Brazil's best ever sides graced by the teenaged Pele, Garrincha, Didi and Mario Zagallo.

PATO DEBUT

The modern Brazil are blooding a number of young players as they also prepare an under-23 side for the Beijing Olympic Games in August, looking for the one title that has so far eluded them.

There are 12 players who fulfil the Olympic criterion of being under 23 in Dunga's 22-man squad in London.

Dunga was at pains, however, to point out in response to persistent questions from Brazilian reporters that the Olympic Games was not his chief objective.

"The priority is always with the senior national team, we work with that in mind," Dunga said.

Most of the young players will start on the bench on Wednesday although 18-year-old striker Alexandre Pato is a virtual certainty for a debut at some point, having had to pull out of their previous squad due to injury.

Robinho and Luis Fabiano look set to start in attack.

Dunga said preparing for the Olympics was not easy with few warm-up opportunities and uncertainty over the release of players by their clubs, among other problems.

"For a World Cup you get plenty of time to prepare, 30 or 40 days, but not for the Olympics," he said.

Having said that, Dunga was aware of impatience back home. "We are being criticised because Argentina have already named players (for their Olympic team)."

Brazilians would dearly love to wrest the Olympic title from their biggest rivals, who won gold at the 2004 Athens Games inspired by the then Brazil-based Carlos Tevez.

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