SAO PAULO -- Croatian captain Darijo Srna tried to round up his comments on Wednesday with a joke. "We are not playing this World Cup because of our pretty faces," he said. The problem is that the 32-year-old defender's jibe at Neymar reverberated in the ears of the media at Croatia's press conference ahead of their World Cup opener against Brazil on Thursday.
Asked about his upcoming duel with the Barcelona forward who likes to operate on the same side of the pitch, Srna revealed he did not ask for any extra homework in the form of videos or stat reports. "You know, I have played against Ronaldinho and Kaká in the 2006 World Cup, and we narrowly lost that game 1-0. Nobody is going to find it easy against us."
It seemed for a moment that the Croatians were on a kind of mission to pep talk themselves. A few minutes before Srna's comments, manager Niko Kovac was purring about Seleção midfielder Luiz Gustavo after a pretty standard "great player" appraisal of Neymar. "Luiz Gustavo's reading of the game is amazing, and you could see why Bayern Munich poached him from Hoffenheim. He's the kind of player any team in the world would want," Kovac said.
Srna is pretty aware that he is in for a busy afternoon at Arena Corinthians. Ten years his junior, Neymar can be more than a handful if given space to roam, just as Spain found out last year in the Confederations Cup final when he created so much havoc that future teammate Gerard Piqué got an early shower after upending the Brazilian out of sheer desperation. Owner of 113 caps with Croatia, Srna has been one of Europe's best right-backs for years -- despite spending the last 11 seasons at Shakhtar Donetsk.
While many people are puzzled by his refusal to leave Ukraine and join a more powerful European side, Srna himself looks happy where he is. Owned by a billionaire, Shakhtar are good employers, especially to their team captain. Besides, thanks to the club policy of importing as many Brazilians as they can, Srna has had many chances to observe Neymar's countrymen to the point that he actually learned some Portuguese to better handle the new arrivals.
Willian and Fernandinho, for example, are two Seleção players who can't stop mentioning their former captain while reminiscing about life at Donetsk. "Darijo helped me a lot when I wanted to move to Manchester City and the club were playing hardball," Fernandinho once said. "He understood I wanted to give my career a new challenge. Above all, he knew how important it is for Brazilians to feel settled."
Srna gave both players a hug when the teams shared the Arena São Paulo pitch for some brief moments Wednesday during practice. It is unlikely Neymar will get the same treatment later on.
Notes:
Ref conspiracy
Brazilians love to find hidden agendas in every kind of football announcement, and it is no surprise that the appointment of Yuichi Nishimura raised a debate. Nishimura was in charge of Brazil's quarterfinal game against Holland in 2010, and while nobody questioned the red card issued to Seleção midfielder Felipe Melo after he trying to literally walk over Arjen Robben, there was a feeling that the Japanese referee should have also sent Mark van Bommel off. Now some fans are swearing Nishimura has been given "a second chance," while others saw his appointment as a bad omen.
Tough openings
In each of the past four World Cups, Brazil struggled in their opening games. An own-goal decided their 2-1 win over Scotland in 1998, and they won by the same score four years later in Turkey thanks to a very dubious penalty. A single goal settled a nervy opener against Croatia in 2006, and in South Africa, Brazil even managed to concede a goal to North Korea. Don't say I haven't warned you.
Debutant captain
Thiago Silva, captain of Brazil and club side Paris Saint-Germain, will play his first actual World Cup game on Thursday. An unused sub in 2010, he has been a Seleção starter for the past four years. Silva and 17 other teammates have never played in the tournament before.