Brazil, one of the favorites of the FIFA Women's World Cup in China with world-class striker Marta Vieira de Silva, will meet underdog New Zealand in Group D opener in Wuhan, China on Wednesday.
As the top seed in the group, Brazil, the Athens Olympics runners-up, will not accept even a tie in the match.
The Group D also includes World Cup hosts China and European powerhouse Denmark. According to the latest FIFA women's ranking in June, Denmark stood at sixth, Brazil at eighth, China 11th and New Zealand 23rd.
Among the four, Brazil are the most skilful, Denmark are superior in physiques, China boast unexpected advantage as hosts, and New Zealand may be a trouble-maker.
Brazil's strength mainly comes from Marta, 21, who won the FIFA Women's World Player of 2006 award. The youngster has also taken two Pan-American Games gold medals besides an Olympic silver medal at the Athens. After joining Sweden side Umea in 2004, Marta lifted UEFA Cup with the club.
As the leader of the Brazilian team, Marta boasts amazing dribbling skills which can break any defence. And her goalscoring instinct, shooting ability and unselfish passing have made her a complete player.
Brazil are the only team in South America to qualify for every women's World Cup finals and their best result in the tournament was the third in 1999.
Brazil coach Jorge Barcellos said that he wanted to take his team to the very top of the world soccer and getting three points from the first match against New Zealand would be the first step.
New Zealand have taken full advantage of Australia's move to the Asian Football Confederation in January 2006, with a clean sweep in Oceania World Cup qualifying tournaments.
It was the second time for the Kiwis to attend the World Cup finals, the first one had also been in China but in 1991 when they lost all the three group matches, 3-0 to Denmark, 4-0 to Norway and 4-1 to hosts China.
Acting as an underdog in the tournament or even in Group D, New Zealand will fight for a record improvement without any pressure.
The team's core is Maia Jackman, a veteran defender who acted as a strong point for New Zealand in 14 years.
Jackman was selected in the FIFA Women's World Stars team, for whom she slotted in at right-back for the showpiece mach against China that preceded the draw for the FIFA Women's World Cup.
Jackman said here Monday that although some predictions described New Zealand as an underdog in the tournament, the team would play in never-say-die spirit.
New Zealand's head coach John Herdman said here Monday that his team would play aggressively in defence against Brazil.
"For us, the encounter with Brazil is a type of aggressively defensive play, as Brazil always sends a lot of players in attacking," said Herdman, an Englishman who led the New Zealand women's U-20 side to the World Cup in Russia last year.
The New Zealand U-20 team earned a stunning goalless tie with the eventual bronze medalists, Brazil, in Russia.
Herdman has includes nine players of the U-20 side into his senior team in China.
Source: Xinhua
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