BRAZIL COACH:
Carlos Alberto Parreira

Carlos Alberto Parreira is attempting to accomplish what only one man has done before -- win multiple World Cups. Italy's Vittorio Pozzo did it back-to-back in 1934 (as hosts) and 1938. If Parreira accomplishes that feat, he will have done it twice away from home, having guided Brazil to the USA '94 crown.

Parreira, born on March 25, 1943, had a brief career in the Brazilian Second Division and turned to coaching in his early 20s. His first international coaching position was with Ghana at the 1968 African Nations Cup. He has directed four different teams in the World Cup -- Kuwait (1982), United Arab Emirates (1990), Brazil (1994) and Saudi Arabia (1998), whose Olympic team he coached in the 1984 Summer Games. He wound up coaching the MetroStars in the 1997 MLS season, but Parreira left before he could complete his two-year, $1.2 million contract because the Saudis dangled him an offer he certainly couldn't refuse: six months of work coaching their World Cup team for a reported $3 million. He took the offer. The Saudis dropped their first two matches and helped Alberto make history once again as he became the first coach to be fired in the middle of the competition.

Having directed Brazil under ridiculously intense pressure in 1994 made Parreira a perfect candidate to take over the Brazilian coaching reins again. "I'd be lying if I told you I didn't feel the pressure," he said. "The thing is you are more prepared to face it. You are more experienced. That's life. . . . It is a little lighter now. You can't measure the pressure. We feel there is a better ambiance because in those times Brazil didn't win the World Cup for twenty-four years. Now they have won two in the last three. There isn't the same urgency this time."