Scolari begins World Cup quest on familiar territory

Luiz Felipe Scolari is back in London doing another impossible job. Almost four years after leaving Chelsea with several million roubles in his pocket having failed to live up to Roman Abramovich's expectations, Brazil's new manager begins his journey along the path to a home World Cup he simply has to win.

Wembley's main press conference hall was standing room only on Tuesday as Scolari, nursing his ravaged voice with a succession of Polo mints, reacquainted himself with life in charge of the selecao. The 64 year-old has been here before, of course, as the wise owl who inspired Brazil to lift their fifth World Cup in Yokohama in 2002, but nothing approximates to the task of galvanising the green-and-yellow for the crucible of Rio's Maracana next summer.

Scolari smiled enigmatically at the thought, as if determined to regard his reappointment as national coach as a pleasure rather than a burden. "Germany already hosted two World Cups and won one," he reminded his inquisitors. "Italy won at home, in 1934. So now it is our turn."

Brazil's defeat to Uruguay in the 1950 World Cup final in Rio still constitutes an acute national trauma, so the challenge of balming such a wound requires a man of resilient constitution. Scolari is not averse to displays of toughness - as Ivica Dragutinovic, the Serbian centre-half on the wrong end of a 'Big Phil' punch in 2007, would attest - and at his first meeting with his young squad this week he emphasised the importance of "behaviour and standards".

But there is no denying that Scolari is fortunate to have inherited this position. His ill-starred spell at Chelsea, where he failed to rejuvenate an ageing team and left them only fourth in the Premier League in February 2009, marks a conspicuous blot on the resume of one shouldering the hopes of 196 million football-crazed souls. He replied only obliquely to a question about whether, given Rafael Benitez's predicament, it was as difficult to manage Chelsea as Brazil, evidently wary upsetting of upsetting Abramovich any further after his abrupt departure.

"What I remember about Chelsea is simply marvellous," he said. "I loved my time living here, when I trained here with this spectacular club. What is happening now, I don't have any opinion on. The only person who can answer is the one there right now, doing the job."

Scolari bristled, though, when pressed on his Chelsea disappointment - not to mention his subsequent failures with Bunyodkor, in the wilds of Uzbekistan, and Sao Paulo-based Palmeiras, where he was sacked in 2010 after another dismal sequence of results.

"When I was at Chelsea they had qualified for the Champions League," he countered. "Palmeiras also hadn't won anything for 10 years when I brought them the Copa Brasil, so that was great work, too. I can't imagine any reason why I shouldn't be given a second chance as Brazil coach."

The profile of Brazil's team has changed almost beyond recognition since Scolari's first glorious stint more than a decade ago. Where then he could construct his World Cup-winning team around the experience of the Ronaldo-Rivaldo axis, now he must tailor his coaching techniques to suit the more delicate but less tested gifts of youngsters including Oscar and, of course, national poster-boy Neymar.

It was Neymar's 21st birthday yesterday and Scolari spoke indulgently of acting as a father figure to a striker bracketed as a pre-eminent talent in the global game.

"We have a short-term friendship so I can't do too much yet," he said of the bleach-blond phenomenon, likely to start up front against England tonight alongside the more seasoned Luis Fabiano.

"There will maybe be a little hug and a joke. I have already observed him with his club, Santos, and seen a great evolution in his tactical abilities. My role is to appreciate how I can use them within our team and how I can help him to develop even further."

Even with Neymar's luminous contribution, the work of establishing Brazil as leading World Cup contenders within 16 months is onerous. The team are caught in transition, struggling to identify long-term successors to the Ronaldo generation and reeling from the embarrassment of their quarter-final exit at the last Copa America.

Mano Menezes paid for these tribulations with his job, and his successor Scolari is in danger of doing the same if does not achieve appreciable progress by the Confederations Cup in June.

Brazil have fallen to 18th in the Fifa rankings and Scolari is not about to take England lightly. "We are not seeing this as a friendly game," he stressed. "This is our preparation for the World Cup, so there are no friendlies any more. Everything now counts."