Football: Parreira's dynasty so sure of their destiny: Brazil sense the time is ripe to end 24 years of World Cup failure. Joe Lovejoy reports from New York

OUTSIDE a blizzard had turned the world slate-grey, obscuring New York's celebrated skyline, but a little corner of Seventh Avenue was a haven of sand and samba. Rio revisited. Carlos Alberto Gomes Parreira carries more letters than Postman Pat, but he put every one he could find to uplifting use, talking of his Brazilian team with the same blend of warmth, wit and passion that traditionally characterises their play.

The World Cup is coming, and everybody's favourite other country is ready. Again. Every four years we say this time Brazil have got it right, but they have been breaking their admirers' hearts for a generation now.

It is 24 years since Pele and company won the old Jules Rimet trophy for the third time in four tournaments, earning the right to keep it. Too long, says Parreira, who was a junior member of the coaching staff when Mario Zagalo's team swept all before them in 1970.

Two and a half years into his second spell as head coach, this 50-year-old anglophile took Kuwait to Spain in 1982, the United Arab Emirates to Italia '90 and now becomes one of only two men - Bora Milutinovic (Mexico, Costa Rica and the USA) is the other - to have guided three different countries to the World Cup finals.

This, of course, is The Big One. His chance to live the dream, and to be 'a champion'. Destiny beckons, he says, and yes, Brazil really are ready.

Parreira's ever-present smile warmed the coldest day in Manhattan, where the 24 finalists assembled this week for a pre-tournament 'workshop'.

While the Italian delegation preened and posed for the cameras, and the Germans strutted self-importantly, the man carrying the heaviest burden of national expectation gave up his lunch break and found a small corner of a quiet room in which to expound on his three great loves: football, painting and messing about in boats.

If Graham Taylor said he was a painter you would proffer the Dulux, but when Parreira intones 'Do I not like that' it could be over the wrong mix of light and shade as much as a misplaced pass. His watercolours attract substantial offers. Rewarding it may be, but painting is no more than a pleasant distraction - a hobby. Gold, green and blue will be the only colours on his mind these next few months.

Come 17 July, he expects to be in the final, with Germany providing the opposition. Confident, but with no trace of arrogance, he says: 'Technically, I consider our team to be the best in the world right now. We don't have superstars like we had before, but the standard is very good, and our biggest strength is that this team is a mature one. Nine of them played in the last World Cup, so they have been through it all before, and know what they face.'

He saw further grounds for optimism. 'The home team are not going to win it this time and Brazil have a lot of support here. Everybody seems to have a Brazilian cousin, and they've all adopted us as their second choice.

'We are going to have the people behind us, and the weather will also help. The tempo of the game will not be as quick as it is in Europe, where the conditions allow you to play at a faster pace. The tempo here will favour teams who play passing, possession football, as we do.'

A case well made, but have we not heard it all before? The climate was supposed to have favoured Brazil in Argentina (1978), Spain (1982) and Mexico (1986), and Italy four years ago was hardly Ice Station Roma.

'I know that every time we come to the World Cup people say: 'This time they'll do it', and that doesn't help us. We have to be good on the pitch, not just in the minds of others. Our target this time is to reach the final first, and only then to think about winning it. It's not just that we haven't won the thing since 1970 - we haven't even reached the final, and for a big football country like Brazil that's not good enough.

'Being made favourites by our own media and having gone 24 years without winning the World Cup is a heavy responsibility, but we believe we can live up to it. The conditions are right for us to be hot favourites this time. We have good mature players with mental discipline, which has not always been the case in the past. They proved this in the qualifying series, which was not easy for us.'

Brazil needed to dig deep to win their group by a single point, having drawn with Ecuador and lost to Bolivia in their first two games. Their preparation had been far from ideal, Parreira says. 'We had 15 players coming from Europe and only seven based in Brazil. We made a slow start because the players from Europe were out of season and had gone four, or in some cases six, weeks without training. We then had only 10 days together before our first game, and I challenge any coach in the world to put a team in good shape in 10 days. It's impossible.

'We scored 14 goals and conceded none in winning our last four games. A magician? No, six weeks training. That was the difference.'

At a time when Terry Venables is considering the merits of England playing with a sweeper, Parreira has followed the modern trend and ditched the system.

'We tried to play like the Europeans and it didn't work. Now we're playing the Brazilian way - we've gone all the way back to our roots. We use a zonal defence - flat back four - and we play creative, passing football. The Europeans are going that way too, so when our players come home they feel comfortable. They don't have to adjust. I don't like the sweeper. Milan did away with it and have been playing with a flat back four, and no one has been more successful. Colombia play with a flat four, Argentina too. It's the best way to play - if you know how to do it.'

Brazil know how to play all right. Attitude rather than aptitude has always been their problem, and if the present team have no superstars, they are not without their prima donnas. Romario, who has averaged a goal every other game over his 46 internationals, tends to do most of the foot-stamping and, after suggesting recently that he would prefer another partner to Bebeto, the Babbler of Barcelona had what is unlikely to be his last public dressing-down.

He had taken it like a man, Parreira said. 'There was no problem between us personally, but the press do keep these things going. Now he is back in the team, he is a wonderful person - always with a big smile and a good heart.'

Romario and Bebeto will be the strikers when Brazil start their World Cup against Russia in San Francisco on 20 June. 'The team that finished the qualifying series by beating Uruguay 2-0 will probably be the one that starts the tournament,' Parreira says. In that event, the forwards will have midfield support from Dunga, Mauro Silva and Rai, with Taffarel restored in goal.

Good enough? Their coach certainly thinks so. 'We are probably in the strongest group,' he says. 'If we come first, as we should, any of the others could easily be second. Sweden had a very good qualifying competition, Russia are playing good football and Cameroon made the biggest impression of all four years ago.'

The real danger, though, lies elsewhere. 'For me, it is always between Germany, Brazil, Italy and Argentina because they know what it takes to win the competition. When it comes to the World Cup, they are not afraid of it. They play with confidence. Holland are learning the way and Colombia could do well this time.'

There was no one, though, that Brazil feared. 'We are in good condition to win the World Cup. We have good, mature players who are well established in life. They are not looking to win the World Cup for the money. They are already rich men who are making a very good living outside Brazil.

'What they lack now is a special feeling inside - the feeling of being world champions. There is no substitute for that, and you certainly can't buy it. You have to play from the heart. You may have a lot of money and do well in life, but if you're not a champion it does make a difference.

'Many athletes break records and get to the very top, but if they don't win the gold medal they're not remembered like the ones that do. Our gold medal is the World Cup. The 1970 team are still national heroes at home. My team could be in that same position.'

Despite his carefree disposition the pressure must be intense? Another smile. 'Of course it is. I know I'm going to face difficult moments, but I'm ready. I know what I'm about to go through, but it is not new to me. I've been involved with the national team since 1970, so I didn't come down, as we say in Brazil, in a parachute. I didn't suddenly drop into the job from nowhere. I've had 24 years of this now.

'Remember, I didn't ask to be the coach - I didn't apply for the job. They asked me to do it. That shows I must have certain qualities, and I have to believe and trust in my ability. I sleep well at night. Some press guys saying I'm not a good coach is not going to affect me. I know what I am and what I can do.'

And if it was not enough? There was always the painting, and the sea. 'I love both. I'm a good painter, very good. Seascapes are what I do best. People try to buy them, but I won't sell. My other relaxation is to go to the beach. I am building a house just outside Rio, by the sea. I have a boat there and I like to spend a day on it from time to time. It keeps me fresh. Green grass, sea water and a humming bird somewhere in the background. Beautiful.'

Idyllic stuff. No wonder he was out of wintry New York on the red-eye flight yesterday. He will be back in June, that gold medal firmly in his sights.

(Photograph omitted)