Santana may drop defensive tactics for semifinals

JOHANNESBURG (AP) - South Africa coach Joel Santana may be about to shed his defensive tactics for Thursday's Confederations Cup semifinal match against his native Brazil.

Santana has been criticized for regularly fielding three defensive midfielders in his team, but the Brazilian conceded Wednesday that such an approach may not reap much reward against a potent attack that has scored 10 times in three matches.

And Santana knows that is not what the raucous crowd at Ellis Park wants to see.

"How can I say to the South African public, the supporters of the Confederations Cup and the future World Cup, that before our supporters we are going to play defensively?" Santana said. "I might lose, but I'm going to lose playing forward football.

"Do you think we can defend for 90 minutes against Brazil? We can't do that. They're going to try to expose our weaknesses. We might lose, but we are going to play forward in a more attacking style."

But what Santana might do to change his lineup is unclear, especially with key striker Bernard Parker struggling with a knee injury.

Parker made his first mark on the tournament when he stopped his own teammate from scoring a winning goal against Iraq by blocking a shot on the line, but the striker then scored both goals against New Zealand and has hit a tournament-high 10 shots on target.

Spain striker David Villa is way back in second place with seven on-target efforts, albeit with three goals.

Brazil, though, has the statistic that counts.

The South American champions have scored more goals than anyone else, two more than European champion Spain, and coach Dunga is skeptical of Santana's claim that his team may open up and attack.

"Each team has its characteristic, its way of working," Dunga said. "A lot of times things are said here, but we have to see what happens in the match, see how they will really play."

With Luis Fabiano, Robinho and Kaka exchanging positions fluidly in attack, South Africa defender Matthew Booth and his colleagues could be in for a torrid time.

Even so, Brazil will be without Juan after the key defender was ruled out for the remainder of the tournament with a left thigh injury and Dunga said he make more changes to the team that embarrassed Italy 3-0.

His players were not taking anything for granted ahead of a match they are overwhelming favorites to win.

"It's always hard to play against the hosts," Dunga said. "Their team is growing in the competition. They played well against Spain. These knockout matches are always harder, but we are ready to face them."

But like any opponent going up against the record five-time World Cup winners, South Africa knows it is as good as beaten if it goes onto the field star-struck by former world player of the year Kaka and Robinho.

The likes of Booth cannot match the South Americans when it comes to skill, so Bafana Bafana is relying on the home support to rouse them.

"We don't want to get carried away putting these guys up on a pedestal," South Africa goalkeeper Rowen Fernandez said. "Yes, they're idols to millions and we respect them all as footballers, but we're going to go out there Thursday and compete on the pitch.

"It's 11 versus 11, obviously, and I'm sure Matthew is dying to get stuck into Robinho and give Kaka a piece of his mind."

Fernandez and Booth are among four players in the South African squad that beat Brazil at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, but an under-23 tournament is quite another thing compared to a full international like Thursday's at Ellis Park.

"Playing for a draw against them isn't going to do us any good," South Africa midfielder Teko Modise said. "They're going to allow us space and time to attack them and to play and we'll look to utilize that. We really want to play our hearts out and attack. We need to score as many goals as we can because we all know they're capable of scoring many.

"When we first came into the camp, we said we want to go to the semis and, now we're here, we also want to go to the final as well. It's possible. The Brazilians are not unbeatable."