Rio de Janeiro: Pele reminded Brazilians what they already knew, and were shown so obviously in the humiliating 7-1 loss to eventual champion Germany in the World Cup semifinals: Brazil must play as a team, not as individual stars if it is to win a sixth title.
Years of growing anticipation turned to disappointment and despondence after the underperforming Brazilian squad failed to deliver a World Cup title on home soil in July. And after being bundled out of contention by Germany, Brazil lost 3-0 to the Netherlands in the playoff for third place.
"There's no need to explain that what happened was a disaster," Pele said Wednesday. "We had expectations of a different result, but this is something of football. We always have big surprises in football and, unfortunately, it was a negative surprise for us."
Luiz Felipe Scolari quit as Brazil coach immediately after the tournament and was quickly replaced by former Brazil midfielder Dunga, who previously guided the national team from 2006 to 2010.
"Dunga was already the head coach of Brazil. He is a trustworthy person," Pele, speaking at an endorsement function in Rio, was quoted as saying. "I know him personally, know how serious he is. But it won't be hard to have the national team rebuilt. The only thing we need is a more serious work."
Pele, who scored 77 goals for Brazil between 1957 and 1971, said it was wrong to place so much emphasis on star striker Neymar in the Brazil team. Neymar fractured a vertebra in his back during the quarterfinal win over Colombia, and missed the remainder of the World Cup, throwing the Brazil attack into disarray.
"Neymar alone will not win a World Cup," he said. "Neymar is a very good player, raised at our Santos FC, but he himself will not win a World Cup by himself. We need several ... to win a World Cup."
Action on the field powers lights at soccer field:
Kids streaking back and forth on a soccer field in scorching tropical heat promises to produce something more than buckets of sweat.
Billed as Brazil's first player-powered soccer pitch, a field inaugurated Wednesday in a Rio de Janeiro slum harnesses the kinetic energy of players' movements to provide nighttime illumination.
Soccer legend Pele was on hand for the pomp-filled event in the Morro da Mineira slum, which saw a local youth team put the system to the test.
Under the project, sponsored by Royal Dutch Shell, around 200 energy-capturing tiles developed by British startup Pavegen were installed the width and breadth of the field and covered by a layer of AstroTurf.
Working in conjunction with solar panels also installed around the field, the player-powered tiles feed electricity to a system of floodlights overhead.
While the head of Pavegen, engineer Laurence Kemball-Cook, took pains not to reveal the exact science behind the tiles, his father and the company's chairman, Richard Kemball-Cook, said they use a system of cogs. When stepped on, the cogs spin like tops and act like generators, he said.
Each tile now costs about $500, but the price is falling as the 35-employee company refines its manufacturing process, Kemball-Cook said.
Pavegen has installed similar tiles in train stations in Europe, shopping centers in Australia and Terminal 3 of London's Heathrow Airport, Laurence Kemball-Cook said, but the soccer field is a first.
"We've effectively turned this community into a real-life science experiment," he said. "I believe this technology can be one of the future ways we illuminate our cities."
Pele got emotional over the project, tearing up as he said he hoped the new field would help spark local kids' interest not only in soccer but in science.
"My father named me Edson after Thomas Edison," said the longtime star striker, whose birth name is Edson Arantes do Nascimento.
He said he hopes the next generation of Brazilians will help bring the country as much success in science as it has had in soccer.
"I'm sure that soon the No. 1 scientists in the world are going to be Brazilians," Pele said as he brushed aside a tear.
