World champions Brazil, who had brashly promised to perform their full repertoire of tricks against Ecuador, said spoilsport opponents were to blame for their lacklustre effort in Wednesday's 1-0 win.

The 35,000 crowd in Manaus had to be content with Ronaldinho's scrambled 13th-minute goal and one sparkling run from Rivaldo as the visitors refused to be humiliated in the 2006 World Cup qualifier.

Ronaldo and Ronaldinho had openly talked about "joking around" with their opponents but their fun was limited to two attempted nutmegs by the former, both of which failed.

The latter was extremely fortunate to be credited with the goal after the ball appeared to go in off defender Neicer Reasco.

After the game, Brazil's players, who buoyed by a 2-1 win in Colombia three days earlier had clearly underestimated their opponents, accused Ecuador of failing to play ball.

"They stayed back for the whole 90 minutes," complained Real Madrid left back Roberto Carlos. "I've never seen a team do that before.

"They only had one chance and made the game dull. The supporters don't like that sort of thing."

UTMOST CONTEMPT

Brazil, who used four coaches and scrambled into the 2002 World Cup in their very last qualifying game, are nevertheless treating the 2006 qualifiers as a mere formality.

Expectations have been fuelled by some sections of the Brazilian media, which treats some South American teams with the utmost contempt.

"Brazil doesn't need to play at all to beat most of the South American teams," sneered a columnist in the sports daily Lance. "Even if they play second rate football, Brazil are already in the (World) Cup."

"Does anyone believe that Brazil can finish sixth out of 10 in a tournament which features Ecuador, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia and Venezuela," added the writer, apparently forgetting that the first three beat Brazil in 2002 World Cup qualifying.

Brazil coach Carlos Alberto Parreira, however, was@generous as he recognised his team's difficulties in breaking down a tough defence and paid tribute to the progress made by many of Brazil's local rivals.

"Ecuador have improved a lot," he said, possibly remembering that in the old days Ecuador were routinely hammered by the likes of Brazil, Uruguay and Argentina.

"You don't play alone, you play against opponents and today they were performing well," he added. "That's why we didn't create too many chances."

AC Milan midfielder Kaka, who came on as a substitute for the second game in a row, admitted that Brazil would have to learn how to play against massed defences to avoid further frustrations in their remaining 16 qualifying matches.

"We're going to have to learn to break down these defences as we're going to come across lots more of them," he said.

A lesson that the more experienced Roberto Carlos and Ronaldo would do well to learn.

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