Australia to pressure Brazilians

Australia will adopt similar tactics to the ones it employed against The Netherlands when the Socceroos take on Brazil in the second game of the World Cup Finals according to lively midfielder Jason Culina.

Australia will adopt similar tactics to the ones it employed against The Netherlands when the Socceroos take on Brazil in the second game of the World Cup Finals according to lively midfielder Jason Culina.

While he jokingly replied "Kick em'" when first asked if there was a special way to stop Brazil, Culina admits the in-your-face style of football that the Socceroos employed against the world No. 3 in their main preparation match leading into the World Cup finals, is one possible way of curtailing the Brazilian attack.

The top-of-the-table Group F clash at the Allianz Arena in Munich pits the reigning world champions Brazil against the unfancied Australians, who are a distant 41 places below them in the world rankings.

"It-s possible and I am not sure how they (Brazil) work and what their attitudes are like, but we got into the Dutch faces a few times and they did not like it," said Culina, after an exhaustive two-hour training session in the hot sun in Oehringen.

"Those teams that like to play pretty football seem to get frustrated by our tactics. So I expect we are going to try and do a bit of the same and see what happens."

Croatia employed a similar style with its constant pressure on the ball and dominated the second half, but still ended up losing 1-0.

"I think so," Culina said when asked if those tactics worked for Croatia. "Especially in the second half, Croatia played a really good game and created the better chances.

"They showed aggression and discipline and we-re going to be looking to do the same thing."

The PSV Eindhoven midfielder also doesn-t believe the Australians will be struck down by the 'awe' factor of the No.1 team in the world.

"Definitely not," he emphatically replied.

"Most of our players play against some of the biggest players in the world in the past, so we are not going to be star struck or anything, we are going to go out there and to do our best.

"We-ve got something to prove. We are not going to be happy with just one good result, because we have two more games in the group stage and we want to get through to the second round, so we are going to do our best and try and prove to everyone else or the doubters, how good we really are."

Much of that means gaining respect from the footballing world, something the team went a long way to receiving after its memorable win over Japan last Monday.

"There have been more people taking about us and people are showing us a lot more respect and I think it-s about time. But we can-t be too bigheaded about it. We are still the underdogs and must be modest about it and do our best."

"Hopefully," he said if he thinks the Australian team has respect from Brazil.

"Hopefully every team that plays against us, respects us in some way. But we-ve got to go out there and not show them too much respect otherwise we are going to be on the back foot.

"If we can get a few more good results, we can get some more respect."

Australia plays Brazil in Munich on Sunday June 18 at 6.00pm Germany time - (Monday June 19 2.00am AEST).