RIO DE JANEIRO: Brazil’s new coach Mano Menezes said Monday he intended to build a side capable of achieving his nation’s football “dreams,” as he was officially presented in his new job.

The successor to Dunga, who was axed after Brazil was knocked out of this year’s World Cup in the quarter-finals, is to forge the new team ahead of the 2014 World Cup, which is to be held in Brazil. In a sign of how completely he planned to overhaul the “selecao,” he said a friendly Brazil is to play against the USA on August 10 would count only four players from the South African World Cup line-up.
Menezes, speaking in a Rio media conference, thanked the Brazilian Football Confederation (CBF) for the “trust” it had placed in him. “I know that from this moment I am officially taking up one of the most important positions in the country,” he said, speaking in slow, measured tones and wearing a gray suit. He pledged “loyalty, transparency and honesty” to Brazil fans. Menezes said he would form “a selection able to represent all our ambitions, dreams and desires of Brazilian football.”
Amongst Menezes’s first missions will be the Copa America in Argentina in 2011 and the London Olympics in 2012. He made wholesale changes when he named his first squad on Monday for the friendly against the USA. Dani Alves, Ramires, Thiago Silva and Robinho were the only members of Menezes’ squad who were in South Africa, where Brazil lost in the quarter-finals to the Netherlands. Santos pair Paulo Henrique Ganso and Neymar were included. Menezes, who replaced Dunga as coach, recalled AC Milan striker Alexandre Pato who also missed out on the World Cup.