Brazil's Roberto Carlos slams defensive Ecuador

Brazil left-back Roberto Carlos blamed opponents Ecuador for his team's lacklustre performance in their World Cup qualifier on Wednesday, saying the visitors were too negative.

"They stayed back for the whole 90 minutes," complained the Real Madrid player after Brazil's 1-0 victory, earned with an early Ronaldinho goal. "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."

The five-times world champions, fielding their famous "Three R" attack of Ronaldo, Rivaldo and Ronaldinho for the first time in the qualifiers, were ineffective against their unsung opponents.

Despite the disappointing performance, which earned Brazil some jeers from the 35,000 crowd, Brazil lead the South American World Cup qualifying group with a maximum six points from their two matches. They have another 16 games to play between now and October 2005.

"Two games, six points, that's what we planned," said captain Cafu. "We had plenty of clear chances. They only had one."

Midfielder Emerson warned that Brazil could face similar tight defences in the marathon qualifying campaign.

"We're not going to have any favours in these qualifiers, but we expected to produce a bit more," he said.

"We wanted to do more, but it wasn't possible. They shut up shop and just concentrated on marking, even after we scored."

But Brazil coach Carlos Alberto Parreira praised his opponents who, having never played at the World Cup finals before 2002, are aiming to qualify for the second time in a row.

"Ecuador have improved a lot," he said.

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