Soccer: Brazil crush local side 8-0

BASEL, Switzerland - Champions Brazil warmed up in style for next month's World Cup with an 8-0 romp over a Lucerne select side today.

In front of a capacity 30,000 crowd at the St Jakob stadium, Ronaldo and Adriano scored twice while Lucio, Juninho Pernambucano, Robinho and Kaka grabbed the other goals.

Their opponents were based on the FC Lucerne side which won promotion from the second division this year plus several former players who are now based abroad.

Brazil's last international before their opening World Cup match against Croatia on June 13 will be against New Zealand in Geneva on Sunday.

The South Americans, who are training at Weggis on the shores of Lake Lucerne, kicked off with the side which coach Carlos Alberto Parreira has already announced will face Croatia and which started their last competitive game against Venezuela in October.

Ronaldo, who has not played since limping out of a Real Madrid match on April 8 with a thigh strain, played for 67 minutes before being substituted and showed no ill-effects from his injury.

"It was a training session which achieved what we wanted," Parreira said.

"It's the first time for eight months this team has played a game in front of a crowd, live television and wearing the yellow shirt.

"It was time for the players to get to know each other again. This was the eighth day of our preparation and it is still very early."

Kaka, who scored the first goal and set up the next two, agreed with Parreira that the match, played on a chilly evening, was little more than a training session in front of an audience.

"It's not really normal to play a club side so we don't analyse the result, just as we don't analyse the result of a training session," he said.

"But today we wore the yellow shirt and we had the responsibility of having to win. It's a privilege, it's not the same as playing another national team but it's still a Brazil game."

- REUTERS