Criticism from home fans is piling up for the World Champions, after a disappointing appearance for Real Madrid's Ronaldo and Inter Milan's Adriano during the team's opening match in the World Cup 2006 tournament.

Brazil's head coach Carlos Alberto Parreira tried to play down criticism by saying that yesterday's performance against Croatia in the second match of Group F. Parreira did not stop short of praising Croatia's performance during the match, but said that Brazil were playing at 60-70% of their capabilities.

"It was an exceptional result for the first match," he said. "I can assure you that the performance of the team can improve and will improve. If you play your best at the start, then there's no room for improvement... We're thinking big, we intend to play seven games here and we want to go better as we go on."

Ronaldo's performance on the 100th match of his career with the Selecao was heavily criticised and fans started to make comments about his weight again. Parreira was forced to get him out of the pitch, because the player felt like he was playing in a different match.

Ronaldo was substituted on the 69th minute by Robinho, after Brazilian fans started to complain about the Champions' performance and particularly Ronaldo's game.

Fans back in Brazil and local journalists are demanding Parreira to leave Ronaldo on the bench and use Robinho instead, who has proved to be more valuable than Ronaldo on the attacking front.

However, Carlos Alberto Parreira stood by Ronaldo 100%, as he has been ill since he got in Germany and has missed games for Real Madrid out of injuries.

"He has not been playing for the past two months and has had only two friendlies so it was natural he felt a bit heavy as it was very hot," Parreira said.

Kaka also defended his team-mate by saying that Ronaldo himself has said that he is not fit. Ronaldo did not join the press conference and was rushed away from reporters at the end of the match.

However, it was not only Ronaldo that worried the fans. Inter Milan striker Adriano was also not in his well known form and missed the Croatian nets on certain goal-scoring opportunities for his level.

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