From correspondents in Johannesburg, South Africa, 08:01 PM IST

Brazil captain Lucio said that the 3-0 group stage win against the US means nothing when both sides meet again Sunday in the Confederations Cup football final.

'We won easily in the first round, but I think for the next game our chances and those of the US are 50-50. In a final anything is possible,' Lucio said.

Brazil made the final on Thursday night with a 1-0 victory over hosts South Africa. The US reached the decider in what has been named one of the biggest upsets in football, 2-0 against European champions Spain Wednesday.

'We have to be very concentrated. We watched the US play against Spain and they did well. It was a good match with two good sides and if we want to win the cup, as we do, we will have to be at our best,' said the Bayern Munich defender Lucio.

Superstar Kaka, who will be joining Real Madrid at the end of the Confederations Cup from Serie A's AC Milan, said that even though the pairing for the final was a surprise, it would be a tough game for the defending champions Brazil.

'The final is a little bit of a surprise I can say. Everybody would like to see Brazil against Spain, but now the big surprise is that it us against the US.

'We have to improve some of the things that we did in the semi-final if we want to do even better in the final.'

Kaka dismissed comments that the side's performance at the Confederations Cup made them a favourite for next year's World Cup which also takes place in South Africa.

'We are not thinking about being favourites for the World Cup, we are just preparing for the World Cup, we have one year to prepare for the tournament,' Kaka said.

'There are many other national teams who are strong and before the World Cup a lot of things will happen.'

He said that even if some of the strong teams like Portugal were struggling in their qualifying rounds, the most important teams like Spain, Argentina, Italy, France or England will be strong at the World Cup.

'But you will see later that there will be surprise teams like Egypt and US were here in this competition.'

Thursday's goalscorer Daniel Alves said that he expected a different US to play against them in the final.

'I think that they will be more cautious in the final, for all they suffered in the first match against us.

'We will have to be prepared and be patient to win the final,' he said.

(Staff Writer, © IANS)