There might be no soccer coach in the world under more pressure than Brazil’s Mano Menezes. Brazilians always have high expectations of their team and their coaches, but that scrutiny is compounded when their country is hosting the World Cup in less than two years.

Anything less than a legitimate championship contender will not be acceptable.

The 2014 World Cup is scheduled to kick off June 12 in Sao Paulo and conclude July 13 with the championship game in Rio de Janeiro’s Maracana Stadium. Between now and then, Menezes must convince the Brazilian fans that their team is among the elite squads in the world.

He lost a lot of respect after his heavily-favored under-23 team, including the fabulous Neymar, lost the Olympic gold medal to Mexico in London.

The coach was booed this month when Brazil struggled to a 1-0 win over South Africa in an exhibition. An 8-0 win over China a few days later lifted the national mood, but fans fretted (and booed) again last week as Brazil needed an injury-time penalty kick from Neymar to escape with a 2-1 win over Argentina in the first leg of the Americas Superclasico, a home-and-away series in which Brazil and Argentina draw rosters from their domestic leagues.

The second leg is Oct. 3 in Argentina.

The crowd chanted “Goodbye, Mano” and “Come back, Felipao,” referring to 2002 World Cup champion coach Luiz Felipe Scolari. The former coach left Palmeiras this month, and many fans want him to replace Menezes.

“I have never asked for guarantees,” Menezes told reporters. “I know what I need to do to keep my job until the World Cup. We have to be smart about how we measure our success, sometimes the results won’t come with great performances, it’s not always possible for that to happen.”

One thing he is doing is bringing back Kaká for the first time in two years. The Real Madrid veteran was added to the roster for upcoming matches Oct. 11 against Iraq in Sweden and Oct. 16 against Japan in Poland. Kaká has not played for the national team since the quarterfinal loss to Netherlands in the 2010 World Cup.

“We need players as experienced as Kaká is with the national team,” the coach said. “We think that he will come here and show that he has improved. We know that this season will be key for him so we can start counting on him as a national-team player again in the future. Players who have been through what Kaká has been through have to reinvent themselves. … He has been practicing and playing more forward than he used to, and that means we can have him playing together with Oscar in the same team. We’ll see how it works.”

In Argentina, Sergio Aguero and Pablo Zabaleta were called up by coach Alejandro Sabella for next month’s World Cup qualifiers Oct. 12 against Uruguay and Oct. 16 against. But Manchester City’s Carlos Tevez was left off the list. Aguero did not face Paraguay or Peru because of a knee injury.

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