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By Clare Lovell
LONDON, Aug 17 (Reuters) - New Chelsea coach Luiz Felipe Scolari said he was delighted with the team spirit of his players in their season-opening 4-0 drubbing of Portsmouth on Sunday though he denied they were all playing like Brazilians.
Goals from Joe Cole, Nicolas Anelka, a penalty from Frank Lampard and a thunderous drive from 25 metres by new signing Deco in the 89th minute gifted Scolari an impressive debut and, in halting English, he pronounced himself "very happy".
"They played as a team, they closed the midfield, they played touch football one-two," the World Cup-winning coach said.
"They took to the field what they had been doing in training for the last 20 days," Scolari added.
"Lampard is not Brazilian but he touched the ball very well, (Michael) Ballack is not Brazilian but he did the same. I gave the players the freedom to play in their positions with their own style," Scolari said.
Brazilian-born Deco, whom Scolari coached in the Portugal team, also had his own style, the coach added -- Brazilian and Portuguese.
Germany captain Ballack went off before halftime with an ankle injury and Scolari said he could be out for a few days, putting in jeopardy an international friendly appearance against Belgium on Wennesday.
Chelsea, playing the sort of attacking football that billionaire owner Roman Abramovich has craved through three years under Jose Mourinho and eight months with Avram Grant, completely dominated the match against the FA Cup winners.
"I think they were surprised after five or 10 minutes by our team, how aggressive we were," he said.
Scolari said his first Premier League experience was all he had hoped..."how the fans support the team, the singing, the love of the game, fantastic," he said.
Harry Redknapp, whose Portsmouth side lost on penalites to Chelsea's main tiotle rivals Manchester United last weekend in the Community Shield, said he could not choose between the teams for quality.
"They are both fantastic...they have options all the time," he said.
Chelsea were runners up to United in the Premier League last season and lost the Champions League final to them on penalties.
On Sunday Chelsea were "just too bright. Their movement was too much for us...With Cole, with Lampard with Deco, we found it difficult to run run with them to stay with them," Redknapp said.
