Friday, July 16, 2010

Should People Blame Dunga for the Failure of Brazil in World Cup?

Brazil suffered an early exit from the World Cup Football 2010 after losing to Netherlands 2-1 in the quarter final. Coach Dunga has been fully criticized for Brazil’s failure in South Africa.

Now, the question remains if Dunga was responsible for Brazil’s disaster or he was just a readymade scapegoat Brazil found after their failure in the World Cup.

Dunga suffered a lot of criticism since taking over as the coach of Brazil team four years back following another disastrous performance in 2006 World Cup. There are some former Brazilian greats who opposed Dunga’s defensive approach being installed in the Brazilian team.

There is no doubt, Brazil always loves to play ‘Jogo Bonito’ meaning ‘The Beautiful Game’ and Brazil’s fans across the world also expect beautiful football from them. However, Dunga’s Brazil was more concerned with their defense and featured two defensive minded midfielders in Gilberto Silva and Felipe Melo.

Well, people should first consider the following points before blaming Dunga for Brazil’s failure in the World Cup:

First of all, it is true that the current Brazilian side could not play like the team of 2002 or 1998 World Cup. However, it is also true the current Brazilian team does not have the players like Ronaldo, Rivaldo, Ronaldinho, Roberto Carlos and Cafu. Playing beautiful football is not possible without the players of their quality. It does not mean that Brazil’s current players do no have talent or quality, but the fact is that their quality can not match that of Ronaldo or Ronaldinho.

So, Dunga had to adapt with the resources he got in hand and there is nothing wrong in focusing more on defense rather than trying to emulate what Ronaldo and Rivaldo did with the players like Robinho or an under-performed Kaka.

Secondly, there are people who would agree that Brazil played ‘Jogo Bonito’ in the first half of the quarter final against Netherlands, but the dominating Brazilians suddenly lost their intensity at the start of the second half. It looked they were just roaming around on the pitch without having any definite goal in mind. Specially, the two goals they conceded clearly show lack of concentration among the Brazilian players.

Thirdly, Dunga tried his best to feature beautiful football as much as possible. Except the North Korea match, Brazil improved after every single match in terms of building up attacks.

Dunga featured two wingbacks in Maicon and Michel Bastos who always contributed in attack, while Kaka was struggling to find his best. Robinho and Elano tried to set up opportunities for Fabiano, while Lucio, Juan, Gilberto and Melo ensured flawless defending, except the second half of the Netherlands game.

Overall, Dunga did his best to deliver something with this not-so-great Brazil team, and people should not blame him for Brazil’s failure. The upcoming coach of Brazil should concentrate more on young talented players like Santos striker Neymar ahead of Copa America 2011 and FIFA World Cup 2014 at home.

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