Is It Time for Brazil to Get Behind Dunga as Selecao Boss?
With much grinding and gnashing of teeth, as is customary when Brazil bow out of any tournament, it has been announced this week that Dunga will be staying on as Brazil coach for the World Cup qualifiers, scheduled to kick off in October.
Suffice to say, the news has not been met in this corner of the world with the warmest enthusiasm. The 1994 World Cup-winning captain is not everyone’s cup of tea.
His first spell, despite bringing a number of successes (the 2007 Copa America, the 2009 Confederations Cup, top of the World Cup qualifying group including an excellent 3-1 win away to Argentina in Rosario), remains tainted by the World Cup quarter-final defeat to Holland.
During his second spell, the honeymoon period has been far shorter. There were those 10 successive friendly wins, the most impressive of which was the 3-1 triumph away to France, where the side showed mental strength and backbone to come back from going a goal down against first-class opposition.
But at the moment of truth, and in their first competitive test since the World Cup, that edge and toughness deserted the Selecao. Reading newspaper columns and watching television bulletins as pundits, former players and fans pick apart the carcass of Brazil’s Copa America tournament can give you the feeling not everyone is entirely disappointed with the Brazilian elimination.
Suddenly, there was another stick with which to beat their beleaguered boss. Surely, it couldn’t be too long before he was hastily ushered toward the exit for a second time in five years.
Except that is not the case this time. Dunga has failed, but he will carry on, as confirmed this week by the president of the Brazilian Football Confederation, Marco Polo Del Nero, as reported by Goal Brasil (link in Portuguese).
On paper, the coach’s record of 14 games, 12 victories, a draw and a defeat looks perfectly acceptable. But when it mattered most there was failure, the same complaints so evident at last year’s World Cup again cropping up in Chile.
Former Selecao idols, such as Zico and Rivaldo, have launched scathing attacks on the Selecao. Meanwhile, some of the country’s most renowned sports journalists and broadcasters have also heavily criticised the side’s performance at the Copa America, as reported by UOL Esporte (link in Portuguese).
All this hyperbolic gesticulating is the immediate reaction to the failure. The anger, the disappointment, perhaps even, in some corners, the meek acceptance that this is now simply the order of the international footballing world, whose top table no longer contains a place for the five-time world champions, its former golden goose.
But now that it is established that Dunga will indeed be staying, is there any point in bleating for change? Is it not time to get behind the man who will lead the country, like it or not, into the World Cup qualifiers?
Yes, mistakes were made, but that is how managers, people in any walk of life, learn. The idea of a ready-made tactical guru available to walk through the door and set to work is fanciful, to put it lightly.
This is in fact only Dunga’s third job in management, including his second stint as national boss. He remains, for all intents and purposes, a rookie, still learning the ropes of what can be an unforgiving trade.
The Brazilian domestic game is notoriously fickle with its clubs’ managers. Cristovao Borges, recently appointed by Rio giants Flamengo, already faces rumours of the sack just six games into his time at the club, having lost four of them.
With bosses constantly in fear of their jobs, the default mindset becomes defensive, avoiding defeat at all costs. Even if the CBF were to replace Dunga with another home-grown option, it is highly unlikely his tactical setup would differ greatly from the current scheme currently being ripped apart by anyone with a keyboard or microphone.
But what are the chances of Dunga really tweaking, making the big bold decisions that need to be made, if he is constantly looking over his shoulder? One patently obvious fact has been established by the Brazilian and international sporting press; this Brazil generation is nothing to write home about.
Take Neymar away and elimination at the hands of Paraguay can be dismissed with a shrug. But underneath remains the desire to be the best, and it cannot be based on harking back to past glories.
An annual switch in the dugout does nobody any favours. Dunga, for better or worse, now must be entrusted to experiment, trust his instincts and lose a few more times if it means challenging in Russia in 2018, even if that means sacrificing an inaugural gold medal at the Olympic Games on home soil next year.
In Dunga we trust. Whether you like it or not, there isn’t much of a choice.
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