Where Does Brazil Stand At This Moment: Dunga’s Last Dance, The Olympic Disgrace and our Current Situation

September 11, 2008

I think it’s time to maybe look back and evaluate everything relating to the Brazil national team this summer. I apologize for my loose blogging over the covering of the Olympics, as like Bruno of the Brazil offside stated watching Brazil recently has desperately become un-motivating when somebody like Dunga is destroying the game and team you love. But alas let me atone for errors I have committed and I should bring detailed coverage of everything relating to the Selecao (cross my heart hope to die).

So I think it’s better for me to start from where I left of, being the Knockout stages of the Olympics.

Brazil 2 Cameroon 0 (AET): A bad wrestling match, concerning an unimaginative, terrible Brazil and an opponent who just wanted to fight

Brazil in this match probably sucked the worst over the Dunga era; this was mainly due to their own poor play but also the gracious manner in which Cameroon went about playing the Game (grievous bodily harm). Ronaldinho and Brazil were uninspired as the first half had more grapple moves and take downs than actual passes being strung together. Cameroon weren’t either looking to play football and were trying to re-capture their game plan of Sydney 2000 by going for all out war against Brazil, without a care for the consequences of yellows and a red card (should’ve been 3 more, Song Bilong for example). No team possessed any threat and the match became chaos no less to the referee’s inability to control the physical nature of the match. The best player for Brazil was Lucas who covered up lots of ground to hold the middle of the pitch. Disappointments for the match were as usual Anderson who looks to be living on his early myth than anything else, Rafinha who looks a shadow of the player at Shalke and who else but Ronaldinho who didn’t inspire Brazil for another game. Maybe this match wasn’t the match to strut his stuff as he did appear to be hacked down pretty wildly (Bikey I’m looking at you). The two centre backs of Breno and Alex Silva also don’t look like the smoothest pair of centre backs, Alex Silva’s long balls and blasts out to mars really cause the play to break down for Brazil. Diego and Sobis were so so, Sobis did not have much to do but showed he isn’t a Centre Forward at all and Diego plucked away but spent too much time diving to be worth any credit. The match moved into Extra time and a tired cramped Cameroon weren’t able to keep breaking forward or take out any Brazilians on the ball, which is how Sobis found the space to give Brazil the lead. Cameroon Broke forward and lost position, a gap left at the back allowed Sobis to have and easy lane to run and shoot. The goal to seal victory by the best Player of our tourney so far being Marcelo also attributed to Cameroon’s fatigue. The goal was class tough as Marcelo played to ball for Ronaldinho to dummy the pass, allowing Marcelo to reach the through ball and show some beach football, by volleying of the back of his heel. Brilliant by the new great Brazilian fullback. The performance overall didn’t leave any hope in my eyes of anything positive for Brazil. Tactics again caused us to look unorganized and dull, even with a man advantage for the majority of the game and the use of Thiago Neves, who was poor, showed how the team and coach know nothing about the use of out and out width to create space. This match did show the world why Brazil has become so negative in its approach for football. The physicality of football has become prime in how to play the game, Brazil were not beaten to the pulp in this match because physically they could cope with the Cameroon’s physical game. At the loss of Skill Brazil have pushed through more powerhouses in order to keep with this exact aspect of the game even resorting to becoming fouler as we saw. The Semi-Final was against Argentina, a team who was having some difficulties but was playing a whole lot better than us, not a great showing to go into a big game against probably the best team in the tournament.

Argentina 3 Brazil 0: Thank you Argentina, a reality check was needed

We were beaten by a team who plays football, not by miser tactics and breaking down play in which we have used physicality against Argentina in the past. This Result did not hurt me, as we showed no valour skill, dynamics or beauty much like the loss in WC06. Argentina came out playing football moving the ball through Gago, Riquleme and of course Messi. We had no answer, Ronaldinho proved to the world he is still in Rehab and he could be close to the end of his days if he doesn’t shape up, the rest of the squad proved they were clueless and playing football was beyond them. Dunga’s formation was just as innovated as his coaching, fielding a formation using a midfield with four holding midfielders, yes four, most teams use one Dunga used four!!! Throughout the whole match Brazil never really penetrated the Argentina half bar one Ronaldinho becoming Ronaldinho moment of brilliant dribbling. This moment and his free-kick being his only valuable contribution. His poor performance set the tone for everyone else, Marcelo tried to exert himself and carry Brazil’s attack but really needed teammates, while Rafinha on the other side proved wasteful and a little weird with openings given to him. Argentina were wary of how Brazil would approach the match, they knew Brazil possessed no creativity under Dunga but physically Brazil always out muscle their opponents, so Gago and Mascherano (who always plays well against Brazil) held the midfield and useless Diego and Ronaldinho to scraps. Up front made the situation all the more stupid for Brazil as Sobis started but was playing as a second striker, soooooooo who was upfront, nobody, not zilch going through the middle. Argentina played well through us moving the ball and keeping it with Messi and Riquleme, showing innovation, skill and style, all characteristics which we used to have. Hernanes was the only other player pinging balls all over the pitch staying solid in the middle trying to move forward, utilising diagonal passes, which used to make us one of the most dynamic teams in world football. Aguero’s goal and Riqulemes penalty were all fruitful by Argentina along with Messi’s commanding performance. Pato’s goal should’ve been allowed but we never deserved anything in this game. The goals by Argentina were inevitable and three zero was fitting to mark the demise of Dunga’s reign (the red cards of Lucas and Neves summed up Dunga’s football), a scoreline in which he started with. The Bronze medal win against Belgium meant nothing in terms of success for a team who should’ve done better. It was a medal for Olympians but 3 rd means nothing to Brazil.

What did we learn By the Olympics?

We learnt Dunga is inept as a coach (we already knew that though), we also learned our youth team has been badly advised (stardom before gaining a reputation). Just look at the performance of Pato, even if the coach is an idiot and the team lacks disorganization, heart and determination to work and fight for the ball does not leave a footballer’s mentality. Over the past few years our team has gone through reality check after reality check, with Ronaldinho, Adriano and Ronaldo all victims of their own success on their own nature by partying and thinking their above the game. Reputations have to be built not born on myth, and Pato who has shown glimpses of greatness but still needs to show he can become the star he can become (same for you Anderson).Brazil have also shown a small heart for the national team, maybe they still want to compete, but one must shred every blade of grass for Brazil and play to be the best. Maybe under Dunga football loses fun, but still a Bronze medal is not good enough for a Brazilian. I have learned to that Ronaldinho’ rehab still has a long way to go, maybe in future don’t use the Selecao as a rehab clinic (run a bit more to you lazy s***). Maybe he still can have 1 or 2 world player of the year seasons but he needs to go a long way to get back to the guy who made me love futebol again. The most important thing in which we all have learned from the Olympics, we have got at least a few stars to come through. For me and probably everyone the star was Marcelo, he is the future on the left for sure. Another for me was smooth ball dribbling and passing Hernanes, a player I have deeply rated for a year and a bit now. His ball movement and drive plus consistency have been missed for Brazil. Give him a good coach who organizes things and we could have a new playmaker on our hands. The other already known up and coming stars, you aren’t there yet guys don’t let it get to your head, play the game because you love it not just for the money and reputation or you will crash and burn.

The situation of our players

So after the Olympics a lot of madness has sounded our stars. Firstly Robinho’s weird money driven move to the blue side of Manchester. He wanted Chelsea we knew it, but Real Madrid didn’t really make sure they him wanted to be on their team before the summer if you believe all what has been said. Robinho felling un-loved due to Reals de-valuation of him to Cristiano Ronaldo nearly made his dream move to Scolari, but a turn of events caused Real to snub Chelsea causing Robinho to choose a strange destination in mid-table former relegation suffers, Manchester City. First of all I was going crazy watching sky sports news thinking this was a joke, but when reality set in I could only think with the new takeover in Manchester this could be the start of ~~football going crazy~~ Manchester City becoming one of the best clubs in the EPL. Robinho being their first super signing could be the greatest or worst career move in history, giving me a feeling this maybe could be like Maradonna going to Napoli in the 80’s. err I hope at least, same colours same ages maybe Robinho can become the centre piece he so desperately needs to be in one of the best leagues at this moment. Hopefully they play him as a support striker instead making him play on the side of midfield or as a winger which did restrict the player we all saw in Santos. If this is just a money move then it shows a sad streak of our players in the world game, who are no longer world beaters but just overpaid free lancers (Sobis move to Dubai from Betis, don’t make me think the worst!)

World cup Qualification

Our situation before the match at Chile was grim, sitting in 5th place in the round robin group stage with disgraceful performances to not say the least. Dunga’s terrible reign was looking be coming to a close after his failures in the Olympics.

The squad assembled for the match was as usual based on efficient talking and defensive rather than attacking flair;

Goalkeeers:
Júlio César (Inter Milan)
Renan (Internacional)

Defenders:
Lúcio (Bayern Munich)
Juan (Roma)
Alex Silva (São Paulo)
Luisão (Benfica)
Maicon (Inter Milan)
Rafinha (Schalke 04)
Kléber (Santos)
Juan (Flamengo)

Midfielders:
Gilberto Silva (Panathinaikos)
Josué (Wolfsburg)
Lucas (Liverpool)
Elano (Manchester City)
Anderson (Manchester United)
Diego (Werder Bremen)
Julio Baptista (Roma)
Ronaldinho (AC Milan)

Forwards:
Robinho (Manchester City)
Luis Fabiano (Sevilla)
Rafael Sobis (Real Bétis)
Jô (Manchester City)

This being hopefully the last ever team Dunga sets out to the pitch. To build up this game the good old president of Brazil decided to knock in some known truth about how he feels about Brazil and its players, saying Messi is the best and making everyone in Brazil face up to maybe a little bit of truth. This set the tone for players such as Julio Cesar to be critical of what the president said. Dunga who wasn’t too fond of the comment probably felt obliged to give a performance to the Brazilian people.

This is what Dunga gave to the best of his ability, winning 3-0, Brazil still in my eyes not good enough winners against a Chile team playing well within their own selves, who forgot that Brazil still has quality players who can destroy any team. The essence of Brazilian football is about taking control of the ball and losing the object of scoring but destroying an opponent with the skill and trickery, mesmerising them into believing they have played the greatest players and team on earth. Not sitting back for a while and playing off the break and working mistakes (MISER TACTICS!!!). Against good teams this wouldn’t happen and the same performances in WC06 would happen all over again believe me. Brazil is going through a reality check at the moment and Dunga may have saved himself for now but he may have to change his ways if he wants to stay in a job. At the start I defended him but not anymore, his discipline and strong ethics may have shown Brazilians that they have to change their approach in life but now it’s time to go back to our roots of playing the beautiful game.

Hey guys read the next post it’s a full in depth review of the match against Chile. I would especially like to thank Bruno for putting up a blog during my silly long overdue absence and from now on the blog will be kept up to scratch constantly.

Thanks alot, peace

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