World Cup Betting: Plenty for Dunga to think about

Teams / Ben Lyttleton / 02 March 2010 / Leave a comment Free £25 Bet

Dunga is yet to win over everyone back in football-mad Brazil

Does Roberto Carlos deserve a call-up at the ripe, old age of 35? Should Maicon or Dani Alves get the nod to play right-back? And perhaps most important of all - does Ronaldinho have a future for Brazil? Ben Lyttleton considers some of the decisions Dunga is facing ahead of the World Cup.

"In that respect, Dunga is not so different from Ireland coach Giovanni
Trapattoni, a pragmatist who likes his teams to be disciplined and
organised. The reason why Trap in Ireland is more popular than Dunga in
Brazil is that he has fewer options with his side."

This week's round of international matches is crucial for teams competing in the World Cup as it represents the last chance coaches will have to try out a player or a system before naming their provisional squads in early-May for the tournament in South Africa. That is why Brazil's game against the Republic of Ireland at the Emirates Stadium tonight will not be taken lightly by the visitors (a disingenuous term, given that as many of their players as the Irish are familiar with Arsenal's stadium).

Brazil boss Dunga did not call up Ronaldinho despite the former World Player of the Year's superb form for AC Milan, while he kept faith with Robinho, so poor at Manchester City that he was substituted as a substitute, but now scoring goals for Santos in Brazil's low-quality domestic league.

It is not the first big decision Dunga has made in his reign but it is one of the more unpopular ones. Ronaldinho was making all the right noises about "his dream of returning to the Selecao" and his form, despite a dip in January, probably merited it.

But his history with Dunga is a complicated one. Ronaldinho fans in Brazil claim that Dunga has had it in for him ever since the pair met in a Porto Alegre derby back in 1999. It was Dunga's last season as a player, at Internacional, and Ronaldinho's first, at Gremio. Dunga, apparently, has never got over the humiliation of Ronaldinho, then 18, not only nut-megging him but then "giving him a hat", which involved flicking the ball over his head and running round him to collect it.

If only it were that simple: the truth is that Ronaldinho did not play well last season alongside Kaka at AC Milan and if he is to be picked as straight cover for Robinho, a late call-up might be Dunga's best hope of keeping his ego in check. This is very much the Dunga way: whereas his predecessor Carlos Alberto Parreira picked Brazil's famous four - Ronaldinho, Kaka, Adriano and Ronaldo - and told them to get on with it, Dunga's approach is much more practical, more European. More like Dunga the player.

Despite qualifying from the tough South American section with relative ease, and Brazil's status as second-favourite at ([6.4]) for the World Cup, (with Spain favourites at [5.5], Dunga has yet to win over the country with his methods. As captain of Brazil's 1994 World Cup-winning side, he made the double holding midfielder role successful, and wasted no time in introducing that to this team. It led the press to nickname him "Chávez
Dunga", as his style has more in common with the army principles of Venezuela's socialist president Hugo Chávez. "My plan is to find a balance between technique and discipline," he explained. "What is important is that every player knows his responsibilities and that we realise that we can only achieve things together."

There are still dilemmas that Dunga needs to clear up in the Ireland match: Felipe Melo, the normal partner of Gilberto Silva in that holding midfield, has endured a wretched year at Juventus so Wolfsburg midfielder Josue, Liverpool's Lucas Leiva or even ex-Manchester United player Kleberson may get an opportunity to stake a claim.

Dunga also has a headache at left-back. Liverpool's Fabio Aurelio was called up for the Doha friendly against England, but had to withdraw through injury (as he did when he was last called up in 2003) while Michel Bastos, scorer of a hat-trick for Lyon last weekend, has yet to convince in the position. Cruzeiro's Gilberto has been selected to challenge Bastos. Unluckily for Dunga, he probably has the two best right-backs in the world, in Maicon and Dani Alves, but not a left-back: both Aurelio and Bastos are converted wingers, encouraging Roberto Carlos, now 35 and without a Brazil game since
2006, to declare his availability.

The least-known player in the team is Ramires, the right-sided forward in Dunga's 4-2-3-1 system. A young winger at Benfica, Ramires is the perfect Dunga player, who happily covers in defence when Maicon goes on his trademark rampaging runs upfield. As the coach put it: "When every footballer knows what he has to do you don't need to be a tough coach."

In that respect, Dunga is not so different from Ireland coach Giovanni Trapattoni, a pragmatist who likes his teams to be disciplined and organised. The reason why Trap in Ireland is more popular than Dunga in Brazil is that he has fewer options with his side. Dunga, whose side are ([1.51]) to win tonight, has options, but he chooses to ignore them.