Weight of expectation on Dunga

Finding a balance between gifted individuals and collective team structure is a challenge in any footballing culture.

Given the amount of players the country produces, it is hardly surprising that it can cause problems in Brazil, especially for coaches of the national team about to name a squad for the World Cup.

The Brazilian media loves to launch a campaign in favour of a big name player pushing for a place on the plane. But the player has to contribute with performances on the pitch.

This was supposed to be the year that Ronaldo turned the clock back once more.

In 2009 he made his latest impressive comeback, spearheading the Corinthians attack as it won the Brazilian Cup and made viable the dream scenario - the club finally winning the Copa Libertadores in this, its centenary year.

After the 2006 World Cup there were whispers that Ronaldo would not be welcome again in a Brazil shirt, that overweight and under-motivated he had not been a good influence in Germany.

This year was going to test the truth of such talk. Ronaldo would use the Libertadores as an irresistible platform to put pressure on Dunga and earn a last hurrah for the national team in South Africa.

This time, though, he couldn’t do it. The campaign for a World Cup place never got going. There were occasional flashes, but there were also some leaden displays from a man too heavy, too slow, with too many knee operations behind him.

It was a bit like watching Muhammad Ali in some of his last fights. Time catches up with us all in the end, even the best.

There will be no more World Cups for Ronaldo.

And probably not for Ronaldinho either. The goofy Milan man is only 30, but his best days are seemingly behind him.

If he misses out this time - as seems likely - it is very hard to imagine him making a contribution on home soil in four years time.

There was certainly no boycott of Ronaldinho. Dunga was patient with him, carrying him around for almost three years while the player frittered away his talent - apparently in alcoholic excess.

When, a year ago, Dunga finally dropped him, the door seemed open. If Ronaldinho could get fit and find his old motivation he was in with a chance of a recall.

And indeed that seemed to happen this season - without recapturing his old heights, the 2009-2010 Ronaldinho has been much improved on recent campaigns.

His problem is, though, that after he was left out Dunga’s team ‘gelled’ far better without him. When he figured with Robinho and Kaka behind lone striker Luis Fabiano, the three of them got in each other’s way.

Without him, there was more space in which Brazil could launch its lethal counter-attack.

Even so, an in-form Ronaldinho would make a wonderful one-man Plan B for a team that can be stifled. And, with his good performances at the start of the year the bandwagon was rolling, with the press piling on the pressure for a recall.

But then he didn’t make the squad for the game against Ireland at the start of March. Maybe in disappointment, his form fell away, and the campaign in his favour lost momentum - or, more accurately, switched generation.

When Robinho moved back to Brazil to rejoin Santos he probably didn’t imagine that he would spend much of his time in a supporting role. But that is what has happened at the club that has been playing some of the most refreshing football in the country.

The two stand outs are Neymar, 18, a support striker, and 20-year-old attacking midfielder Paulo Henrique Ganso. The pair are magnificent prospects, and with Santos running up cricket scores in some of its games, there is a push for both - and especially Neymar - to be included in the World Cup squad.

Will Dunga go for caution and decide against? There are grounds to think so.

Firstly, the pair have yet to be seriously tested. At this stage they may only be rabbit killers. Santos won the Sao Paulo state championship - but these regional competitions are increasingly worthless.

Of its three big rivals, Corinthians and Sao Paulo were more concerned with the Libertadores, and Palmeiras has yet to haul itself out of a crisis that descended towards the end of last year. So there was not much to beat.

Then there is the criteria used by referees in domestic Brazilian football. Fouls are given for the slightest contact.

One of the reasons that Robinho has not lived up to expectations in Europe is his failure to adapt to a tougher brand of the sport. Can Dunga trust the new Santos pair to make the adaptation?

This is especially pertinent since neither set the planet on fire in youth World Cups towards the end of last year.

Ganso was only reasonable - several of his team-mates were far more impressive - in the team that lost in the final of the Under-20 tournament. And in October, Neymar was a downright flop with the Under-17s as Brazil incredibly crashed out in the group stage.

Of course, this does not necessarily disqualify them from South Africa. History shows time and time again that a bad World Cup today can lead to a good one tomorrow.

Yet these experiences at youth level have been conveniently forgotten by the lobby in their favour. Theirs, though, is a discourse that doesn’t want to know about subtleties or grey areas - all it wants to do is put pressure on the coach.

And Dunga has every right to decide that there is no need to change.

Whatever we might think of his methods or philosophies, the results speak for themselves. In the last two years his team recorded 18 wins and just one defeat - and that at extreme altitude - in 23 games.

One new face is one less place for an old favourite. So will Dunga be swayed?

All will be revealed on Tuesday.


http://theworldgame.sbs.com.au/tim-vickery/blog/997057/Weight-of-expectation-on-Dunga