How one match can turn things around? Yesterday, Hugo Sanchez’s job was endangered but today with the victory over Brazil he can savour some redemption. He did this without the services of stalwarts like Pavel Pardo, Carlos Salcido, Ricardo Osorio, Jared Borghetti, and Andres Guardado. He is still not out of the woods but anytime you win over Brazil, the world takes notice.
It is Dunga whose career is in danger. This is not the direction that Brazil wants to take. True, he did not have Kaka, Ronaldinho, and Adriano to work with and he has yet to give Ronaldo a spot but there appears to be an inability to play 90 minutes of quality soccer consistently. In the last few friendlies against Portugal and then England, Brazil played like it did today, with a disjointed attack and an error prone defense. They did perk up in the last half hour with the introduction of Anderson who took control of the midfield but it was too little to late. Man Utd fans will be very pleased with Anderson who should feature prominently in Sir Alex’s future plans.
The majority of the goals have come down on defensive breakdowns at left back, a problem since Thierry Henry turned around Roberto Carlos in the World Cup, an incident captured in full Sock-o-rama. This time around it was Maicon who should have challenged Castillo as he chipped it over his head. Juan was slow getting to Castillo’s collection. This defense has problems with speedsters and reading plays. Castillo repeatedly breached the Brazilian defense and could have scored on a couple of other chances which would have made the humiliation complete. At the other end, the attack with Vagner Love as the lone striker is not working. No one expects him to fill Ronaldo’s shoes but this is despite the lowered expectations. Robinho injects a lot of speed and skill into the attack but he also loses the ball a lot.
Dunga seems to mistake good defense as having a collection of physically imposing players like Alex or Maicon. You have to match speed for speed in the next match against Chile and Humberto Suazo. Kleber and Dani Alves should start to get the attack started from the flanks. Fred should get the nod and Anderson should be brought in earlier if Diego again has a poor game.