‘Superior’ Brazil have much room to improve

Before the game against Portugal, Dunga had spoken about weak nations being a thing of the past at World Cups. On Monday, his team showed that while that may be true, there is no denying the gap between Brazil and Chile, reports Dhiman Sarkar.

Before the game against Portugal, Dunga had spoken about weak nations being a thing of the past at World Cups. On Monday, his team showed that while that may be true, there is no denying the gap between Brazil and Chile.

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Marcelo Bielsa was the first to acknowledge it. “It's hard to adapt to an opponent when there's such a big gap in quality. Brazil's superiority was too much for us and we were unable to slow them down,” he said.

“Today, I hoped we'd be able to achieve something. I hoped we'd be able to get closer to Brazil (and) I don't think it was such a one-way match, but we didn't have the necessary punch,” the Argentine said.

And when he was asked whether Brazil have any chinks which Holland coach Bert van Marwijk could exploit, Bielsa snapped: “How can I talk about a team's weakness after losing 3-0?” Before Bielsa, Dunga told anyone who cared to listen that Brazil are still a work in progress.

“We passed the ball well, were able to maintain balance and made use of the chances that we got. We have already seen that in this World Cup we have to play an open game, going forward, as that is what everybody wants to see. The marking and running forward were impressive and we played quickly, but we still need to improve all elements of our game,” Dunga said.

Asked about the quarterfinal against Holland, Dunga pointed out they play like South Americans before saying: “With the potential and quality we have, Brazil will go into any tournament as favourites. The confidence is growing as we go along, but being the favourite guarantee winning. We will have to be careful against the Dutch because they are a solid team.”