Defence-minded Dunga curbs Brazil's attacks

The Selecao won their group but Brazil's supporters are still waiting for the old style and panache to their football.

Gilberto Silva, left, and Felipe Melo, will anchor Brazil's midfield when they face Chile tonight.

JOHANNESBURG // With Brazil hosting the World Cup in four years' time, the local organising committee for 2014 have arrived in South Africa. A vast exhibition showcasing the best the country has to offer - from culture and coffee to football, feijoada and flip-flops - is on display across the road from Fifa's headquarters in Sandton and is proving popular with Brazil-loving South Africans.

However, while the marketing team continues its global charm offensive, the country's football side appear to be focusing more on their defensive duties. Far from hospitable, Dunga, the coach of the Selecao, earlier this month banned the media from his side's training sessions in a bid to protect his team, while the players on the pitch lack the traditional flair and creativity to which football followers have grown accustomed.

"All Brazilians want the team to win, but we want them to put on a show when they do it," said Eduardo Bandny, a Rio de Janiero native who watched his country's scoreless stalemate with Portugal on television in Johannesburg. So far, the world's top-ranked team have progressed with relative ease from arguably the tournament's toughest group. But while their finish at the top of Group G cannot be criticised, the 23-man squad and style of play in which Dunga has them deployed certainly can be.

Harry Redknapp, the Tottenham Hostpur manager, summed up the Brazil team recently. "We overrate Brazil," he said. "We all think Brazil are so fantastic, but Elano couldn't cut it in England. Robinho at Manchester City? They dropped him in the end. Gilberto [Silva] was a great player at Arsenal, but Arsene Wenger felt it was time to move him on. Gilberto, the former Tottenham left-back, is in the squad; I think he played two games at Spurs."

Without the likes of Ronaldinho - the former World Player of the Year whom Dunga controversially decided to leave at home after a poor start to the season with AC Milan - Brazil are being forced to rely on Robinho for creative impetus. While the Santos forward has undoubted talent as a striker, he is often too far up the pitch to be effective and was rested against the Portuguese. Brazil's biggest threat comes from their full-backs, of which they have an abundance. Maicon, Inter Milan's world-class right-back, is joined by Lyon's Michel Bastos on the opposite flank, meaning their is no space in the defence for Dani Alves, the brilliant Barcelona player. But with the defenders charging forward, space is being left at the back and the holding midfield duo of Gilberto Silva and Felipe Melo are being forced to sit deep in order to cover.

Without Kaka, who was suspended for the match with Portugal, Brazil lacked drive in midfield and had nobody who could weave a penetrating ball through to Luis Fabiano, the Sevilla striker who is the Selecao's leading scorer at the tournament with two goals. Tonight, they face South American neighbours Chile, a team that, with the possible exception of Argentina, could be labelled their continent's most attack-minded side.

But with Kaka and Robinho likely to return and the Brazilians having netted seven times against La Roja in their two meetings during qualifying, it could be time for the five-time World Cup winners to turn on the style, improve their goal ratio and silence their critics. Dunga, however, himself a World Cup winner as captain in 1994, will be satisfied simply to progress and had a message for the Selecao's supporters, too.

"Chile has been improving," he said. "It has a team with good players and will fight very hard to keep advancing. "We must fight for our country, for our family and for our friends. You just have to be a patriot." [e-mail]