Brazil's shock loss to Peru at the Copa America spells doom for Dunga

Posted Monday, June 13, 2016 by ESPN

One of the favourite words of the man who, for now, coaches Brazil is "coherent." Dunga uses it all the time. And so, on his own terms, it makes little sense bleating about the fact that the Peruvian goal that sent his team home early from the Copa America Centenario appeared to have been knocked in by the arm of substitute striker Raul Ruidiaz.

Back in 1995, Dunga was captain of Brazil in the Copa in Uruguay, when striker Tulio clearly handled the ball before scoring a vital goal against Argentina in the quarterfinals. There would seem to be no record of Dunga complaining then. And even within the bounds of this competition, the luck has evened out. An Ecuador goal that would have beaten Brazil in the opening game was disallowed when the linesman -- wrongly it seems -- judged the ball to have gone out of play.

But if there is a pattern of important mistakes by the officials in Brazil's two crunch games in this competition, there is another pattern that comes to light: The team failed to score against either Ecuador or Peru. They filled their boots against Haiti, but that 7-1 win is now rendered meaningless by the draw against Ecuador and the loss to Peru. Switch the refereeing decisions around and it becomes the defeat to Ecuador and the draw against Peru. But the outcome is the same. Brazil go home.

Uruguay, another of the favourites, also crashed out, and with even less to show for their time in the USA than Dunga's team. But they top the CONMEBOL World Cup qualification table. A third of the way through the marathon campaign, Brazil currently are in sixth, outside the qualification places. The storm clouds gathered at the end of March, when Brazil could only draw with Uruguay and Paraguay. And given that this Copa Centenario had been seen as crucial to Dunga's job survival, it is hard to see how the coach's position can remain tenable.

His reappointment was a bizarre response to the disaster of the last World Cup, and the stark facts show that he has been favoured beyond all justification by the CBF, Brazil's football association. He has only held three coaching jobs, a few, hardly distinguished months at Internacional sandwiched between two spells in charge of the national team.

To be fair to Brazil's beleaguered boss, it is undeniable that there has been a recent effort to get the team to play more football through the midfield, to wean them off an excessive dependence on the counter-attack, which was causing so much disappointment to their many fans all over the world. Previously, Dunga had been the snarling high priest of the counter-attack, making not the slightest concession to the aesthetic of the game. This was changing.

"We're working more with the characteristics of ball possession," he said on the eve of the Peru game. "Before they were all very direct. We had no one in midfield who could change the rhythm. I'm trying to balance out speed and directness with possession."

Progress was clearly made. Just as in the game against Ecuador, Brazil produced a good first half Sunday. The statistics help tell the story: eight corners to zero, five shots to zero, 65 percent of possession and 256 passes completed to Peru's 97.

Brazil's shock loss to Peru at the Copa America spells doom for Dunga

Just as in the first half against Ecuador, chances were created against the Peruvians, but they were not taken. Pedro Gallese in the Peruvian goal did well and the performance suffered a marked decline in the second half. The opening 45 minutes could have been the prelude to an impressive, satisfactory win. Apart from the whims of football, why did this not happen? Perhaps, in large part, because centre-forward is such a problem position, and one where Dunga never seems to make up his mind. What does he want? What kind of characteristic is he looking for?

This time he went with young Gabriel "Gabigol" Barbosa of Santos, a fine promise, but not (or not yet anyway) a natural centre-forward. Indeed, he usually plays wide for Santos, with the centre-forward position filled by the veteran Ricardo Oliveira, who was forced to miss the tournament through injury. And then, in the quest for a more physical presence, on came Hulk for the last 20 minutes. With the type of player Dunga had in midfield, a better option would have been someone able to combine passes, such as Jonas, who was left on the bench (Dunga made only one substitution) or Roberto Firmino, surprisingly left out of the squad.

Though the coach may talk about balance, this is a commodity that the current team would seem to have in short supply. Dunga must bear much of the blame for this. A nervy, uptight coach so often produces a nervy, uptight team and the issue of his job security is now casting too much of a shadow. As such, with the tension of the clock ticking down, the team slipped back into being too direct, too vertical as is said in these parts, trying to force their passage instead of playing their way through. When things are tight, perhaps the team struggle to believe that they can pull out a victory in the absence of Neymar. And so the game became untidy, Peru grew in confidence and struck out to gain the win they needed to stay alive.

Ruidiaz might well have put the ball in with a mixture of arm and thigh. But the point remains. Andy Polo found a hole in the defence, getting behind left back Filipe Luis to send in such an inviting little cross. A clear chance was created, and had Ruidiaz arrived a fraction of a second later he would have been able to guide the ball over the line without any need for controversy. Brazil were again unable to score and lost to an experimental young Peru team who chose to leave some of their senior players at home. It would be unusual indeed if such circumstances did not force a change of coach.