AC Milan in third place
AC Milan have moved ahead of Inter in third place as they beat Siena at home last night. A goal from Inzaghi and Kaka sealed a game that could have gone either way.
Alexandre Pato had his first start after a couple of games on the bench. Pato nealy scored but his strike hit the post.
Milan face Napoli at home next. Ronaldinho will be available for that game give Ancelotti another option upfront.
Dunga expected to be sacked after Brazil lose to Argentina
Dunga has been under pressure since taking over as head coach of Brazil’s national football team. However, since his reign he has upset a lot of people including players, fans, media and more fans.
Dunga dropped all the top players stating that every player had to earn a position on the team. This was fair enough until the fans witnessed a display of boring football on the pitch. It was the most boring football we had seen from Brazil and it was not taken well by the fans or the media. Brazil’s previous attitude towards every game was ‘we can score more then our opponent so who cares about defense.’ This worked well when you had Ronaldo and Rivaldo upfront but these days Brazil do not have these options and therefore do not seem to have an offensive game plan.
We do have Pato and Robinho but Pato is still very young and Robinho is nowhere near the level of Ronaldo. However, Dunga continued to be extra selective with players and chose in favour of younger and less known players.
During the World Cup qualifiers after Brazil could not get on the score sheet, Dunga was labelled a Donkey. Majority of fans wanted him out but it was too late to appoint a new manager as the Olympics was just around the corner. The board decided to keep him on and Dunga then decided to select a range of well known players contrary to what he had done at the beginning. Unfortunately, Kaka who he had selected was not allowed to play due to a decision by AC Milan. Although he did have Ronaldinho but Ronaldinho was coming straight back from injury and was not 100 per cent.
The Olympics started well for Brazil eventhough they seemed to struggle against Belgium but it was soon forgotten when Brazil beat New Zealand 5-0. However, what most people forgot was that New Zealand and China who Brazil beat are no world class teams. When they faced Cameroon who again are only slightly better then China and New Zealand they struggled. So much to say that Dunga replaced Pato upfront with Rafael Sobis and brazil ended the game 2-0 in extra time.
Dunga then criticised Pato stating that Pato has to develop as a player and was fustrated that Pato was not able to free himself from his defender or stay onside.
Today it was evident that Dunga was not happy with Pato and left the player on the bench. Dunga chose to go with a formation that left Rafael Sobis upfront with the support of Ronaldinho. Now not sure if this was the right move but Dunga being Dunga he likes to try something out of the ordinary and if it works then he can be labelled a genius, well you guessed right and Dunga is not a genius and brazil got beaten 3-0.
Argentina played beautiful football and were able to carry the ball upfront with pace, precise passing and excellent technique. They had all the things that Brazil didn’t have today and thats is not to blame the Brazilan players but the technique of the coach.
We all know what’s next for Dunga but it is about time and I will be super surprised if he is given another chance with the Brazilian side.
ARGENTINA 3-0 BRAZIL
1-0 Agüero 52′
2-0 Agüero 57′
3-0 Riquelme 76′ (pen.)
Argentina (Batista): Romero; Zabaleta, Pareja, Garay, Monzón; Gago, Mascherano, Riquelme (Sosa 90), di Maria; Messi, Agüero.
Brazil (Dunga): Renan Brito; Rafinha, Alex Silva, Breno, Marcelo; Diego (Jô 71), Hernanes (Neves 61), Lucas, Anderson; Ronaldinho; Sobis (Pato 61).
Yellow Cards: Zabaleta 7, Pareja 63, Di Maria 65 – Breno 19, Hernanes 32, Anderson 67, Rafinha 75.
Red Cards: None – Lucas 81, Neves 8
Dunga not happy with Pato
Pato has come under fire after being replaced by Rafael Sobis against Brazil’s 2-0 win against Cameroon. Dunga who is under a lot of pressure to bring home the gold was fustrated with Pato’s inability to lose his marker. Dunga did not want to take any chances as Brazil were not able to get many chances upfront and he did not want a repeat of the Sydney Olympics where Brazil lost to Cameroon.
“I brought on Rafael Sobis because he knows how to deal with tight marking, can open up the spaces and does not go offside,†Dunga is quoted as saying by Ansa.
“Pato must grow again, and he must learn to free himself from his marker.”
Pato could now be dropped from the first team against Argentina.