Brazil are saving the samba for later

WORLD CUP 2010 ROUND OF 16 Brazil 3 Chile 0:LIKE THE Brazilians themselves, the feud between Dunga and his country's dailies seems to just rattle on and last night's rather pedestrian win over Chile, which earns them a quarter-final clash with the Netherlands on Friday, is unlikely to move the two parties any closer to reconciliation.

The manager will point to his side’s smooth progression to the quarter-finals; the press to the lack of adventure about some of the play that got them there.

Both have a point but if the South Americans pick up title number six in a couple of weeks time then the press boys are going to have to lay off the coach or risk looking pretty foolish.

Still, it would be nice in the meantime if they had got their wish and Brazil were a little easier on the eye, at least while playing teams as manifestly inferior as last night’s opponents who they beat while barely breaking into a sweat.

It was predictable enough stuff. These two have come up against each other more than 70 times down the years, with the Brazilians, somewhat inevitably, dominating. In recent years, the Chileans have barely even been at the races, losing to their rivals seven straight times prior to last night’s meeting, including once in France back in 1998 where they went down 4-1 to the eventual finalists at the same stage of the competition.

If the weight of history was pressing heavily on them this time then it didn’t show early on, although it always seemed likely to prove no more than a matter of time . . . so to speak.

Their Argentinian coach Marcelo Bielsa had been brave beforehand, opting to mirror Dunga’s approach by playing just three at the back, with another, Carlos Carmona, sitting a little farther forward in a central position so as to pick up Kaka. Well, brave or foolish; it all depends on whether you take how things actually turned out into account

For a while, in any case, the approach seemed to work well enough with Carmona, in particular, doing well but there were still warning signs from fairly early on, with the Brazilians finding a little too much space to work with when breaking forward from midfield.

Part of the problem was the unfortunate habit of Gonzalo Isla and Pablo Contreras of pushing on beyond their man when their own side was in possession. It took a while before their indiscipline backfired but it was coming for some time before Maicon’s pressure down the right yielded a corner, which he floated in for Juan to head home unchallenged from some 10 metres out.

You didn’t need a long list of historical data to know that even then, with just short of an hour left to play, the Chilean goose was well and truly cooked.

In part, that was because these Brazilian players really do battle for their team and, presumably, its coach. On the attack, the Chileans routinely looked like a team trying to play everything a split second faster than they were comfortably able to because of the quality of their opponents.

But the Brazilians didn’t just settle for picking up all the loose balls their fellow South Americans sent their way. Everything was fought for inside their own half and the sight of Robinho wrestling Arturo Vidal to the ground deep inside enemy territory in an attempt to win possession is bound to have prompted some head scratching amongst watching Manchester City fans.

Then, on the break, they seemed utterly irresistible at times, getting their full backs forward at speed to reinforce an already well-populated frontline that moved the ball with wonderful pace and precision.

It was just such a move that led to their second with Robinho darting down the left before turning inside and feeding Kaka, whose brilliant short pass allowed Luis Fabiano to slip away from between two defenders, who were appealing vainly for offside, before deftly skipping over the lunging Claudio Bravio to side-foot home.

Robinho got the third with a curling shot from the edge of the area just short of an hour in but the real work was done this time by Ramires. In for the injured Elano, Ramires intercepted a long pass on the half way line then raced forward, evading three challenges before laying the ball off to his team-mate.

Job done, they more or less shut up shot, allowing the Chileans a handful of chances late on that should really have yielded at least one goal; Humberto Siazo, Jorge Valdivia and Jean Beausejour all going particularly close.

Had they been required to, Dunga’s men, one suspected, could have just gone up the other end and got another couple. Robinho, indeed, went close to making it 4-0 13 minutes from time only to see his strike from inside the box rightly disallowed for a fractional offside.

The manager’s critics then, might accuse him of failing once again to get even more from the talent available.

Dunga, however, will point to a comfortable win, and what looks to be a growing confidence amongst his players that his approach can carry them not just to victory again against the Dutch on Friday but also, it seems increasingly possible, all the way to world championship number six.