Dunga named Brazilian soccer team coach

Carlos Dunga was appointed manager of Brazil’s national soccer team, replacing Luiz Felipe Scolari, following the squad’s record-breaking loss at the World Cup earlier this month.
Dunga was presented to reporters in Brazil yesterday. He coached the record five-time World Cup winner at the 2010 event, where it was eliminated in the quarterfinals.
“He has all the features and the skills to once more guide the Brazilian national team,” said Jose Maria Marin, the head of the country’s soccer federation. “It was a choice made after long talks.”

Brazil’s attempt to win soccer’s biggest prize on home soil ended in humiliation July 8, when eventual winner Germany secured a 7-1 victory in Belo Horizonte, shattering a number of records including the one for Brazil’s biggest loss in the team’s 100-year history.
Scolari, who coached the team to its last title in 2002, and assistant Carlos Alberto Parreira said before and during the World Cup that Brazil would win its sixth title.
The team struggled to the semifinal with victories over Chile and Colombia before being overwhelmed by Germany, which scored five goals in an 18-minute period of the first half, and led 7-0 before conceding a last-minute goal. The defeat was Brazil’s first in competitive game on home soil since 1975.
“My first stint on the national team they asked me to recover the value of the Brazil jersey,” Dunga said. “The second stint now our trend is to get the national team ready for the 2018 World Cup.”
Dunga, 50, was captain when Brazil won the World Cup in 1994, before being hired to coach the team in 2006 even though he had no previous management experience. He left following a 2-1 defeat to the Netherlands in the quarterfinal of the 2010 tournament in South Africa amid criticism from former players and media for his team’s conservative and physical style.