Shell-shocked Dunga feels the pain as reign ends

Dunga admitted he would have to take the rap for Brazil’s World Cup heartbreak after his four-year reign as head coach ended with a quarter-final defeat at the hands of the Netherlands.

“We are all responsible for this situation but I have the greatest responsibility,” Dunga said after his ten-man side went down to a shock 2-1 defeat that ended any hope he may have harboured of winning an extension of his stay in the post.

The five-times world champions appeared to be coasting towards the last four after Robinho fired them into an early lead and his players generated a string of first-half chances.

But the Dutch turned the match around after the interval thanks to an own goal from Felipe Melo, who was later sent off for stamping on Arjen Robben, and a Wesley Sneijder header.

“We are all extremely saddened, we did not expect this,” Brazil’s 1994 World Cup-winning captain added.

“We knew it would be a delicate, difficult game. In the first half we played better than in the second but we were were not able to maintain the same rhythm.

“We could not maintain the same level of concentration. Any World Cup match is 90 minutes and it is the small details that count.”

Dunga declined to criticise either Melo or goalkeeper Julio Cesar, who was at fault on the Dutch equaliser.

“Felipe Melo was sent off but it not the first time that has happened in a World Cup match,” the coach said. “We are all responsible.”

Dunga’s contract with Brazil expires after this tournament and he appeared to hold out no hope of being offered a new deal that would enable him to lead the national team into the next World Cup, which Brazil will host.

“I was contracted for four years and we knew that from the start,” he said.

“During the last four years I have been very happy to coach this Brazilian team and if you look at the players faces you would understand how they feel.

“I am very proud of these players and the dignified way they represented the country.”

Dunga rejected a suggestion that he had failed to prepare his players for the possibility that they might fall behind in a match, but he acknowledged that a degree of anxiety had crept into their play once the momentum in the match swung against them.

“We never prepare a team to lose, you always prepare a team to win,” he said. “This nervousness surfaced because we were losing, passes started to go astray, balls were miscontrolled.

“But you cannot question the commitment of these players to the national team.

“If you look at history it is very infrequent for a team to play for 50 days in a row without anyone complaining. We were together for 52 days and there was no controversy.”