Is Dunga the answer?

Brazil announced this week that former midfielder Dunga will replace Carlos Alberto Parreira as the coach of the National football team. The main reason for the choice of the former player, without any kind of coaching experience, is the hope he will take to the team his motivation.

Known for his ability to encourage players by constantly shouting and orienting the team, Dunga could bring to the team one of the ingredients that was missing during the World Cup in Germany: a winning attitude and clear desire to play to win. After all, during the last World Cup the Brazilian team arrived as the main favourite but never lived up to that favouritism, showing very little and bowing out of the tournament in a 1-0 loss to France in the quarterfinals.

However, it still remains to be seen if Dunga will be the answer the team needs to return to its winning ways. For his style he can be considered a poor man's Scolari - who has renewed his contract to keep coaching Portugal at least until 2008. And many believe he may be ahead of Brazil only until 2008, when Scolari could then return and prepare the team for the 2010 World Cup.

Only time will tell if Dunga was the right choice for Brazil. He can either follow the steps of other former players with no former - or extensive - coaching experience such as Germany's Klinsmann (in 2006) and Voeller (in 2002), or even Holland's van Basten this year. Or rather, he could also follow the path of another former Brazilian midfielder with no coaching experience taking command of the team after a frustrating World Cup: in 1990, Paulo Roberto Falcao took control after the disappointing loss to Argentina in the second round in Italy, but only lasted 10 months ahead of the team.