International Football: Ramalho in line to replace Dunga as the Brazilian coach
Brazilian club’s coach Muricy Ramalho is all set to take over Dunga’s position as the Brazilian national team coach. Ex-Brazilian captain, Dunga was in-charge of Brazil for the past four years and led them to the 2010 FIFA World Cup.
Brazil had a successful qualification campaign for the tournament in South Africa and were favorites to win the World Cup when the competition started. Brazil shared an opening stage group with the likes of Ivory Coast, Portugal and North Korea. The group was branded as the group of death because of the amount of good quality teams in it.
Brazil won their first match against North Korea by two goals to win and then won their second match as well against Ivory Coast by three goals to one. The South American giants played their last group stage game against their previous colonial masters, Portugal. A game that was hyped as a possibly entertaining spectacle turned out to be quite a bore as both the teams had already made it to the round of sixteen.
Brazil faced Chile in the round of sixteen, knockout encounter and defeated their South American rivals by three goals to nil. The five time World Cup winners then faced Netherlands in the quarter finals of the 2010 FIFA World Cup. Brazil took the lead in their quarter final tie early on but then lost control of the game gradually as the Dutch came back to score two goals. The game eventually ended in Brazil’s elimination from the FIFA World Cup in South Africa.
The ex-Brazilian coach Dunga was relieved of his duty after the tournament ended and came under severe criticism by various sections of Brazilian media due to the way his team played in the World Cup. Dunga had been under fire by some pundits before the World Cup even started because his side was not playing Brazil’s traditional style of attacking football. Brazil under Dunga had a more European look to them. They played with two defensive minded midfielders and a single attacker upfront.
Dunga previously captained Brazil’s World Cup winning side of 1994 and had hoped to take Brazil to their sixth FIFA World Cup title. Ramalho confirmed that he is set to talk with Fluminense, his current employers to release him from his present contract so that he can become Brazil’s next national manager.
Ramalho told ESPN Brazil that, he is not Brazil’s coach yet because he still has to talk to Fluminense about it. Ramalho is not well known outside Brazil but is quite famous as a coach in the Brazilian football league. He won Brazil’s coach of the year award for four times in a row and also led Sao Paolo to three consecutive league titles. Fluminense, his current club is at the top of the Brazilian league’s standings.
Ramalho’s present contract with Fluminense runs till the end of the season but it is speculated that the deal can contain a release clause in case he is offered the Brazilian national coach’s job.
Tags: