Dunga is targeted by the critics for his volatile temperament on the sidelines. Many argue that his aggressive style of coaching and personality may influence the players negatively during matches. The idea that such a character trait is detrimental to performance is ludicrous. There are many examples of highly successful coaches within the game, past and present, who have or have had highly turbulent and impulsive personalities.
Valeriy Lobanovskyi, the legendary Ukrainian coach, assembled together the formidable team of the former USSR in the 1980s despite being known for his explosive and tempestuous personality. Several years back during a visit to Kiev I was surprised to come across his statue in the center of the city. It is a major tourist attraction, one built in his honor and as a show of appreciation for all his accomplishments.
Luiz Felipe Scolari, “Big Phil,” is known for his sideline antics, aggressiveness and truculent ways. Scolari has won almost everything there is to win in the game. Sir Alex Ferguson, also known for his obstreperous, dictatorial and disciplinarian ways, runs Manchester United with an iron fist. These traits did not prevent him from being at the top of the most competitive league in the world for many years.
Several other sports have successful coaches with similar personalities. One can quickly recall Bobby Knight, a mythical figure within US college basketball, who was known for a multitude of unconventional theatrics and antics. During one game, he famously launched a chair into the middle of the court. He was known for submitting his players to corporal punishments for making mistakes and in one incident even physically assaulted a player. Within American football there are several other examples of coaches with confrontational and hostile personalities. Mike Ditka and Bill Cower are both known to walk around the sideline exhibiting an intensity and facial expression usually associated with someone about to commit murder.
Do the critics question Bernadinho over his coaching, the Brazilian super coach of the men’s volleyball team, who has won every title in the book? Bernardinho is known for his highly explosive personality on the sidelines. These characteristics are more obvious due to his physical proximity to his players during games. Also, he is able to call several time outs throughout the game where he shreds his players to pieces with his blatant rage. Nevertheless that surely does not affect his players negatively and has not precluded him from winning!
What would the same critics have professed if Dunga presented himself with a passive and subdued demeanor such as the one displayed by Sven Groan Eriksson, the head coach of the Ivory Coast? What if he had replicated the posture of Raymond Domenech, the French head coach, with his cute little designer glasses, watching his team as if he was in an opera house, perform pathetically during his games? They would have surely accused Dunga of standing too passively and of not providing enough motivation to the players in the field.
What is really surprising is that the same critics that systematically attack Dunga for being so strict, stubborn, rough, and lacking in refinement never mention how much he is admired and respected by the players within the team. The players were completely devastated following the match against Holland and mentioned how sorry they were not to have done better for their coach. Over dinner before the return flight, Julio Cesar, the goalkeeper of the team, emotionally made a speech in honor of Dunga that apparently brought tears in the room from several players.
Conflict between segments of the press and successful sports figures, specifically head coaches, is far from being a recent occurrence. In fact it has happened on multiple occasions over the last few decades.
Sir Alfred Ramsey, the legendary head coach of the English team who won the World Cup in 1966, was known to have a turbulent relationship with the media. Jose Mourinho, the Portuguese, Inter Milan coach, who won the European Cup twice with both Inter and Porto is known to purposely antagonize the media with the intent to stir an us-against-them mentality in order to motivate his players.
Billy Martin, the famous New York Yankees, Major League Baseball head coach, was known for his outbursts and profanity directed at the press. In American football these incidents are commonplace and embedded in the tenuous relationships held between media representatives and coaches.
Finally it would be very important to note that the type of temperament a coach has and the way he interacts with his players and his relationships with the press is not a determining factor or a pre condition for success. The same way that coaches with challenging personalities are successful there are many other examples of leaders with a more tempered, a zen like philosophy, that are just as victorious. It would be extremely naïve and not accurate to blame the defeat against Holland on the personality of Dunga.
One of the biggest challenges facing a head coach, of any sport, is managing the ego of the millionaire superstar athletes. Therefore, to instill in a team an egoless and collective mentality among the players can seem insurmountable.
The media is quick to fire at Dunga for not calling certain players to the national team. But what the same media apparently does not understand is that Dunga may have very well been shielding the team from individuals whose egos could not be harnessed for the collective mentality required for participation in a sport that is dependent on interconnectedness. At times, it can be risky and not worth the hassle to bring a top star that has a destructive ego.
Multiple examples of individualistic attitudes presented themselves during this World Cup. The English squad had an internal break among their group that may have lead to their early exit from the competition. The French team imploded and better resembled a bunch of egotistical divas following the Anelka incident with the head coach. Henry, the superstar striker, was seen on more than one occasion to take the ball away from Ribery by force whenever there was a free kick. Cristiano Ronaldo, the Portuguese superstar, was clearly seen to, at times, not even acknowledge his co-players.
In contrast, the Brazilian team had a comaraderie from within and a cohesive group mentality very difficult to obtain in any professional team and not seen in that squad in many years. For that and many other accomplishments of Dunga the press was silent.
Many in the camp of the eternal critics accuse Dunga of not including in the final roster of the squad Ganso and Neymar and a few others that played in the 2006 World Cup team. Even though Neymar and Ganso are talented players, they have limited experience, and there was not enough time for Dunga to observe them playing and to consequently integrate them into the team. The young players from Germany had significant experience in their respective team prior to the cup. Holger Badstuber and Thomas Muller had even participated in the final of the European cup prior to the World Cup and surely had a depth of experience that the two Brazilian players did not.
It is not surprising that after every tragic loss Brazil has in a World Cup, segments of the press attempt to find a scapegoat or a “Barbosa,” the infamous goalkeeper of the 1950 squad blamed for the defeat in the final against Uruguay, to torment or crucify. Football is a team sport, played in a collective group fashion, where there are multiple factors that can influence the outcome of a match. It is time that the critics embark on a soul searching mission and determine if their failed attempts to convert the Brazilian training camp, during the competition, into a reality show or a soap opera were in the best interest of the squad. These attempts are truly at the center of their attacks on Dunga; a coach who showed mettle and principal in denying access and preventing the soap-opera atmosphere the media sought.
Dunga, a square jawed, intense man with a fierce look, is built along the lines of an American football coach: a no-nonsense, authentic, hardworking, but a drill sergeant whose primary focus is to ingrain a collective, selfless mentality within the spirit of the team. His main fault may be that just like his team he is unwilling to turn himself into a darling of the media at the expense of what he believes is decent and integrous.
Barbosa, the infamous goalkeeper, once said, “In Brazil the maximum penalty for any crime is 30 years, and it has been almost 50 years since that fateful match and I am still carrying the blame and the sorrow from that defeat.”
Ricardo Guerra is an Exercise Physiologist and Strength and Conditioning Coach. He has a Masters of Science in Sports Physiology from the Liverpool John Moores University. He has worked with several clubs and teams in the Middle East and Europe, including the Egyptian and Qatari national teams. Contact him at: [email protected]
