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Face to face

Brazil coach Dunga has told Ronaldinho to speak to him face to face if he is unhappy playing for his country.

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That is how Dunga wants to talk to Ronaldinho about his unhappiness

LONDON: Brazil coach Dunga has told Ronaldinho to speak to him face to face if he is unhappy playing for his country.

Reports in England on Sunday suggested Ronaldinho had considered retiring from international football last month before being talked out of it by friends. Ronaldinho missed Brazil’s 2-0 friendly defeat — Dunga’s first defeat in his seven matches in charge — against Portugal in London on Tuesday with a calf injury and he is believed to be exhausted after nearly three years of non-stop action for club and country.

But Dunga — Brazil’s World Cup winning captain in 1994 — insisted he had no reason to think the Barcelona midfielder wanted to quit and would not worry about it until he had spoken to him. 

“It means a lot to speak face to face,” Dunga said. “I have to speak directly to him. He hasn’t been a problem to us. All of the problems I have with my players I speak directly to them. I am never going to work via the press. That is not the way I work.”

Late goals from Simao and Ricardo Carvalho condemned Brazil to defeat at Arsenal’s Emirates Stadium, but Dunga insisted the absence of Ronaldinho and Real Madrid winger Robinho was not the reason for the loss. He said: “If we have a competition without Ronaldinho and Robinho, we have to be ready to play. we have lost and won with them before, we can’t say it is down to that.”

“I thought we would win but this is a test period. We have to give an opportunity for everyone to play. When you lose it is always hard. Even losing to my son is not pleasant but we have to learn from it. Tomorrow we can cool down and it shows there is a lot for all of us to do. Some things had already showed up in other matches but when you lose it becomes more evident.

Little by little you notice what you have to correct. It is a characteristic of Brazilian football that you have to be patient and get the ball to the wingers. We have to develop this in practice.” 

Portugal’s Brazilian coach Luiz Felipe Scolari revealed he made Manchester United winger Cristiano Ronaldo captain after a request from the Portuguese Football Federation’s vice president Carlos Silva, who died on Saturday. He said: “It was a request from Carlos Silva on Saturday.”

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