The work of Dorival Júnior came to an end at the head of the Brazilian team. The coach did not resist the 4-1 arranging defeat to Argentina and was resigned at a meeting at the headquarters of the Brazilian Football Confederation (CBF) on Friday. It ends its passage through the selection with 58%. There were seven wins, seven draws and two losses, with 25 goals scored and 17 conceded.
Dorival leaves Brazil in the fourth position of the 2026 World Cup, with 21 points, ten behind the Argentine leader, and seven ahead of the seventh place Venezuela, who would take the recap today. Under the coach’s command, Brazil fell on penalties to Uruguay in the quarterfinals of the Copa America 2024.
Read more: Dorival Júnior is fired from the command of the Brazilian team
Dorival was announced as coach of the Brazilian team on January 10, 2024, months after taking São Paulo to the unprecedented achievement of the Brazilian Cup, a title that also earned the previous year with Flamengo, with Libertadores. He was chosen by Ednaldo Rodrigues shortly after the manager was reappointed by the Federal Supreme Court (STF), at the time of imbroglio at the entity. Earlier, Fernando Diniz had assumed as a coach in an interim way while the national team awaited the arrival of Carlo Ancelotti, which did not happen.
Dorival Junior’s work with Brazil was encouraging. The national team won a friendly against England 1-0 in Wembley and then drew 3-3 with Spain in Madrid. Making two rivals of the first shelf in world football gave the hope of better days to the Brazilian fan. However, the coach fell in contradictions and failed to give a standard for the national combination, making the team worse with each presentation.
One of Dorival’s first misconceptions was not having found an ideal replacement for Neymar and blindly waiting for the athlete’s return. Shirt 10 was more than a year old because of serious knee injury and did not work with the coach in the national team. The coach had the player in the last two calls, but two new injuries took the action ace.
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During this period, Dorival was unable to make Real Madrid Vini Jr. and Rodrygo and Barcelona’s Raphinha, to squander the same talent on their respective clubs. The Brazilian team was not referenced and became a “common” team.
Dorival also demonstrated inconsistency in certain situations, such as Endrick’s case. The young man was responsible for giving the victory over England and securing the draw with Spain, but was no longer summoned for the lack of minutes on the field at Real Madrid. However, the coach placed the striker on the field at the break of the defeat to Argentina, when Brazil already lost 3-1, and the prodigy had only been called to supply Neymar’s cut.
The situation involving Endrick also meets the lack of conviction in the search for the ideal shirt 9. Dorival would like to count on Pedro, but Flamengo’s center forward, as well as Neymar, was also affected by serious injury. The coach even test Igor Jesus, from Botafogo, who corresponded with goal and assistance in the duels with Chile and Peru, but was out of the last list-similar situation happened with Andreas Pereira (Fulham-Ag) and Luiz Henrique (Zenit-Rus).
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Dorival’s solution was to play in a scheme with a false 9, testing Ponta João Pedro (Brighton-Ag) and Matheus Cunha (Wolverhampton-Ag) playing inside, but without results. The presence of team athletes from the second level of English football in the national team was even criticized by fans. It is noteworthy that the Argentine world champion, for example, also has midsize European team athletes, and does not have a football below critics such as Brazil.
From a tactical point of view, Dorival’s work also showed no consistency. Different formations were tested for the ideal model, from a midfield with three steering wheels to a scheme with four strikers. The selection got results more supported by the technical quality of players than in a well -defined game style.
