Winds of change in Brazil

I'm lucky enough to have been present at all five World Cup qualifiers between Brazil and Argentina. They are special occasions, the kind that make you want to linger round the stadium for hours after the final whistle - even if they prove as tame as the mid-week 0-0 draw in Belo Horizonte.

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There is still much to relect on and analyse.

Perhaps there was too much at stake; both teams had come off bad results the previous weekend and the need to preserve pride tipped the balance towards caution.

And there's also the recent history of the great South American derby. Argentina have come out to play, only to be taken apart on the break. Coach Alfio Basile was determined it was not going to happen this time.

His masterstroke was the introduction of Jonas Gutierrez on the left flank. Strong and rangy, he shut the gate through which Brazil poured to win last year's Copa America, when they identified the lack of pace of left back Gabriel Heinze as Argentina's weak point.

Gutierrez worked up and down the whole flank, allowing Heinze to push inside and give defensive cover - much needed because Argentina were rightly terrified of Brazil's strikers getting a run at their centre backs.

Javier Mascherano carried out his customary highly efficient role in front of the defence, Javier Zanetti played a conservative role at right back and Fernando Gago, initially at least, was reluctant to push forward and link with the attack.

The result was that Argentina weaved their trademark midfield patterns but without the force of numbers to give them consistent penetration.

They would surely have done better, though, to retain Sergio Aguero up front with Lionel Messi. Instead in came target man Julio Cruz, and as a consequence Argentina were unable to lengthen the game, to slip the ball behind Brazil's centre backs.

In the 25 minutes after Aguero came on Argentina played some of their most convincing football. Indeed, at the end of the match the Brazilian crowd were applauding Argentina and chanting for Messi - much to the irritation of the home players, which was precisely the point of the crowd's behaviour.

It is not unusual for the crowd to turn against the team when Brazil play at home. The public is very different from the week-in week out supporters of the club game. When Brazil play, they go in expecatation of a party, and are disappointed when their hopes are noit realised.

A football match, after all, has one key difference from a party. Parties don't have an opposition.

And so they take out their frustration on their own side - or more usually, on the coach. The last 20 minutes of the match were an anti-Dunga demonstration.

It is hard not to feel sorry for Brazil's novice coach. His team have now gone three games without a goal. Brazil have problems, but they go much deeper than Dunga.

Rather, the model that Brazil have used over the last 15 years is showing its age and in need of a rethink. The full-backs fly forward and the central midfielders protect - but over time the central midfielders have forgotten that as well as covering the bursts of the full-backs, they must also serve as their supply line.

I spent last week watching Brazil train in the hills outside Rio. One training exercise caught my eye.

The players were clustered on the edge of the penalty area and the ball was played out alternately to the flanks, where the full-backs would send in quick running crosses, curled behind the defensive line, while the others, two at a time, took turns to attack the ball.

But the striking thing about this situation - so fundamental to Brazil's attacking play - is that it is not ocurring in games.

The full-backs are not finding themselves in positions to whip in a cross. The central midfielders seem incapable of freeing them with quick passes to the flanks - or of working midfield triangles, sucking in the opposition and then switching play to the other side of the field.

The ball is not coming out of defence quickly enough, said Robinho at half time in the recent defeat to Paraguay. No crosses came in, we never got to the bye-line, said Adriano after the Argentina game.

Is it any wonder, if the man in position to dictate the play, to give the vital forward pass, is frequently Gilberto Silva? That a converted centre back with such passing limitations can be a fixture in the national team's midfield is a damning indictment of contemporary Brazilian football.

Thankfully there is cause for optimism, and in an extraordinary turn of events, it comes with a European influence.

Many Brazilian coaches were struck by the performances of Andrea Pirlo for Italy in the last World Cup, playing the first ball forward with consistent quality.

Hernanes of Sao Paulo is a two-footed passing midfielder who acknowledges his debt to Pirlo, and is an interesting prospect.

Then there is the case of Anderson, who left Brazil as an attacking midfielder who worked the flanks and has been transformed at Manchester United into a central midfielder who has added defensive discipline to his undoubted quality. It is a development that has amazed coaches on this side of the Atlantic - but now Brazil stand by to reap the benefits.

Both these players are likely to be in Brazil's Olympic team later this year.

The Beijing Games are a heaven sent opportunity for Brazil to regroup, for Dunga to work with his players towards a midfield that plays with more fluidity and imagination - to swap the boos of Belo Horizonte for the applause of a world desperate to believe in the magic of the Brazilian national team.

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