Confederations Cup
Dunga heaps praise on players
2009-06-29 11:56
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Johannesburg - Brazilian coach Carlos Dunga praised his players as being totally committed after the Selecao came from behind on Sunday to beat the United States 3-2 to win a second consecutive Confederations Cup final.
"We have a very committed team consisting of players that are of a high quality. They are very capable professionals, who are totally committed to the Brazilian national squad.
"I believe in these players, some people didn't appreciate the type of training that we undertook, but I always believed in the players."
Clint Dempsey gave the Americans a 10th minute lead and Landon Donovan added a second in the 27th minute from a counter attack. Luis Fabiano pulled one back a minute after the restart and leveled matters in the 74th minute.
Brazilian captain Lucio headed home the winner six minutes from the end after a corner from substitute Elano.
The 45-year-old Dunga, who is the first person to win the Confederations Cup both as a player and coach, said that he had tried to give his players time to recover and recuperate.
"I think this showed in the game against the US. All our players were still very fit towards the end of the tournament and to come back from two goals down if very difficult."
He said that he had told his players at half time that they could still win the match.
"The most simple thing I said was that there was something missing. There was a lack of good positioning of our players and we corrected that.
"I brought on two faster players in Daniel Alves and Elano. Elano is a very tactical player. I brought them on because we wanted to make use of the fast wings."
Dunga singled out his captain Lucio for special praise. "He is one of the best players of the world, he has shown that in Germany."
The coach said that the final had shown that the criticism leveled by German footballing legend Franz Beckenbauer, who said that Brazil did not have good enough strikers to win the World Cup, did not hold.
"The Germans say we don't score goals. We scored three in the final. A team that scored 14 goals cannot have a weak attack.
"I think that Luis Fabiano scores goals but some people say I don't like him. He is always scoring goals. What can you expect from a centre forward. He has to score goals. I am extremely happy with him. This guy is actually very hungry to score goals."