Brazil v Ivory Coast - Dunga slams injury "fantasies" - 7M sport

Brazil v Ivory Coast - Dunga slams injury "fantasies"



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Posted Sunday, June 20, 2010 by PA

Brazil coach Dunga was furious with journalists from his country spreading "fantasies" about players in his team being injured.

The five-time world champions take on the Ivory Coast at Soccer City on Sunday night looking to make it two wins from two in Group G but, as on the night before his team took on North Korea, Dunga again lashed out at the press, this time for taking unauthorised photographs during a closed section of a training session.

He was angry at reports that Gilberto Silva and Julio Cesar were injured, something he and team doctor Jose Luiz Runco denied.

He said: "I am not here to put out your fires. This morning Julio Cesar was injured, this afternoon Julio Cesar, you said, was the best player. We have had a closed session and somebody has taken a photograph and someone has said that Gilberto is not there.

"The journalist who wrote that has to give his reasons to the Brazilian fans. The press creates certain fantasies and causes panic. They should apologise to Brazilian fans."

Dunga is expecting a more open game against the African side than they experienced against North Korea, who did a good job of stifling Brazil for 55 minutes before conceding a goal.

He said: "It's going to be a totally different game, we expect that the two teams are going to attack but what we've seen so far is that all teams defend well. It is difficult to define how the game will go. I think it will be more open but I don't think there will be many opportunities created."

Dunga would not confirm whether the team he put out on Tuesday - incidentally numbered one to 11 - would start again, and though he expects Kaka to again play a part he is not sure whether he will be able to last 90 minutes after an injury-disrupted season at Real Madrid.

He said: "Kaka, as everybody knows, hasn't played for some time and we have had a special plan for his recovery. It was foreseeable that he wasn't going to play the full 90 minutes against North Korea because of the speed of the game. I am happy Kaka played as well as he did, we believe he is going to evolve and that the rhythm of his play will get better. We are going to have to establish whether he can play the full 90 minutes."

Dunga sees the Ivory Coast as a good all-round side, and in Sven-Goran Eriksson - a former coach of his during a spell at Italian side Fiorentina - he believes they have an expert tactician at the helm.

"I think the Ivory Coast have a good balance between offensive and defensive players. Everyone talks about Didier Drogba and you cannot ignore his quality but we can't only neutralise one player, we need to concentrate on the Ivory Coast as a whole," he said.

"Eriksson was my trainer in Fiorentina a long time ago. He is a very well-prepared trainer who has coached in the UK and Mexico and a lot of other places. I don't know exactly what he's going to do tactically tomorrow but I have no doubt they will be well organised and play good football."

Sven-Goran Eriksson is hopeful that Ivory Coast superstar Didier Drogba can be unleashed and does not anticipate his much-discussed protective cast to cause any problems.

Drogba came on as a substitute in the opening Group G match against Portugal after FIFA and a delegation from the Portuguese federation approved the cast he has on his arm to protect a fracture suffered in a World Cup warm-up match.

Eriksson would not confirm that the Chelsea star would start, but sounded optimistic and did not anticipate any more problems with the cast.

Portugal coach Carlos Queiroz questioned the decision to permit it after the match and Brazil team doctor Jose Luiz Runco wanted assurances that there were no "metallic elements" to it.

The Swede said: "We are not sure yet but we will speak to him. He might be ready.

"(The cast) was an issue after the game which I did not understand. FIFA have looked at it, the referee looked at it and decided it's not a problem. It's not dangerous so I expect the same thing will be done. I am very confident that will not be a problem."



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