Brasília, Oct 13 (IANS) Brazil coach Dunga has called on his team to rediscover their enjoyment for football as they seek their first victory of South America’s 2018 World Cup qualifiers.
“Against Chile we did some things well and other things not so well,” Xinhua news agency quoted Dunga as saying on Monday. “Brazil needs to smile. We need to play with enjoyment.”
The Selecao will meet Venezuela at Fortaleza’s Castelao Arena on Tuesday, five days after their 0-2 loss to Chile in Santiago.
Dunga played down criticism of the team’s performance against Chile, their first competitive outing since losing to Paraguay on penalties in the Copa America quarterfinals in June.
“Everybody has their own opinion and we respect that,” Dunga said. “There will be people doubting us until we win. We have to learn to live with the criticism, but we are doing all we can to win.”
Venezuela also started their qualifying campaign with a loss, stumbling 0-1 at home to Paraguay.
The last time Brazil and Venezuela met was in the Copa America group stage, when Dunga’s team secured an unconvincing 2-1 victory.
Brazil will be without defender David Luiz, who suffered a knee injury against Chile, and captain Neymar, who is serving the last match of a four-game ban.