Brazil coach Dunga is expecting a real "championship match" when his side tussle with Chile in their South American derby at the FIFA World Cup tonight. The Selecao have enjoyed plenty of success against their opponents over the years with their 65 meetings yielding 46 wins for the five-time world champions, while their rivals have come out on top just seven times.
With the latest winning sequence dating back nearly 10 years, Dunga believes there is plenty of motivation for their opponents to try to change the record. "I think that the motivation of any sportsman is to actually try to breach a pattern," he said. "We cannot spend our time comparing ourselves with our opponents. We have to try and improve as much as possible and that is exactly what Chile will do."
The Brazil boss is not expecting any motivation issues for his players. He continued: "My players always know that it's the next game that is the most important one. For now our next game is going to be against Chile, so we will prepare as we do against any other team. In the knockout stages it's all or nothing. Every game can be counted as a championship game.
"Chile has been improving a lot with coach (Marcelo) Bielsa. Since he's taken over, it's a competitive team. It's a team that really fights until the very end and is able to get the best out of its players. So they are a difficult opponent and what's happened in the past is finished."
Dunga also felt that five teams from South America in the last 16 showed that football on the continent was in a healthy state. He added: "There are five South American teams playing in the round of 16. Uruguay are already in the quarter-finals which leads us to believe that South American football is extremely competitive and has great players."
Opposite number Bielsa felt there was no point for his side to sit back at Ellis Park, saying they would rather go out attacking against a team they have recently struggled against. "Our match tomorrow is an all or nothing match and we will do our very best to ensure the game is played in a manner that is convenient for us," he said. "We hope we can win. I think the psychological aspect is always very important in a competition. It's more of a factor of motivation for us in my point of view. We have the chance to reverse a historical negative trend for Chile."
Asked whether he was worried about the threat posed by Kaka, he added: "Of course, we have to be extremely careful with him. All the players in Brazil are very good and Kaka is an emblem for them. So no team playing against Brazil can ignore him, but I stress, Kaka has extremely talented team-mates playing with him."
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