Brazil won the Copa America sans Ronaldinho and Kaka who asked to be rested during the tournament. Dunga who has been widely criticized for his capacity to bring Brazil back to glory has a lot of thanks to his team which gave him his first title in only 11 months with them. Brazil won convincingly against Argentina with a score of 3 – 0 with Julio Baptista and Daniel Alves filling in on the scoring chart.

Dunga is clear that even Ronaldinho and Kaka would have to fight for their place in the national team in future selections which lead to FIFA World Cup 2010. In his comments:

We came here to rescue the self-esteem of the Brazilian supporter, the worker leaves home early in the morning and comes back at late night and whose only satisfaction is when Brazil wins. They are winners, they come from families who financially are not so well off, nobody has given them anything, they’ve worked hard for this and so they deserve it. Obviously, the player who comes is ahead of the player who doesn’t. Players are picked on merit and their capabilities. If a player comes and he does well, how can I take him out of the team?

It is fair to the entire Brazil squad who played in Copa America that Kaka and Ronaldinho would still have to fight their way into the team roster. The winners of Copa America should be given credit especially when they were not expected to win against the well-oiled Argentinean side.

Do Kaka and Ronaldinho have to fight their way?

Dunga is obviously diplomatic and sensitive to his team. He is just being fair; but nonetheless, both Ronaldinho and Kaka would just need to say their intent of playing for the national squad and show up in team practice to be included in the final roster. Sure enough, they would undergo practice and all the routinary selection stuff; but these are all just going through the motions. Brazil nation would not allow Dunga to exclude any of these two stars. Both Ronaldinho and Kaka want to rest and they wouldn’t care less about being cut from the national squad even if Brazil won Copa America without them.