Coach Dorival Júnior made an assessment of Brazil’s participation in the Copa América and evaluated that there were more positive than negative aspects. He gave an interview after the team’s elimination from the competition – defeated on penalties by Uruguay after a 0-0 draw in Las Vegas on Saturday night (6).
“It is natural that many things happened in the competition, we did not play at a very high technical level, but I do not discard any of the matches. There was dedication, fighting spirit, the team never stopped going after the result. They were always brave, we had much more positive things than negative in this process,” he said.
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About the match against Uruguay, he highlighted the strong opposition marking and the strength of the two teams’ defenses.
“Uruguay knew how to mark, we opened up, we had two dribbling men on the sides, we tried with movements, infiltrations, passing exchanges. In terms of creation, it was not a great day. The two defenses prevailed over the attacks.”
Dorival spoke about his expectations for the future of the National Team. In September, there are two commitments for the team in the 2026 World Cup Qualifiers: against Ecuador at home and Paraguay in Asunción.
“It is a laborious work, of patience. All this feeling that we are having, looking, observing, will be important. Aligning all this, sitting down with the CBF, talking about everything that has happened. We have everything to evolve, grow, improve much beyond what was presented,” declared the coach.
“We made a major restructuring of the team, we have to understand that for many it is the first time. We are aware of the difficulties we will encounter. The first thing is to seek qualification for the World Cup, we are in sixth place (in the Qualifiers), this bothers us and makes us fight for another position on the table soon,” he added.
Despite the elimination, Brazil left the Copa América undefeated, with one win and three draws. Dorival himself maintains his unbeaten record at the helm of the National Team: in eight games, he obtained three wins and five draws.
