It’s lucky Dorival Junior has a reputation as a managerial firefighter, because he walked into a towering inferno when he took the Brazil job in January. He became their third coach since the 2022 World Cup little more than a year earlier — and the third one who wasn’t Carlo Ancelotti, the man the Brazilian federation had been expecting to lead the team at this Copa America and beyond.
On the pitch, performances had been poor, and results even worse: Brazil lost three of their first six World Cup qualifiers, leaving them sixth in the 10-team South American group, below Venezuela and also Ecuador, who started the campaign on minus three points. Dorival inherited a team low on confidence and devoid of direction, lurching along in the dark.
It would be an exaggeration to say that all is now wine and roses, but the outlook has certainly shifted since that low ebb.
The genial, paternalistic 62-year-old has been a breath of fresh air, uniting the squad and restoring an intangible sense of calm around the setup. It does not hurt that he is widely liked by journalists, many of whom have grown to know him well across his two decades in Brazilian club football.
Tactically, he is flexible rather than didactic. “I never arrive with a pre-conceived system,” Dorival explained at his first press conference. “I prefer to work out what I have at my disposal and then decide on tactics.”