LONDON — So, the Brazil of Carlos Dunga has turned out to be no better than the Brazil of Felipe Scolari a year ago.
Both teams built up impressive but ultimately deceptive winning percentages playing promotional games around Europe and the Middle East, only to be exposed badly in major competitions back in South America.
It is almost 12 months since Brazil, coached by Scolari, was humiliated 7-1 by Germany on home soil during the 2014 World Cup. The inevitable ensued: Dunga replaced Scolari as head coach, and the team was substantially rebuilt. But its elimination from the Copa América at the hands of Paraguay was in its own way no less an embarrassment.