The Brazilian Football Federation have confirmed Dunga has been dismissed following the country’s elimination from the FIFA World Cup™.

Dunga indicated he was likely leave his post after Brazil’s hopes of a sixth World Cup triumph were ended by the Netherlands in Port Elizabeth on Friday.

“Ending the cycle of work that began in August 2006, and ended with the elimination of Brazil from the World Cup in South Africa, the CBF announces that the technical committee of the national team has been released,” the statement on the CBF’s official website read. “The new technical committee will be announced later this month.”

Brazil let slip a 1-0 half-time lead to suffer a shock 2-1 loss to the Dutch. They had started the tournament well, wins over Korea DPR and Côte d’Ivoire and a draw with Portugal seeing them progress from the ‘Group of Death’ in first place.

They swept Chile aside 3-0 in the last 16 and looked to be cruising when they took a 1-0 lead over the Netherlands through Robinho. They missed several chances to extend their lead before a defensive mistake gifted Bert van Marwijk’s men an equaliser and Wesley Sneijder headed a winner.

Dunga, 46, took up the post following A Seleção’s elimination from the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany, signing a four-year deal.

After the defeat on Friday he said: “I have been contracted for four years and we knew this right from the start. During the last four years, I have been very happy to coach this Brazil team and if you were to look at our players’ faces now, you would probably understand how they feel.”

Leonardo has been linked with the job after leaving AC Milan at the end of last season.

Coach Dunga was quick to accept responsibility for Brazil’s FIFA World Cup™ exit at the hands of the Netherlands.

The South Americans looked to have one foot in the semi-finals when Robinho fired them into an early lead over the Dutch in a powerful first-half display in Port Elizabeth yesterday. However, their challenge unravelled spectacularly after the break when midfielder Felipe Melo scored an own goal and was then sent off to pave the way for Wesley Sneijder to book an early flight home for the Brazilians.

Dunga’s contract is due to expire after the FIFA World Cup and while neither he nor the Brazilian Football Confederation (CBF) have confirmed his exit, the writing appears to be on the wall for him. The coach admitted the responsibility for what will be perceived as failure for the five-times winners is collective, but that he must accept the lion’s share as the figurehead.

Dunga said: “Without a shadow of a doubt. I am the coach of the Brazil team and all the decisions I took were taken with the Brazil national team in mind. We are all responsible, but as coach, I have the greatest responsibility, obviously.

“Felipe Melo was sent off – it’s not the first time that has happened in a World Cup game and at the end of the day, we are all responsible for this situation. I am very proud to coach these players given the dignified manner in which they have always played for the Brazilian national team.”

Dunga received a vote of thanks from goalkeeper Julio Cesar during a sombre dinner at the team hotel in Port Elizabeth last night, and the Brazil party was due to fly to Johannesburg today to connect with an evening flight back to Rio de Janeiro.

Brazil arrived in South Africa as favourites, along with Spain, to leave with the Trophy, and although their progress to the quarter-finals was rarely spectacular, it was relatively comfortable.

For 45 minutes yesterday, it looked as though they might be ready to cut loose with front three Robinho, Kaka and Luis Fabiano tormenting the Dutch rearguard, who were repeatedly left chasing shadows. Robinho saw an eighth-minute strike ruled out for offside against Dani Alves during the build-up, but there was nothing wrong with his opening goal two minutes later after Melo skewered a pass through the heart of the Netherlands defence to set him up.

Had it not been for a superb one-handed save from Dutch goalkeeper Maarten Stekelenburg to deny Kaka 14 minutes before the break, it could have been Bert van Marwijk’s men, rather than the Brazilians, boarding a plane today. But from the moment Melo glanced Sneijder’s cross over his own goalkeeper, the Dutch were revitalised, and they got their reward with 22 minutes remaining when Dirk Kuyt flicked on Arjen Robben’s corner and Sneijder, for the first time in his career, headed the ball into the net.

Dunga said: “We weren’t able to maintain the same level of concentration in the second half as we had in the first half. We know a World Cup match is about 90 minutes and it is the detailed passages of play that are important. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to achieve our main objective, which was to be world champions.

“Our players looked at this World Cup as a great opportunity to do well, but what happens is that there’s a certain degree of nervousness and things don’t always go the way you expect.”

Coach Dunga is confident he has assembled a mature and skilful Brazilian squad ready for their first big challenge at the 2010 FIFA World Cup™ against the Netherlands.

Brazil cruised into the quarter-finals with a 3-0 win over Chile at Soccer City on Monday and now face the Dutch in Port Elizabeth on Friday. The Netherlands, two-time beaten finalists in 1974 and 1978, stretched their longest-ever unbeaten streak to 23 games with a 2-1 Round-of-16 victory over Slovakia in Durban on Monday.

The Brazilians, aiming for a record sixth world title, have beaten the Dutch twice in their two previous FIFA World Cup encounters. The Oranje fell 4-2 on penalties after drawing their 1998 semi-final 1-1 in France and lost 3-2 in the quarter-finals of the 1994 FIFA World Cup in the United States where Dunga went on to lift the trophy as captain.

There are huge expectations weighing on Brazil to win the world crown at Soccer City on 11 July, but Dunga is confident his team, unbeaten in four matches here, is coming along nicely ahead of the business end of the tournament. “Given the quality of the team, there is always the expectation, but you don’t win the World Cup by being favourites alone,” he said. “As we go along, the confidence is growing and we are hoping to reach the final.”

The Dutch, traditionally technically efficient, have been likened to a South American team by Dunga. “We have already said we are trying to play the open football which everyone wants to see. The players did well and we got forward a lot against Chile,” he said.

“We know the Netherlands are a very difficult team to beat and they are very able technically, they play their football like South Americans. Even though Brazil has beaten the Dutch twice before, every World Cup provides its own experience. Holland have a good tradition at the World Cup, we have to be very careful with the Dutch players, they are very technically able and we have to be able to deal with that.”

But Dunga, who has been under intense pressure and unrelenting scrutiny as coach from a sceptical media and public over his pragmatic tactics, is confident the system he has in place will bring results. “The quality of our players allows me to be calm with what has been built up over the last three years, all I have to do is communicate with them in the game,” he said. “The Brazilian team are a mature outfit and they carry out exactly what I say.

“We have a group of players who have a great range of skills and we allow them to perform at their peak. I have said the players have the liberty to play, I try to give them advice to guide them so when we know the midfield is closed we attack down the flanks. We are fortunate to have players who can interchange quickly. When the Chileans packed the midfield, Kaka moved more down the flanks as did Robinho.”

Robinho, Budweiser Man of the Match with his first goal of the tournament and a key part in the lead up to striker Luis Fabiano’s effort, believes A Selecao are on the right track. “Now we’ve got another decisive match ahead. There’s always room for improvement, but I think we’re on the right track and we’re achieving our objectives,” he said.

Luis Fabiano, who scored his third goal of the tournament, was delighted with Brazil’s performance against Chile. “I think that A Selecao made a real breakthrough. We created several moves and were able to launch our counter-attacks,” he said. “We’ve come through another difficult game and we’re getting there, step by step. We’ve picked up a very important victory, which is going to really boost our confidence.”

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.”

Dunga is confident goalkeeper Julio Cesar will be fit in time for Brazil’s 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa opener with Korea DPR.

The Inter Milan goalkeeper picked up a lumbar strain during last Wednesday’s warm-up triumph over Zimbabwe in Harare.

He missed yesterday’s friendly against Tanzania in Dar-es-Salaam in order to continue treatment for his injury, but is set to return on Monday.

“Julio Cesar will recover for our first game,” said Dunga. “He is undergoing treatment and he is expected to train with the team this week.”

Brazil line up alongside Portugal and Côte d’Ivoire in Group G.