Real name Carlos Caetano Bledorn Verri, Dunga often seems as if he would be more at home with a dour European team rather than the flamboyant five-times champions, who many neutrals look to for World Cup inspiration.
Dunga, who snarled his way through three World Cups as a hard-tackling midfielder, has won the Copa America and Confederations Cup in his three-and-a-half years as coach but many feel he has taken the fun out of Brazil.
He has famously labelled Brazil's 1982 team, who played some of the best attacking football ever seen at a World Cup but failed to win the trophy, as "specialists in losing".
"It's all about efficiency," he said. "Everyone has to be efficient, in attack and defence. Without that you don't get anywhere."
Dunga has never had much time for the concept of the "Jogo Bonito" (Beautiful Game), as Brazilian football is often called, and has turned them into a team who play on the counter-attack and score a large percentage of goals from set pieces.
"Everyone has his taste and is entitled to express how he wants the team to play. I like to win," he said.
When Brazil went down to a second-round defeat at the 1990 World Cup, he was made the scapegoat and the failure was baptised "The Dunga Era."
But he was not to be beaten, fought his way back into the side and captained the team which won Brazil's fourth World Cup title four years later -- ending a 24-year wait.
He blamed delays in the customs at Bogota airport for a goalless World Cup qualifying draw in Colombia and, after seeing his team win 4-0 in Venezuela, complained that "nothing works in this country".
