Dunga's future as coach of Brazil is hanging in the balance after a crushing 3-0 defeat to Argentina in Tuesday's Olympic Games semifinal.

The feisty former World Cup captain arrived in Beijing under a cloud following a run of poor results with the senior team and will leave under an even darker one, whether or not his side beat Belgium in Friday's bronze medal match in Shanghai.

It was widely felt that Dunga could have been biting off more than he could chew when he volunteered to lead Brazil at the Olympics, an under-23 competition with three over-age players allowed per team.

Vanderlei Luxemburgo also took on both the senior and Olympic jobs eight years ago and was fired after a quarter-final defeat to Cameroon in Sydney.

Dunga's Argentine counterpart, Alfio Basile, decided not to come to Beijing and the job was handed to Sergio Batista, a midfielder in the 1986 World Cup winning team.

Dunga is likely to survive for the time being as Brazil faces two World Cup qualifiers in early September - away to Chile and at home to Bolivia - and there would not be time for a replacement to work with the team.

But defeat in Santiago could be curtains for a man who had no senior coaching experience when he was appointed following the 2006 World Cup.

More pressure

"The pressure is going to be much greater from now on," Muricy Ramalho, coach of Brazilian champions Sao Paulo, told local media.

"My opinion is that he should have just stayed with the senior team. But he preferred to have this experience."

Brazil enjoyed a long run of wins in friendlies in Dunga's early days, including a 3-0 demolition of Argentina in London.

The high point came last year when it won the Copa America in Venezuela, again beating Argentina 3-0 in the final. Since then, it has been all downhill.

A 2-0 friendly defeat by Venezuela, a team against whom Brazil had won all 17 previous meetings, was followed by a World Cup qualifying loss to Paraguay and a 0-0 draw at home to Argentina.

Dunga was lambasted for fielding an ultra-cautious team against Paraguay and the same criticism has been levelled at him following Tuesday's performance.

The coach said it just wasn't Brazil's night and added that Argentina forward Lionel Messi was unstoppable.

"You can't always score," he said. "If we could score in every game, it would be marvellous. There are days when you can mark Messi and days when you can't."

Agencies