PARIS, France (AFP) — Brazil coach Dunga has promised that his team will not lose “the essence of Brazilian football” as they look to put last year’s World Cup disaster firmly behind them.

“We want to build a modern, compact, aggressive team but without losing the essence of Brazilian football — the dribble and the creativity,” said the former Brazil captain in Paris ahead of today’s friendly match against France.

A gritty midfielder in his playing days, Dunga — who captained Brazil to the 1994 World Cup trophy — hardly embodied everything that one associates with the beauty of Brazilian football, but it is he who has been charged with building towards this year’s Copa America and the 2018 World Cup in Russia.

“We are at the end of our season and then we have the Copa America, for which we need to be ready,” said Dunga, who returned for a second spell in charge to replace Luiz Felipe Scolari last year having been sacked after the 2010 World Cup finals when they bowed out in the quarter-finals.

When asked about the prospect of building towards the 2018 World Cup and recovering from the scars of the 7-1 loss to Germany in last year’s semi-final in Belo Horizonte, Dunga added: “We need to learn from what happened. There needs to be constructive criticism, and things done differently.

“The more eyes and heads we have looking at it and thinking about it, the better it will be. We need to think and act like winners and achieve our objectives. On paper, everything is going well, but it’s on the pitch that we need to be good.”

Dunga’s starting line-up today could feature five or six players who were not at the World Cup, including Hoffenheim forward Roberto Firmino.

It will be a special occasion for Dunga himself, as he returns to the scene of Brazil’s 1998 World Cup final defeat to France.

“Winning and losing is part of football. It was Brazil’s second straight World Cup final. That final is still fresh in the memory — the full stadium, the occasion, the adrenaline of the match,” he said, recalling a game in which he skippered the losing team.

“We played against a great team. When you lose, we often talk about our mistakes, and that happens, but France had a great side.

“They were at home, with great players and for the first time most of these players played abroad and gained a lot of experience there. It is very difficult to become a world champion.”