Mano Menezes declared himself happy with Ronaldinho's performance after the former Barcelona star made his first appearance for Brazil in 10 months in Monday's 1-0 win over Ghana at Craven Cottage.
Ronaldinho failed to make Dunga's 23-man squad for the 2010 FIFA World Cup™ and had only played once since before the victory over the Africans in London.
Many had written off the 31-year-old's international career when he struggled to find form and keep his weight down during a poor spell at Italian giants AC Milan. The striker has found a new lease of life since moving to Flamengo, however, scoring 15 goals for the Brazilian club, leading to his recall under new international coach Menezes.
The former Barcelona man, who won the FIFA World Cup with Brazil in 2002, did not look back to his full best in the match, but he did show glimpses of his former self and would have scored had it not been for two excellent late saves from Adam Kwarasey.
Menezes had been accused of using Ronaldinho's recall as a cynical ploy to win over ailing support for him in Brazil, but he denies this and was happy to see the Flamengo star play well. "He (Ronaldinho) played very well and is a player we needed to bring back to the team," Menezes said.
"International football is much faster nowadays and he found it a bit difficult at the beginning. But then he got into the rhythm and showed what he is all about in the second half. He played really well and the goalkeeper made a wonderful save from him. We need to bring him back to the international team."
Menezes' position has come under scrutiny after he could only lead Brazil to the quarter-finals of the Copa America this summer. Coming after the Selecao's poor showing at last year's FIFA World Cup, the Brazilian public are growing restless at their team's failure to live up to former glories.
They would have received a much tougher test had it not been for Ghana's indiscipline, which saw them reduced to 10 men in the 34th minute with the sending off of Daniel Opare, and their play was patchy for large parts of the game.
The 49-year-old Brazil boss has pleaded for patience though and insisted the country should be happy with the win, despite it coming against 10 men. "I am satisfied with the result because we were playing a very good team," Menezes said.
"We didn't start very well but once we got into our rhythm we played very well, and could have scored more goals. We didn't concede any chances to our opponents and it's very important we could get back to winning games after having lost our last games.
"This Ghana team was more or less the same team that played in the World Cup. They are a bit ahead of us because we are still rebuilding our team. We are bringing through a new generation of players. What makes it difficult to judge is the fact that it wasn't 11 against 11. If it was 11 v 11, it would have been so much more close."
Stefan Stevanovic, who replaced Milovan Rajevac as Ghana coach in January, is content with the progress his team are making and was happy with their performance. I am very happy with the team. The first 35 minutes we played fantastic," he said.
"We showed once again that we are going in the right direction as a team. Against Brazil, playing 65 minutes with 10 players is very difficult. It was a very good performance and I am very proud of my team."
