Brazil in a Messi - their fans are even cheering for Argentina now

'Adeus Dunga' leaves little to the imagination, especially when the lead singers are inside a sprawling concrete bowl in Belo Horizonte and the backing vocals are provided by 114million Brazilians screaming at their television sets.

Brazilian hero: Lionel Messi

Seems like they want you out, old son. Maybe fourth place in their World Cup qualifying group, behind Paraguay, Argentina and Colombia, is the new first.

Not for a country that has won the World Cup a record five times and demands football of a certain flavour it isn't.

Fans can still taste the triumphs of 1958, 1962, 1970, 1994 and 2002. They spat this World Cup qualifier out, though.

Brazil coach Dunga picked his spot on Wednesday night, selecting the 60,000-seater stadium high up in the hills of Belo Horizonte because they always see off Argentina when they play here. This was the exception, then.

When Argentina are in town, they don't need a team talk. Or at least they shouldn't need one. Supporters take their seats three hours before kick-off, soak up the steamy atmosphere and sing along with the warm-up act who are on a stage behind the goal.

This is something else. It is the game where you pull in favours to get a ticket; remind friends it is payback time for when you helped them move house or you sell the wife straight down the Amazon.

Tickets exchange hands in hotel foyers for £200 a time - a month's wages to some Brazilians - and the expectation exceeds anything else. Liverpool-Everton? Kids stuff by comparison. Rangers-Celtic? Child's play. Arsenal-Tottenham?Oh, come on.

Feel the noise. Feel the passion. For that, Dunga gets to feel the heat of a nation which craves creativity as much as the World Cup.

Sport TV begin their build-up five hours before kick-off and their touchline reporter interviews players as they walk off the pitch at half-time, when there is a break for an injury and again at full time.

Geoff Shreeves, eat your heart out. A carnival? You must be kidding. The two countries stand still for this one, colliding at 10pm local time, kicking lumps out of each other and careering towards a desperate 0-0 draw.

Brazil are in trouble. Big Trouble. There, it has been said.

Someone had to, 50 years on from Pele's first appearance at the World Cup finals. There is nothing wrong with the national league, where Flamengo v Sao Paulo in Brazil's Serie A last weekend served up some of the best football you will ever see.

It is just the national team that is the problem.

Forget the five gold stars that are slapped across anything that happens to be yellow and consider a team in terminal decline under Dunga.

They lost in Paraguay last weekend, a performance that was narrowly worse than this and there was no improvement against Argentina.

'Burro! Burro!' (donkey!) they chanted when Dunga replaced Adriano with Luis Fabiano, but it was hard to tell who they were aiming at. One, two or quite possibly all three of them.

In the stands was a solution. Jose Mourinho, the new coach of Inter Milan, flew in on the day of the game to check on Adriano's physical condition. Clearly the widescreen back on Lake Como does not do him justice. You could rest a tray of Caipirinhas on that boy's backside at the moment and he would not spill a single drop.

This was supposed to be The Greatest Show on Earth and yet Brazilian supporters applauded Argentina's Lionel Messi off the pitch, chanting his surname and pointing towards him in admiration as he trooped towards the touchline when the Barcelona forward was substituted in the final minute.

At least they recognise genuine class, something that this current Brazil side is severely lacking.

The searchlights on the stadium roof gave up on the pitch the moment the game began and set their sights on the night sky instead.

Perhaps they missed Ronaldinho, sitting high up in the stands after flying in from his hometown of Porto Alegre to watch the team he inspired to become world champions in 2002 grind out this draw.

How they could do with his creative talents on the pitch, but it may be a long time before we ever see Ronaldinho pull on the Brazil shirt again.

They are also without Kaka, recovering from knee surgery, but since when have Brazil ever been a one-man team? When he returns to fitness, it will be down to him to revive the country's fortunes over the remaining 12 qualifying games and maintain their record of qualifying for every World Cup.

Could the 2010 World Cup take place without Brazil? It could. Can it be allowed to happen? Surely not.