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might find themselves up against a striker with a point to prove when they take on in the on Wednesday.

Grafite almost certainly woke up last Thursday morning hoping that it would be his day. was about to name Brazil's squad for the final two rounds of World Cup qualification, away to Bolivia and at home to Venezuela, and with a place in South Africa already booked, there were likely to be some experiments.

Grafite's club performances had been pushing his claims for an international call-up.
Last season he could not stop scoring for Wolfsburg and he began this season's Champions League campaign with a hat-trick against CSKA.

For years considered a journeyman striker in Brazil, the 30-year-old had now lifted himself to a different level - but not, as it turned out, into the national team.

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Regulators can try to push the world in a certain direction. But there is never a guarantee that forces in society will embrace the spirit as well as the letter of rule changes.

A case in point could be The original intention is presumably to ensure opportunities for local talent. A quota of eight squad players will need to have been developed by the club for three years between the ages of 16 and 21. But since no mention is or can be made to nationality, the dangers of an own goal are clear.

The change gives a powerful incentive to a process that the big English clubs have already embraced - that of global cradle snatching, players brought across to Europe before they have even debuted professionally in South America or Africa.

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Dunga and - two World Cup winners as players, who are going through contrasting fortunes as novice coaches.

has steered Brazil through to World Cup qualification with matches in hand, and has picked up the and the along the way. Maradona, meanwhile, is sitting in the hot seat with his Argentina in danger of missing out on the World Cup for the first time since 1970.

So why has one of them taken so easily to coaching and the other is floundering?

Of course, in one important sense this is an absurd comparison. Dunga has had far more time to get his feet under the table. Maradona took over with Argentina already in trouble in their 2010 qualification bid. As I pointed out in last week's blog, his predecessor Alfio Basile resigned after a run of one win in seven games, with fixtures easier than those Maradona has had to face.

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As the Argentina squad drove sadly away from the stadium in Rosario on Saturday night there were no protests from the supporters who were still milling around. there was applause and shouts of encouragement.

So much for the team bus, but what about the coach? Argentina's struggle to qualify for next year's World Cup will inevitably be personalised. It is not just Argentina who are stumbling, it is "Diego Maradona's Argentina". How much responsibility should the little man bear for his team's current plight?

I commented here that Argentina's qualification was by no means assured. The team was already in trouble after predecessor Alfio Basile's reign ended with a run of one win in seven matches despite fixtures easier than those Maradona has had to face. So the situation he inherited was far from comfortable.

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