Brazil coach Carlos Dunga is under pressure after Argentina put paid to Brazilian hopes of claiming their first Olympic football gold medal.

Team sources told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa that Tuesday's 3-0 semi-final loss to the South American arch-rival increased criticism of the coach, who took over in July 2006 from Carlos Alberto Parreira after a disappointing World Cup in Germany.

National team captain when Brazil won the fourth of its five World Cups in 1994, Dunga managed to remain popular until late 2007, based on some good results in friendly games and victory in the 2007 Copa America final against Argentina.

However, things started to turn sour earlier this year when Dunga's men suffered an unprecedented 2-0 defeat to lowly Venezuela in a friendly and then another 2-0 loss against Paraguay in the South American qualifiers for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.

The global football giant is now fifth in the qualifiers: if the round of games were to end now it would not be guaranteed a World Cup berth but would face a play-off with a team CONCACAF zone team from North or Central America or the Caribbean.

In this context, the thrashing at the hands of Argentina put Dunga on the line, and not just in the eyes of the fans. Media reports say that even Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has expressed annoyance at the squad's performance.

"The president said that not even at the worst times of (his favourite club) Corinthians did he feel so much rage as today," legislator Jovair Arantes was quoted as saying.

Sources at the Brazilian delegation in Beijing confirmed that Dunga is "under great pressure".

"Even from the Planalto (presidential palace,)" the sources admitted.

The controversy surrounding Dunga came up again on Thursday when Brazilian football legend Pele held a press conference in Beijing in a campaign to promote Rio de Janeiro's candidacy to host the 2016 Olympics.

Pele said Dunga should not be made a scapegoat. However, he also indirectly criticized the coach, by saying that Brazil was not well- prepared for the Olympics and that Argentina won the semi-final because it was "more intelligent."

"(Argentina) made the team with several players who were already used to playing together, while we did not even know who was in the starting line-up in the end," he said.

Dunga did not talk to reporters after the press conference that followed the game against Argentina, but may speak Friday in Shanghai after the match for bronze against Belgium.

The list of Brazilian players called for national team duty to play Chile and Bolivia in the World Cup qualifiers is set to be made public on Friday.

Experts stress that those two games will be crucial to deciding Dunga's future at the helm of the "seleçao."