NOT all eyes were on the marvellous Dunga at the Hong Kong Stadium last week - the pitch on which the former captain of Brazil was playing came in for the closest of scrutiny.
The ghosts of Wembley International may be hovering over the Hong Kong Stadium but the curse of the pitch has been, for the moment at least, laid to rest.
The disgraceful condition of the playing surface brought ridicule to Hong Kong and the sack for Wembley International. Despite a considerable amount of work and the outlay of millions, the pitch never seemed to significantly improve in the past two years and, towards the end of last season, was suitable only for beach football.
Well, it stood the test of one game of football last Wednesday night and the artistry of Dunga, plus his endless flow of telling passes, was aided by the surface. Last season he would have been mired in clogging sand and watching the ball take on a life of its own.
I have had the sandmesh concept of racing and football surfaces explained to me several times over the years and remain unconvinced - not least because I am of an era where we played and watched football on natural grass and nothing else.
And natural grass - of which Wembley Stadium was invariably held up as the greatest example of a football pitch anywhere in the world - could take plenty of usage.