WORLD CUP USA ’94 / THE FINAL : Dunga Bends, but Only Breaks Down at End : Soccer: His twisting penalty kick fools Pagliuca and proves decisive.

He wasn’t going to cry.

“I am a tough guy,” said Carlos Caetano Bledorn Verri, the Brazilian midfielder known as Dunga.

He had just made the winning penalty kick in his country’s World Cup championship victory over Italy, but he wasn’t going to break down.

Not him. Not the team captain. Not Dunga.

After the goal he thrust out his right fist, gave a thumbs-up sign and stalked back toward midfield.

After Roberto Baggio missed his penalty kick to give Brazil the championship, Dunga grabbed a green-and-yellow Brazil flag and continued stalking.

All around him teammates were falling to their knees and sobbing with joy, but not Dunga.

Then the Brazilians were summoned into the awards area to receive the golden ball symbolic of a World Cup championship.

As captain, Dunga was chosen to accept the trophy. He took it in his hands, kissed it, and perhaps felt like swaggering away with it when the strangest thing happened.

A number came into his head.

Not the number one, for his penalty kick goal, the first time he has kicked a ball into the net in this tournament.

Not the number two, for the number of errant shots he took Sunday.

Not even the number four, for the times his country has won the World Cup championship.

No, he thought of the number 150 million.

“I think that 150 million Brazilians are kissing the cup with me,” he said. “And I. . . .”

You guessed it. Like a baby.

“I am a tough guy, but this time, I cry,” he said.

Dunga’s tears surprised his teammates far more than his winning penalty kick, which featured both the calmness and intensity that have marked his one-year tenure as captain.

“Without Dunga,” teammate Aldair said, “this team is not safe.”

This is, after all, a man who has spent most of his life living with a nickname that, in Portuguese, means “Dopey.” As in Snow White’s little buddy.

This is a man who has had to get tough or succumb to jokes about his size (small), his ears (large) and his hair (does Sergeant Carter of “Gomer Pyle” ring a bell?)

And tough he was Sunday after watching his goalkeeper Claudio Taffarel guess right on Daniele Massaro’s penalty kick, diving to his left and knocking it away.

This gave Dunga, as the fourth of five scheduled kickers, a chance to make the kick that would give Brazil a 3-2 shootout lead.

Taffarel leaped from the grass and ran past Dunga, waving one finger, symbolizing one more needed save. If Dunga was inspired, he didn’t show it.

He calmly carried the ball to the 12-yard spot, gently laid it down, then took nine careful steps backward. The world was watching, but Dunga was not even sweating.

“I tried to block everything out,” Dunga said. “I tried to block out the fans. Block out the screams. Block out the noise. I tried only to concentrate.”

Nine strong strides later, he kicked the only sort of ball that Italy goalkeeper Gianluca Pagliuca was not expecting.

It was the only sort of ball that Pagliuca, in fact, had probably never even seen.

Only in America could a guy win a soccer game with a changeup.

“All of a sudden, the ball was light,” Pagliuca said. “Then it changed directions.”

The ball left Dunga’s right foot, bound for the right corner of the goal. Pagliuca, momentarily frozen like so many major league hitters, fell in the other direction.

The ball found the back of the net, and soon thereafter, the tough guy broke.

“I am a man with great faith,” Dunga said. “Today, this helped me a lot.”

Just as that faith helped him in 1990 when, as a member of that underachieving World Cup team, he awoke one morning to read the headline, “Error, Dunga.”

And just as that faith helped him after he was removed from the national team for his lack of playmaking skills, only to be brought back by Coach Carlos Alberto Parreira for his toughness.

With a team-leading 14 fouls in this tournament, he showed that toughness. And late Sunday afternoon with the trophy, his teammates and his vision, he revealed another side.

Dopey? We hardly think so.