Brazil's quarter-final elimination at the hands of France meant they would not play in a World Cup final for the first time since 1990 - but from the moment their campaign got under way the now-deposed champions never really looked like they would mount a convincing defence and win a sixth title.

Players and coaching staff returned home in low-key fashion under cover of the night - some even chose to stay in Europe - after a series of performances when they showed only glimpses of what they are capable of.

Before the tournament some had even suggested the team had the potential to emulate the 1970 team, considered the best ever by many football pundits. In Ronaldinho, Ronaldo, Kaka, Adriano, Robinho and Fred they had plenty of attacking options with Emerson and Ze Roberto supplying grit in midfield.

Evergreen full-backs Cafu and Roberto Carlos and central defenders Lucio and Juan in front of goalkeeper Dida also suggested the Latin Americans might be difficult to score against.

And it took one moment of genius from Kaka to beat Croatia 1-0 as Brazil opened their title defence in Berlin in unconvincing fashion with Ronaldo looking particularly out of sorts.

A 2-0 win over Australia followed, securing a place in the knockout stages, and coach Carlos Alberto Parreira gave some of his reserves an outing in the final match with Japan.

In that game Brazil produced perhaps their best football and Ronaldo scored twice in a 4-1 win to equal West Germany legend Gerd Muller's all-time record of 14 World Cup goals.

For the last-16 match with Ghana, Parreira reverted to the old guard and Ronaldo duly eclipsed the Muller record in a 3-0 win where the scoreline perhaps flattered the team that had won their fifth world title under Luiz Felipe Scolari four years before.

Then came a quarter-final with France and the chance to avenge the 1998 World Cup final defeat at the hands of Les Bleus but Zinedine Zidane once again proved to be the nemesis of the Brazilians.

Zidane turned back the clock with a man-of-the-match performance, setting up Thierry Henry's goal. Brazil only ever looked like scoring in a hectic final few minutes but the French defence held out and Brazil were eliminated.

Emerson had missed that match through injury and his grit in midfield was sorely absent as France, in the words of coach Raymond Domenech, "did not dominate but controlled the game".

Ronaldo looked dangerous in the late but vain Brazil rally but Ronaldinho was a shadow of the man whose imperious displays for Barcelona have twice made him FIFA's world player of the year.

Many Brazilians felt Parreira had erred in fielding Ronaldinho too far back but, for the France game, the coach left Adriano on the bench to give Ronaldinho a more advanced role but his tournament ended in disappointment.

Parreira will surely call it a day although no decision is taken yet and the Brazilians must now start thinking ahead to 2010 - although it is unlikely Cafu and Roberto Carlos will be there in South Africa.

Cafu, the only man to play in three World Cup finals, failed to make a fourth and will be 40 by the time South Africa 2010 gets under way.

Brazil fans will have reasons to be optimistic four years from now as they remain the only team to have won the World Cup outside their home continent.

Their five World Cup wins have been achieved all over the world with 1958 (Sweden), 1962 (Chile), 1970 (Mexico), 1994 (USA) and 2002 (Japan) meaning they have lifted the prize in Europe, South America, Central America, North America and Asia.

Africa would be another first but on the evidence of 2006 a major rethink and a new coach is needed for the "Canharinha" to start chirping again.