Brazil newspapers were quite mild on critics on their teams’ result at the World Cup.

The country’s biggest newspaper, the Folha de São Paulo, chose to highlight the Seleção’s latest disappointment against France with the headline “Once again France send Brazil home”. The best-selling Brazilian daily read: “Parreira tinkered with the side but to no avail, as they passively stood by and watched Zidane put on a show. The coach says he was not prepared for the defeat.”

Along similar lines was the headline from the Correio Braziliense: “It happened again!” The paper went on to urge fans to get behind Portugal coach Luiz Felipe Scolari as the only man able to salvage a measure of Brazilian pride over in Germany. “From now on, Felipão is Brazil’s representative at the World Cup.”

O Globo, for its part, led with “France snuff out Brazil”. The paper also highlighted the fact that the coach who led Brazil to their fifth world title at Korea/Japan 2002 is still in with a chance of repeating the feat: “The Seleção are out of the Cup after a mediocre performance; Felipão is all that’s left for us now.”

“What a let-down” bemoaned the front page of Sao Paulo’s Jornal da Tarde, while the Estado de São Paulo, its rival publication, plumped for the damning headline “A team to forget”. The paper continued by labelling the Auriverde’s showing against the 1998 champions as “lamentable” and praised the performance of French magician Zinedine Zidane.

Over in Argentina, Brazil’s woes served to alleviate some of the suffering caused by the Albiceleste’s own exit a day earlier, with the country’s press making the most of their arch-rivals’ misfortune.

Sports paper Olé went straight for the jugular in its attack on Ronaldo and Co: “An embarrassment. One for the history books. Brazil thought they were the best team in the world before the competition even got under way, and had already started preparing to put a sixth star on their shirt.”

Fellow Argentine paper Clarín also revelled in the fate of Parreira and his side: “Brazil are out too: France put them on the plane home.”

“Brazil is crying,” gloated daily newspaper Diario Popular while La Nación claimed that Brazil’s dismal showing took some of the shine off their success over in the Far East in 2002. All of which is likely to make unhappy reading for the Canarinhos after the long trip back from Germany.

Source: WCoffsite