Brazil at the 2006 FIFA World Cup

At the 2006 FIFA World Cup, Brazil participated for the 18th time in the event. The country remained as the only national team to have participated in every installment of the FIFA World Cup.

The Brazilian team played until the Quarterfinals, where it was defeated by France, finishing the tournament in the fifth place — for the third time in history (1954 and 1986 were the previous instances).

Qualifying

Brazil's qualifying for the event marked the first time in history in which a returning champion (the country had won the 2002 FIFA World Cup) had to play for a berth in the next World Cup — that had a direct effect in the organization of the 2006 World Cup: since the 1990 FIFA World Cup, the competition has had an opening match, which is played immediately after the Opening Ceremonies; until the last World Cup, this match was a privilege of the winner of the previous World Cup, who would play its first match as the first match of the given World Cup, against an opponent from its group, as decided by the official draw (in the 1990 World Cup, Argentina, winner of the 1986 FIFA World Cup, played Cameroon in the opening match; in 1994, Germany, winner of the 1990 World Cup, played Bolivia; in 1998, Brazil played Scotland and in 2002 France played Senegal). As of the 2006 World Cup, because of the change in the rules, with the last champion no longer having a secured berth in the competition, the opening match has become another privilege of the host nation (in the 2006 World Cup, Germany, as the host nation, played Costa Rica in the opening match). Despite being the returning champion, the Brazilian team debuted, against Croatia, only four days after the Opening Ceremonies and the opening match.

The national team qualified with more ease than in previous years — for the 1994 FIFA World Cup, Brazil only qualified in the very last match, against Uruguay, where a defeat would have meant missing the finals; For the 2002 FIFA World Cup, Brazil had four different managers, and was once in serious jeopardy of being left out of the event.

The Qualifying for the 2006 World Cup repeated the format installed for the previous Qualifying tournament, in 2000 and 2001 (for the 2002 World Cup): all ten South American countries played each other, in two-leg matches, with the top four teams qualifying automatically for the World Cup, whereas the fifth best team would play the champion of Oceania, which was Australia, for a berth in the World Cup.

Brazil finished first, winning the Qualifying tournament. The results were the following:

[http://www.gazetaesportiva.net/ge_noticias/bin/noticia.php?chid=114&nwid=188464 source]

Round of 16

Prior to their meeting in the Round of 16 of the 2006 FIFA World Cup, Brazil and Ghana had played only one friendly match. Although this was officially a match between the two main teams, Brazil played it using its under-23 team (the so-called "Olympic squad"), as the match was a part of the preparation for the football competition of the 1996 Summer Olympic Games.

"Pld = matches played, YC = yellow cards, RC = red cards."

¹ Mineiro replaced Edmilson, who was cut due to a knee injury.

Matches

"All times local (UTC+2)"

Round Robin

"See also: 2006 FIFA World Cup - Group F"

Group F

*Referee: Benito Archundia Tellez (Mexico)

*Assistant referees:
**Jose Ramirez (Mexico)
**Hector Vergara (Canada)

*Fourth official: Mohamed Guezzaz (Morocco)
*Fifth official: Brahim Djezzar (Algeria)
*MOM|Brazil|Kaká

Second Round

Brazil vs. Australia

Sunday, June 18, 2006
18:00 - FIFA World Cup Stadium Munich, Munich - Attendance: 66,000

*Referee: Luis Medina Cantalejo (Spain)
*Assistant referees
**Victoriano Giraldez Carrasco (Spain)
**Pedro Medina Hernández (Spain)
*Fourth official: Mark Shield (Australia)
*Fifth official: Ben Wilson (Australia)
*MOM|France|Zinedine Zidane

Brazilians in other national teams

The Brazilian participation in the World Cup was not restricted to the national football team. Many individuals were involved with other national teams, some as players, some as members of their teams' technical staff. Those playing for other national teams had acquired the respective country's citizenship, and according to FIFA's ruling, can never play for the Brazilian team in the future. Those were:

* in Saudi Arabia: Coach Marcos Paquetá and the entire technical staff, hired by Paquetá. Immediately before the last match in the first stage of the World Cup, when disqualification was imminent for Saudi Arabia, Saudi prince Nawaf bin Faisal, who is president of the Saudi Football Confederation, guaranteed that, regardless of the outcome, Paquetá was to remain as Saudi Arabia's head coach [http://www1.folha.uol.com.br/folha/esporte/ult92u104219.shtml] .

* in Tunisia: Maranhão-born Francileudo dos Santos was a striker for the Tunisian team. He was regarded as the team's "star".

* in Portugal: Head coach Luis Felipe Scolari and his assistant coach, Flávio Murtosa; as well as midfielder Deco.

* in Japan: former player and Brazilian football legend Zico was Japan's head coach. Following the team's elimination, Zico left the Japanese team. [http://oglobo.globo.com/especiais/copa2006/mat/284739075.asp] . In addition, Japan also had the Maringá-born fullback Alex Santos.

* in Spain: São Paulo-born midfielder Marcos Senna played for the Spanish team.

* in Costa Rica: Alexandre Guimarães was the country's head coach for the World Cup, as he had been in Costa Rica's previous participation, in 2002. He also played for Costa Rica in 1990. After losing all three matches, Guimarães left the national team, allegedly in the wake of death threats received via anonymous phone calls [http://copa.esporte.uol.com.br/copa/2006/ultnot/costarica/2006/07/03/ult3733u38.jhtm] .