The South Americans arrived in South Korea and Japan with few people giving them much hope of winning, yet one month later they walked off with the trophy for the fifth time.
Coach Luiz Felipe Scolari, who inspired the dramatic turnaround in their fortunes, is now threatening to do exactly the same with Euro 2004 hosts Portugal.
Once more, the Brazilian has shown he has an uncanny knack of making the right team changes at the right time.
He has whipped up patriotic feeling among the Portuguese just as he did with Brazil two years ago and is again proving adept at uniting his squad and keeping egos under control.
Portugal began with a dismal 2-1 defeat by Greece but the sky appears to be the limit after Sunday's exuberant 1-0 victory over neighbours Spain that clinched a place in the last eight.
Scolari admitted the sweeping team changes he made after the defeat by Greece in the tournament's opening match were crucial.
The coach took the bold step of dropping veteran defender Fernando Couto and playmaker Rui Costa against Russia, replacing them with Ricardo Carvalho and Deco respectively.
CRUCIAL GAME
Two years ago, Scolari came up trumps when he launched the 'three R' attack -- Ronaldo, Ronaldinho and Rivaldo -- on an unsuspecting world and threw the previously untried Gilberto Silva into the fray after a late injury to his captain Emerson.
"The second game was crucial," said Scolari after Sunday night's win. "Everything that we did wrong against Greece was changed so that we could beat Russia. Our performance improved and we got the result as well."
Scolari made another change against Spain, bringing in teenager Cristiano Ronaldo for Simao Sabrosa.
But his most inspired decision was to replace hard-working but ineffective striker Pauleta with Nuno Gomes at halftime when the score was 0-0 and hosts Portugal were on the way out.
It took 12 minutes for Nuno Gomes to repay his coach by scoring the goal that took his Portugal side into the last eight and sparked celebrations across the country.
The nationalistic fervour gripping Portugal is reminiscent of sentiment in Brazil two years ago and Scolari has again made a point of emphasising the importance of public support.
"We were very poor against Greece and nobody stopped encouraging us, nobody stopped supporting us. We were brilliant in terms of fighting spirit," he said.
"The key to our win (on Sunday) was team spirit, the backing of the Portuguese people and their extraordinary support."
© 2024 Rediff.com -