Soccer: Euphoric Brazil hails return of World Cup champs

Huge street parties with samba dancing, sirens and fireworks erupted in Brazil's capital and later in Rio de Janeiro as more than a million people celebrated the moment the country's triumphant World Cup team returned home.

Showing Brazil's ability to burst into spontaneous revelry, the scene at the presidential palace in the normally formal Brasilia rivalled the nation's yearly Carnival festivities.

Rio - home to the world's most famous and colourful pre-Lenten Carnival - joined Brasilia in the rejoicing over the country's unprecedented fifth World Cup soccer title, won last Sunday in Japan.

Brazil also won the World Cup in 1958, 1962, 1970 and 1994.

The team were blasted in the national press before the championship tournament and virtually written off after struggling to qualify. Instead, they proved the critics wrong.

During the team's slow drive to the palace, captain Cafu, coach Luiz Felipe Scolari and star striker Ronaldo - who scored both goals in Brazil's victory - basked in the moment, taking turns to raise the World Cup trophy.

Another striker, Ronaldinho Gaucho, beat out Afro-Brazilian rhythms on drums.

The passion for soccer is a unifying force in the multicultural country, allowing its 170 million people to forget crime, gaping inequalities and poverty for a day.

"There is a union of happiness from this extraordinary victory," said Senator Eduardo Suplicy, one of the leaders of the opposition Workers Party, as he waited outside the palace to see the team.

"They give an example to the whole country; the feeling of being Brazilian is increased."

Millions across the country watched the homecoming live on television all day, often leaving work aside.

Most public workers were given the day off to celebrate.

More than a million Rio residents lined central avenues and the roads alongside the city's famed beaches, waiting to catch a glimpse of the national heroes, who arrived after nightfall following a longer-than-expected celebration in Brasilia.

The similarity with Carnival festivities became even greater after the team rejected fire engines - the traditional parade transport for soccer champions - in favour of huge open trucks with loudspeakers blasting out samba tunes.

Four fighter jets escorted the team's chartered jet Boeing into Brasilia's clear, blue skies, then looped about painting "Penta" - Portuguese for "fifth" - with smoke trails.

In the presidential palace, public servants filled the wide gallery above the ramp usually reserved for visiting foreign dignitaries as the players arrived.

Under President Fernando Henrique Cardoso's office, a samba band banged its drums as the players danced and somersaulted on a podium.

"I dreamed that I asked for the signatures of the players," said Ethyenne, 12, who was allowed into the palace after feeling ill. "The reality was better than my dream."

In front of the palace - where President Cardoso embraced the players and gave each the National Order of Merit - about 200,000 people thronged the large square after waiting hours under the blistering sun.

A further 300,000 people lined the capital's avenues, hanging out of trees or bouncing in the backs of pickups as the team's trucks crawled from the airport to the palace.

Doris Xavier, 37, was one who celebrated Brazil's big moment, jumping up and down on her car, stuck in traffic as Brasilia came to a standstill for hours.

"It's like your child coming home," she shrieked.

- REUTERS

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