JOIN USBrazil coach Luiz Felipe Scolari said Sunday's 3-0 Confederations Cup final victory over World and European champions Spain showed his team were taking huge strides along the road towards winning the World Cup at home next year.
While Spain coach Vicente Del Bosque accepted his side were beaten by a better team on the night, he also thought Brazil's 26 fouls showed a less savoury side of their game.
However, Scolari chose to remain focused on the dazzling performance and could not hide his delight at Brazil's fifth straight win in the competition which they have now won three times in a row. "I don't think I could feel any better than how I am right now," he told the media afterwards.
"I thought that any positive result would be great and to beat them 3-0, that is much better than I imagined.
"But I also believe that overall, not only because of the score but the way we played, we had a very good match. "Now I am able to dream that we have an idea, that we have a path ahead of us, and that we have a good team to play in the World Cup next year as equals with other strong contenders."
Scolari, 64, began the tournament with pressure beginning to build locally that although he did a superb job capturing the World Cup in 2002, perhaps his time had now passed. His first seven matches back in the job yielded two wins, four draws and a defeat. Added pressure came from an unlikely source: the anti-Government protests sweeping Brazil with the Confederations Cup a catalyst for peoples dissent.
Scolari said he hoped that a Brazil victory in the tournament would at least bring the country together, and while the protests are expected to continue, at least, he in a sense, kept his end of the bargain with a successful campaign.
"It was important not just for the football team but the whole country for obvious reasons," he said.
"But as far as the team is concerned, one thing that is important is that in the last 30 days we have beaten four former or current world champions: France, Uruguay, Italy and Spain. "We are a team still being formed, facing a lot of difficulties and I think this win upgrades the team, giving us more confidence. Its something that will make us play in a different way."
Del Bosque congratulated Brazil on their victory, adding: "They were better. We congratulate them. We had a touch of bad luck in the first two minutes of both halves and in the final minutes of the first half, but I don't want to make excuses. They were better.
"I think we've had a good Confederations Cup. I'll stick with the positive. Our players gave their all.