India, July 6 -- Closed for the summer, the school in Bergisch Gladbach thrummed with activity. Brazil were in the house and had drawn the world's media to this sleepy, leafy town not far from Cologne. To them, Robinho grandly said that the next match would be his Real Madrid teammate Zinedine Zidane's last in a France shirt.

A key player for the defending champions exuding confidence ahead of the 2006 World Cup quarter-final didn't feel odd given that while France had struggled to get out of the group, Brazil had soared.

We know now how wide of the mark Robinho was. After the 1-0 defeat in Frankfurt, the Brazilian media kept asking coach Carlos Alberto Parreira and head of delegation Mario Zagallo different versions of the same theme: ...