An anti-climatic exit, injured star player and end of an era – the next World Cup hosts need to improve. Robert Shaw explains

Brazilians don’t anticipate winning every World Cup. But they do at least expect to bask in their technical superiority until a defensive howler denies the assumed divine right to be world champions. Frustration at losing to Holland – opponents overcome in 1994 and 1998 – was compounded by the sense that the Dutch posed the biggest hurdle to Brazil’s fourth final appearance in five World Cups.

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Central Berlin seemed an excellent place to take in a successful World Cup for Germany. Not so simple, as Karsten Blaas explains

German Team Let Their Fans Down read a headline two days after the semi-final against Spain. It wasn’t the 1-0 defeat by the future world champions that had caused outrage but the news that the players had gone on holiday after returning home rather than showing up on the so-called Fan Mile in Berlin to celebrate their successful campaign.

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James Eastham assesses public recrimination and media reaction following a campaign that left even the pessimists disappointed

As France manager Raymond Domenech and his players sloped home from their disastrous World Cup campaign to face the biggest communal ear-bashing since somebody suggested abolishing the 35-hour week, the media lined up to take pot shots at a squad whose downfall was anything but a shock.

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There was little sympathy for the losing finalists in South Africa. Derek Brookman laments an effective but aggressive approach

Holland’s first World Cup final for 32 years left a lasting impression, but unfortunately not for the right reasons. Johan Cruyff described his compatriots’ football as “ugly and vulgar”. In Spain, El País talked of “an unrecognisable Holland” and “intimidating behaviour”, while France’s Le Figaro said it “had all the characteristics of anti-football and was of unprecedented brutality”.

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James Calder explains how the World Cup winners have benefitted from a change of generation and clever management

Inclusiveness has been a feature of Spain’s World Cup-winning side. While Ángel María Villar, the president of the federation, dedicated the team’s South Africa 2010 success to the “entire Spanish football family”, the players also made a point of celebrating the triumph with the reporters covering their campaign.

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