In terms of World Cup success, Brazil is simply not what it used to be on the biggest stage.
It demonstrated that again on Sunday in a 2-1 knockout round loss to Norway in the Round of 16 at the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
While it is the earliest that Brazil has left a World Cup since 1990, it continues what has been a wildly disappointing run for a country that used to be defined by championships in the world’s biggest competition.
Brazil has not finished higher than fourth at the World Cup since 2002
While Brazil still has the reputation for being a top soccer power globally, and while it still owns the record for most World Cup championships with five, that level of success has consistently escaped them in the past few World Cup cycles.
They are still very good.
They still do better and advance further than the average soccer country.
But that is simply not the standard Brazil is measured by, and not anywhere close to the expectation based on what they have been in the past.
With Sunday’s loss, this marks the fifth time in the past six World Cups that Brazil did not advance beyond the quarterfinal.
It is the sixth consecutive World Cup where it has not finished higher than fourth place overall.
All of this just seems unheard of for a country that used to routinely win it all, and make serious runs at the top spot.
For perspective on this, in the 17 World Cups prior to 2006, Brazil finished outside of the top five just four times. Two of those were all the way back in 1930 and 1934. They also never went more than three World Cups without finishing in the top-three at least one time.
Consistently winning. Consistently competing.
This is the fourth time in the past six World Cups alone that they have finished outside of the top-five, with zero finishes within the top three during that run.
There is also a common denominator in what keeps ending their runs: All six of those World Cup runs have come to an end at the hands of a team from Europe.
Brazil has not scored more than one goal in any of those knockout games, including Sunday’s loss. Its only goal on Sunday came on a penalty kick for Neymar in the 10th minute of stoppage time when Brazil was already down by a pair of goals. It was, for all intents and purposes, a completely meaningless goal.
All of this is a perfect storm of Brazil making a strategic shift in the way it plays, going from a more creative, free-flowing attack to a more rigid, structured and physical approach, to the fact they are simply not producing the type of high-end finishers and individual talents that used to define their teams.
The increase of depth and talent from the European nations coinciding with all of that has also dramatically closed the gap.
Until Brazil develops the type of striking talent it used to produce in waves, it’s hard to see that gap increasing back in their favor anytime soon. And it has not changed back in their favor recently.