Brazil coach Luiz Felipe Scolari maintained that Brazil remain a talented team despite concluding the World Cup with a second straight defeat.
The Selecao followed up their 7-1 semfinal thrashing against Germany with a 3-0 third-place loss against the Netherlands, but Scolari said the recent results should not encapsulate their overall performance, and he chose to focus on the successes his team enjoyed since he took over as manager in 2012.
"I coached in the World Cup three times -- two for Brazil and once for Portugal. And in all three, I was among the four best. I won once and lost two," he said in a news conference.
"This is not a situation where I can regret this for the rest of my life because football is something that many times, can change the way you move on or not. I have to see the positive side of things.
"A year ago, I won the Confederations Cup. In any given moment, one team can be superior to another. I continue to emphasise that in the last year and a half, we won this tournament and we were among the best four in the world."
Brazil's defeat in the final in 1950, the only other World Cup they have hosted, traumatised a nation, but Scolari said there is no reason for Brazilians to let a poor ending in 2014 shape the Selecao's future.
"This generation does not have to be scarred," Scolari said. "We were in the top four teams in the world. What we must do is to continue working as it has been working.
"I'm feeling sad. Any leader, any person if they don't convey optimism to their group, there's nothing they can do. We have to push the team forward."
Brazil were booed off the pitch and Thiago Silva, who could have been sent off two minutes into the game for pulling down Arjen Robben, said he could not blame the fans.
"It's frustrating," Silva said. "We didn't deserve to have it end like this. But unfortunately it's football. I have to apologize to our people. The fans supported us even during the 7-1 loss and again today. They booed in the end, but it was normal. They have feelings too."
Despite the scoreline, Scolari insisted his players performed well against the Netherlands -- or at least improved from the Germany defeat.
"Today's match, I don't see how to criticise the Brazilian team. They ran after the result," he said. "They tried to play the game and I don't think it was a bad match by losing 0-3.
"This team didn't play well in the semifinal and played reasonably well today. We had a reaction and went after it. They leave with my trust, my happiness. If we continue the work, the path is open for a team that will be much better in 2018."
Scolari's contract only runs through this World Cup, and the manager provided no definitive clues to a possible future with the Selecao.
"If we won or lost, my position was always going to be vacant," Scolari said.
"When we started, we had a deadline to quit our jobs at the end of the World Cup regardless of the result. That is exactly what we are going to do, which is what was agreed upon with the final report for the president" of the Brazilian Football Confederation.
"We lost, now we have to prepare my report and tell the president what happened. Life goes on. Thank you very much."