Rivaldo revels in a Brazilian barrage

The Barcelona player then set up a third for Ronaldo immediately after half-time as the pair finished joint topscorers with five goals each.

Brazil claimed the title for the second time in a row and their sixth overall, still way behind Uruguay and Argentina who are tied on 14.

Uruguay, who progressed to the final despite resting top players such as Paolo Montero, Gustavo Poyet and Alvaro Recoba after a long season in Europe, finally ran out of luck after a somewhat fortuitous run.

They won just one game in the tournament, qualifying from the first round as one of the best third-placed teams and thendrawing both their quarter-final and semi-final ties before winning on penalties.

Ronaldo was celebrating both the title and the fact that, after an injury-plagued season with Inter Milan, he finally had a continuous run of matches without suffering pain.

“After a year of suffering, indecision, uncertainty and treatment, this is a very important moment and I’m very happy,” he said.

Wanderley Luxemburgo was also celebrating a title after less than a year in one of soccer’s hottest seats. “Today was very important, not just for the conquest…But for the future,” the Brazilian coach said.

Thousands of Uruguayans made the 16-hour journey by road to Montevideo and a 30,000 crowd was roughly split half and half between them and Brazilian fans, who were outsung despite their team’s win.

The game got off to a rough start with Brazil clearly determined to match their hard-tackling opponents in the virility stakes. Seven crunching fouls in the first three minutes set the tone for a first half whichfinished with two players from each team booked and a foul tally of 30.

Uruguay had slightly the better of the opening exchanges, Marcelo Zalayeta wasting an early chance when he shot instead of passing from inside the penalty area.