How Brazil recovered from embarrassment to build the world's best team

Brazil's biggest prospects have flamed out, they've been awful in their last two big tournaments and they fired their coach less than two years ago. And yet, here they are, World Cup favorites.

The Brazilian national team enter the World Cup with the weight of an entire nation on their shoulders. Granted, that happens to every country that happens to be hosting a World Cup, but the expectations aren't always the same for each host, and nor are they consistently realistic. A star-laden France side won the World Cup they hosted in 1998, but South Korea and Japan four years later were simply expected to get to the knockout round; South Africa accepted that they were likely to bow out early in 2010 and Germany were quite pleased with their third-place finish back in 2006.

Brazil though... Brazil are expected to win this World Cup. They have the best defenders, a solid midfield, a global superstar in Neymar and a good mix of attacking players to compliment him. They are not the favorites just because they're the hosts -- Brazil are arguably the best international team in the world at present, and might be favored to win this World Cup if it were hosted anywhere but Spain, Germany or Argentina.

While fans pegged them as favorites to win this tournament the second they found out it was going to be held in Brazil, their road to becoming a world power again was a rocky one. They flamed out of the 2010 World Cup in spectacular fashion, then proceeded to play profoundly uninspiring soccer through 2012. Their coach picked his teams poorly, prospects flamed out and stars that were performing for their clubs couldn't bring their best to the Selecao.

With a new coach came a new philosophy and a professional attitude. With less than two years to prepare, Luiz Felipe Scolari has turned a broken Brazil team into the favorites to win the World Cup.

This is the story of how Brazil fell apart, then picked up the pieces and fused them into what might be the best team in the world.