Kaka says Brazil will keep feet on ground after victory

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - Brazilian playmaker Kaka says the squad have learnt from the mistakes they made four years ago when they won the Confederations Cup, then headed off to the World Cup in Germany expecting to win that too.

Instead, they failed to retain the trophy they won in 2002, going out to France in the quarter-finals.

Kaka played a key role as Brazil retained the Confederations Cup on Sunday with a 3-2 comeback win over the United States and although he did not score he was named Man of the Match and also won the Golden Ball as Player of the Tournament.

Asked if the success made Brazil favorites to win the World Cup next year, he replied: "Well, we have to qualify first. We have four games left and hopefully we will qualify.

"But we must avoid any unnecessary euphoria now because after we won the Confederations Cup in 2005 our celebrations were too euphoric.

"Now we must keep very calm, but when we get together as a squad and train together for an extended period, we know what we are capable of. If we do go to the World Cup as favorites, let's hope it will be justified."

No team that has won the Confederations Cup, used as a test event for the World Cup, has gone on to lift the World Cup the following year, but Kaka said Brazil obviously had a chance of coming back and doing just that.

"We have played very well here and if we do the same next year we must have a chance, but we have to keep working hard and not be carried away by this success."

According to preliminary FIFA figures, Brazil will move to the top of the their world rankings list when it is published on Wednesday, displacing Spain who have held the No.1 spot for the last year.

On Tuesday Kaka will be officially presented as a Real Madrid player for the first time following his 68.0 million euros ($98 million) transfer from AC Milan. He said he was delighted to be moving to his new club with a new trophy.

Although delighted with Brazil's win, he thought he should have been credited with a goal after an hour when his header appeared to cross the line before being caught by U.S. keeper Tim Howard.

"It would have been fantastic to have scored a 'legal' goal he said. "But FIFA should see what can be done to improve these situations. It would have been very important to score this goal, but we won in the end, so that is okay."

(Editing by Dave Thompson)