The Brazilian newspaper O Globo summed up the sense of despair after their national side crashed 7-1 against Germany. They rated every player 0/10, and some may say that in the case of David Luiz and Fred they were being generous!

The mood is unlikely to have been at all lightened by a performance in the third-place play-off in which Holland initially scored at an even faster rate than the Germans had managed.

After all the question marks over Brazil’s ability to stage a successful World Cup, the irony is that the infrastructure held up pretty well — it was the team that collapsed. Alternatively, you could take the view that they were the perfect hosts, inviting the whole world round to their place, putting on some terrific entertainment and then letting someone else win.

Having racked my brains, I cannot recall another World Cup to match this one for drama, tension and excitement. It says everything that the legitimate pre-tournament concerns about the welfare of construction workers and the widespread economic difficulties were pushed into the shadows as the spotlight fell on some sensational sporting performances, many of which were delivered by players and teams that people had barely heard of.

The problems surrounding the event’s organisation will return to the agenda soon enough. Rio de Janeiro is due to host the Olympic Games in 2016 and the International Olympic Committee and its member federations are becoming increasingly nervous that the new facilities will not be ready in time to stage test events next year.

But for now we are entitled to look back on the action of the past month and celebrate a terrific tournament, regardless of how your team fared. Even in England, the debate has moved on. The general view is that England performed better than last time, and that by the time they were eliminated, everyone realised that this World Cup would manage fine without them.

One of the most remarkable aspects of the tournament is that no side swept all before them. Holland and Germany between them left the holders and then the hosts thoroughly embarrassed, but they also struggled against lesser opposition.

Such statistics as shots on target and numbers of corners won shed little light because of the cagey approach adopted by so many teams — Holland and Colombia won every game in qualifying from their groups, yet in doing so, they averaged about 44 percent possession.

So with a number of sides consistently demonstrating their inconsistency, the unavoidable conclusion can only be that Germany were the best team at this World Cup because they won it.

For goal of the tournament, it is hard to look beyond Tim Cahill’s scorcher for Australia against Holland or the wonder strike by Colombia’s James Rodríguez against Uruguay, but I am going to. I slightly preferred the instinctive finish by Gonzalo Higuaín that enabled Argentina to edge the quarter-final against Belgium.

It came from nothing. An intended pass from Ángel Di María to Pablo Zabaleta was intercepted. The deflection fell awkwardly just behind Higuaín but, in a flash, the striker paused, waited a split second for the ball and then pivoted on his left foot while he spun to guide the ball into the net with his right.

Rodríguez will have been the choice of most neutrals for the player of the tournament, but Higuaín’s goal carried the mark of true genius.

World Cup by numbers

171: The 1998 World Cup in France set the record for goals scored in the finals at 171 and the total for this tournament equalled it when Mario Götze popped up late.

16: Brazil’s Ronaldo had held the record as the World Cup’s top individual scorer with 15 goals since 2006. But Miroslav Klose has been waiting in the wings and he finally caught up in this tournament, equalling the record with his goal against Ghana and claiming it for himself with No?16 coming against Brazil.

14: Brazil scored 14 goals in winning the 1962 World Cup in Chile. This time they conceded 14, although they had let in only four before that catastrophic semi-final against the Germans.

82: He left it late, but Iran’s consolation goal scored by Reza Ghoochannejad in the 82nd minute of their final match against Bosnia ensured that every team in this World Cup managed to score. The last time that happened was 1998.

3: Notwithstanding the heroics of Brazil’s fans in cranking up the volume and the atmosphere with their memorable renditions of their national anthem, the Italian anthem is my favourite. It is just a shame that, for the second successive tournament, we heard it only three times.

147: Approximately, the number of seconds that Swansea City’s Michel Vorm was on the pitch against Brazil as Holland coach Louis van Gaal showed his sentimental side by ensuring that every player got a game.

n Phil Ascough, the author of Never Mind The Penalties — The Ultimate World Cup Quiz Book (foreword by Kevin Kilbane) and Never Mind The Tigers, both published by The History Press, was a senior reporter and sub-editor at The Royal Gazette from 1989 to 1992