Brazil's nationwide celebrations on Sunday were followed by a quiet Monday. But the revelry re-ignited on Tuesday, as the winning team arrived in the capital of Brasilia, where they were greeted by a crowd of 300,000. The players were taken from the airport by two trucks on a nine-mile route — the road lined with hordes of fans — to ''Plaza of the Three Powers,'' home to Brazil's presidential Palace, congress and supreme court. Above them, four military planes sky-wrote ''The fifth,'' in reference to the number of World Cup titles Brazil has claimed (1958, 1962, 1970, 1994 and 2002). President Fernando Henrique Cardoso welcomed the team once it reached Planalto Presidential Palace and presented it with the National Order of Merit. Coach Luiz Felipe Scolari, who left for the World Cup as a villain — Cardoso was among the many who lambasted him for leaving Romario off the team and the media wrongly predicted he would field a rough, unentertaining team — returned to hero's welcome. In a poll by daily Folha de Sao Paulo today, 90 percent of respondents were in favor of the Brazilian federation renewing his contract, which expired at the end of the World Cup. Scolari intends on writing a book and considered offers from European clubs or other national teams. One banner in the crowd read, ''Felipao for President!'' Elections are in October. ''I am not a candidate in any race, but I tell the Brazilian population that they should always remember this image of unity to improve Brazil,'' he said. ''We can achieve what we want if we do things in an orderly way.''