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Brazil Men Win Soccer Bronze

ATHENS, Ga. -- Brazil regained some of its battered soccer pride Friday with a 5-0 rout of Portugal to win the Olympic bronze medal behind a hat trick by Bebeto.

Goals by Ronaldinho and Flavio Conceicao inside the first 10 minutes sent Brazil on its way and Bebeto completed the victory by scoring three in the second half.

Stacked with talent, Brazil seemed an overwhelming favorite for the gold medal. But it lost its opening game to underdog Japan and then blew a 3-1 lead in an overtime 4-3 loss to Nigeria in the semifinals.

While Brazil started the same 11 that lost to Nigeria, Portugal made six changes from the lineup that lost 2-0 to Argentina.

In a typical bronze-medal game with little passion, Brazil quickly showed that it took the match much more seriously.

With only five minutes gone, Juninho sent a superb pass to Ronaldinho and the new Barcelona striker burst through open space to put the ball home from 12 yards, beating Portuguese goalkeeper Costinha.

Five minutes later, another example of the perfect Brazilian passing produced the second goal. Bebeto's ball beat two defenders and Ze Maria charged on the right flank to send a pinpoint pass across the goalmouth for Flavio Conceicao, who knocked it home from point-blank range.

Two minutes into the second half, Bebeto showed why he was a star on the Brazilian team that won the 1994 World Cup. Although he failed to control a long pass from Amaral, the Brazilian was quick to exploit the mistake of Ruibento when the Portuguese defender let the ball slip away. Bebeto shot it through the legs of Costinha.

In the 54th, Bebeto converted a penalty kick to put Brazil ahead 4-0.

Portugal got its own penalty kick in the 62nd, but keeper Dida read Rui Jorge's shot, dived to his left and touched the ball enough for it to bounce off the goalpost.

With Portugal offering little resistance, Brazil began displaying the full range of its talent and bombarded Portugal's goal from all directions.

Bebeto notched his third. Nuno Afonso sent a slow back pass that Costinha could not control and Bebeto sprinted inside to fake the goalkeeper and shoot the ball into the empty net in the 75th.

Bebeto leads the tournament with six goals, but Argentina's Hernan Crespo has five goals and can claim the scoring title if he has a big day in Saturday's final against Nigeria.