CANOAS, Brazil -- Brazil's World Cup-winning coach Luiz Selipe Scolari is predicting a rough ride for his successor when the qualifiers for 2006 get underway next year and says the players will have to change their mentality.

Scolari led Brazil to their fifth world title in June but only after they had struggled through the South American qualifying competition, using 60 players and four coaches.

"It will be long and difficult again," said Scolari, who stepped down in August saying he wanted to spend more time with his family and possibly coach a club in Europe.

His successor, who will lead the side toward Germany 2006, has yet to be named.

"Brazil's big difficulty is that they have never learned how to play qualifiers. The problems we had this time were nothing new. In the qualifiers for 1990 and 1994 we also had trouble," Scolari said in an interview with Reuters.

The man known as big Phil took over toward the end of the qualifying campaign and finally ensured Brazil continued their record as the only nation to have competed at every World Cup -- but not before a 3-1 defeat in Bolivia left their place in the finals in danger with one match to go.

He said the players were partly to blame for thinking they could beat teams such as Bolivia, Ecuador, Paraguay and Chile by right. Brazil lost to all four countries on their way to Japan and South Korea.

"Brazil have to change the spirit of their players," he said.

"They think they have won the game before they go on to the pitch. They think the yellow shirt will win the game.