Saint-Etienne (France), June 24: Saint-Denis. Saint-Etienne. Perhaps Brazil should just stop coming to France, or at least avoid a place that starts with Saint. After losing the world cup final in Saint-Denis in 1998 to France, Brazil suffered another blow on French soil yesterday when it was ousted from the Confederations Cup following a 2-2 draw with Turkey in Saint-Etienne. In between those two losses, Brazil captured its record first world cup title in Japan and South Korea last year, twice beating Turkey along the way, including the semifinals. And although it came here with a young, experimental side and had only two players from that match in yesterday's game, Carlos Alberto Parreira's team went home in bitter disappointment. "It was a close and interesting match", Parreira said. "We played our best game of the tournament in the first half but still we went out".

Brazil should have led by more than Adriano's 23rd-minute goal at halftime. His fellow striker Ilan hit the post and had another effort cleared off the line.

But Turkey turned the match with a tremendous second-half performance and squeezed past Brazil and into the last four, getting just the draw it needed to go through.

African champion Cameroon, which drew 0-0 with the United States in Lyon in the second match yesterday, won group b with seven points.

Turkey and Brazil finished on four points each, but Turkey went through because it had scored four goals, one more than Brazil.

Bureau Report