David Seaman finally cracked last night as he blamed himself for the goal which ended England's World Cup dreams.

The 38-year-old has made his critics eat their words with some great performances between the posts and has been one of England's star performers in this tournament.

But Seaman showed that he is human after all with his reactions after he was beaten by a freak 35-yard free-kick from Ronaldinho early in the second half which earned Brazil a 2-1 victory in yesterday's quarter-final.

The general consensus was the goal was a fluke, an inswinging cross which caught in the wind and drifted back towards goal and over the head of Seaman.

He was only a yard or two off his line, quite rightly anticipating a cross, but that was enough to drive him to the depths of despair after the final whistle as he realised his last and probably best chance of securing a World Cup winners medal had gone.

Seaman broke down in tears and had to be consoled by England's goalkeeping coach Ray Clemence and skipper David Beckham amongst others as the squad went on a lap of honour of the pitch to acknowledge the fans.

Then after the game, Seaman apologised for what he perceived as letting down the fans and the nation, but again it was all too much for him.

"I just want to say I'm sorry to all the fans," he said. "I want to say sorry to the people I let down.

"I can blame myself. It was a free-kick, it was a long way out.

"I was expecting a cross, but he's mis-hit it and I've misread it and it's a goal and it's got to go down as a goalkeeping error."

By now Seaman was clearly struggling to choke back the tears again as he thanked the fans.

He said: "They have been absolutely fantastic. They've been saying 'just forget it, you've kept us in the tournament' and things like that."

But then he was completely overcome in emotion and there was just time for a 'it's just so hard guys.....' before the interviews were terminated.

Beckham and the rest of the England squad came to Seaman's defence.

Beckham said: "If anyone tries to make a scapegoat out of David then it will be a disgrace because he's been the best goalkeeper in the tournament.

"It was not his fault. The goal was a fluke. It was a cross that ended up being a goal. David has had a world class tournament."

Teddy Sheringham added: "It's just a shame that a goal like that has sent us out of the tournament but you can't blame David. It was freakish."