Rivaldo - a touch of Brazilian magic (Allsport)

By Stephen Joyce

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It's been a World Cup of shocks but now the headline-grabbing results are about to end.

With the knowledge that two of their biggest rivals, France and Argentina, are out of the competition, the boys from Brazil are about to march on to the final.

And England are the next in line to bow before the flair and flaws of the famous yellow shirts.

Any Brazilian team suffers the curse of history.

Pele and Garrincha will never return, or even Romario and Bebeto but a new generation has to take its turn from leaving the ball-juggling of the Copacabana beach to represent the country on the international stage.

The present squad pales before the heroes of 1970 but then there is no Matthews, Finney, Moore or Charlton in the present England side.

Brazil have an uncertain defence - so what's new?

They have always had one and care little about it as long as they score one goal more than the opposition.

An attacking philosophy has taken the likes of Puskas' Hungary, Cruyff's Holland, Maradona's Argentina or Zidane's France to the World Cup final over the years.

England are believed to have the best defence in the competition but history shows that holds little sway when tournaments are decided by one magic moment or one special player.

Brazil know they have those players in their ranks and that magic moment is never more than a second away from any Brazilian side.

Turkey thought they had them stifled - they hadn't.

Belgium thought they had them rattled - they hadn't.

England have stuttered their way to the quarter-final with a string of moderate performances and a fair streak of luck.

While Senegal, Mexico and South Korea have found contenders for goal of the tournament, England have not even been able to produce a contender for goal of the day.

They cannot afford another Sweden or Nigeria and even though keeper Silveira Marcos is hardly the key figure for Brazil, he surely cannot hand victory on a plate as easily as Denmark's Thomas Sorensen did.

Brazil's struggle even to qualify for this World Cup was probably a trick to catch some teams off their guard.

Now they're here, they're here to stay.