Rivaldo - gunning for glory on two fronts

By Mark Bradley, PA Sport Chief Soccer Writer, Yokohama

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Brazil midfielder Rivaldo has set his sights on achieving an impressive World Cup double - winning the final and being named as the tournament's best player.

Rivaldo insists that his primary goal remains defeating Germany in Sunday's final to make up for the tame way in which Brazil surrendered the 1998 tournament to France.

However, he has also been named in the 10-strong shortlist for the player of the tournament, in which England's progress was effectively ignored as Rio Ferdinand was overlooked for inclusion.

Instead, Rivaldo appeared with three team-mates - Ronaldo, Ronaldinho and Roberto Carlos - while Oliver Kahn and Michael Ballack were there along with Fernando Hierro, El Hadji Diouf, Hasan Sas and Hong Myung Bo.

Rivaldo, the former world player of the year, is a leading candidate along with Ronaldo and Kahn, with the aim of matching Romario's achievement of achieving personal and team success in 1994.

Indeed, he could yet also pip Ronaldo to being the top scorer as he is one goal behind him along with Miroslav Klose.

However, the Barcelona attacking midfielder put aside any thoughts of personal plaudits as he revealed his desire for his team to prevail on Sunday.

"First of all I want to be a world champion. I know what that represents for all the players, for the Brazilian people and for my career," he declared.

"But if I could become world champion and also win this prize, it would be a great honour as this represents the recognition of performances at the World Cup.

"The World Cup title is my principal goal though. I don't like talking about myself, I prefer to allow other people to talk about me and my influence on the team."

Rivaldo suffered along with his team-mates, especially the unfit Ronaldo, as Brazil stumbled to defeat against the French four years ago.

He is determined to avoid the same outcome again, believing that a Brazil side with the best attack in the World Cup can overcome the best defence.

"In 1998, I played very well but we didn't win," added Rivaldo.

"We can score against Germany. We have scored 16 goals so far and although Germany have conceded only one, we hope to score more.

"We respect Germany but we are determined to win and are confident that we can win.

"Either of these two teams have the tradition to be world champions. But I hope that we score the first goal as, if we do that, it would be a good foundation for the match."

Brazil entered the tournament in the strange position as outsiders, having only secured their place in the final qualifying game, but the team have grown in stature as the tournament has progressed.

"Many people would say that Brazil were not in a good shape before the tournament and that the squad was not among the favourites," added Rivaldo.

"But while we came through our group, many of the teams who did great things in the past and were among the favourites were knocked out.

"Nobody spoke of Brazil, we were very quiet and working on our own game. But we have still made the final and now we want to win the title."