Battle between 'water carriers' and individual talent

One of the phrases relished by coaches who like to exhort their team with slogans is: "There's no I in team". For much of this World Cup it has appeared a winning philosophy. While South Korea, United States and Sweden prospered, Zinedine Zidane, Gabriel Batistuta and Luis Figo went home. The Irish, making light of Roy Keane's absence, flourished, but the Italians, undecided whether to play Francesco Totti, Alessandro Del Piero, or both, did not.

Germany's arrival in Sunday's final would seem to confirm the success of the all-for-one, one-for-all creed. Even their single player with star quality, Michael Ballack, sacrificed his place in the final for the sake of the team.

Then there is Brazil. There is a visible kinship within the squad and the likes of Ronaldo, Gilberto Silva and Cafu are clearly 'team players', but their progress to the final has been based on the talent of individuals, most notably Ronaldo, Rivaldo, Ronaldinho and Marcos.

All four are on the short-list for the 'All-Star Team' to be revealed today by Pele and the experts from Fifa's Technical Study Group. There is an inherent contradiction in such a selection. With the possible exception of Maradona's Argentina in 1986, no 'star' has won a World Cup single-handed. Even Brazil's R-men could not so it without the "water carriers", as Eric Cantona once described Didier Deschamps. That is why Luiz Felipe Scolari, recognising Gilberto Silva could not do the ball-winning and pressing in midfield alone, replaced Juninho with Kleberson.

Yet these select XI's tend not to recognise such players. Thus David Beckham made the shortlist, but not Nicky Butt; Junichi Inamoto and Hidetoshi Nakata were in, but not Kazuyuki Toda; Brazil's strikers and flying wing-backs were recognised, but not their sitting midfielders.

There was a further example of the marketing men's obsession with individuals in a team game yesterday when adidas announced a short-list of ten for the Golden Ball, an award for the best individual player of tournament. Also selected by Fifa's experts, it featured five strikers.

Embarrassingly for the sponsor, none of the chosen players featured in their accompanying press pack. This pictured nine football 'personalities' contracted to adidas, most of whom from Zidane to Del Piero had a wretched World Cup. Such is the ephemeral nature of stardom.

All five previous winners of the Golden Ball have been forwards but, while goals are the only currency the game recognises, their apparent limitations are exposed by yet another award: the Golden Boot. This is presented to the tournament's top scorer but only twice in the previous 16 World Cups, Mario Kempes, in 1978, and Paolo Rossi, in 1982, has that player also gained a winners' medal.

This rare double may be achieved this year with Ronaldo, Rivaldo and Miroslav Klose the remaining contenders. If so it would seem, in the tournament of the collective, to be a freak coincidence but Giovanni Trapattoni yesterday suggested it was anything but.

The veteran Italian coach said: "For years we have been talking about the team game, about the collective and everyone has been listening and learning. There has been a great levelling out in that respect and so we are now in the era of the individual player who can make the difference. We have seen at this World Cup what happens when those great players don't make the difference."

Carlos Alberto Perreira, the coach of Brazil's 1994 winners, agreed. He said: "In the final you have Brazilian individuality, potential and the best attack, against German team work, determination and collectiveness and the best defence. Some teams have one or two players that opponents have to stop. With the Brazilians, you have to stop three or four. They have possibilities that no other team has in this competition."

Brazil's progress underlines this. Outplayed by Belgium in the second round they scored the decisive first goal through an act of genius by Rivaldo. Ronaldinho's class then overturned a quarter-final deficit against England. Come the semi-final against Turkey it was Ronaldo's turn and he produced an inspired finish. They are not a one-man orchestra, as Argentina were in 1986, but they have some terrific soloists.

"Brazil break all the rules," said one observer yesterday. Break them, or make them? Two men who hope they do neither are Oliver Kahn, Germany's goalkeeper, and Rudi Völler, their coach. "They're probably the best team in the world in terms of individual players with exceptional people in every position. But the team with the most gifted players do not always win," said Kahn. Völler, a winner as a player in 1990, added: "If the best team always won the World Cup, then Brazil would have won it 14 times, not just four."

The reality is it is too simplistic to label the final as cavaliers versus roundheads. When reduced to 10 men against England by Ronaldinho's dismissal Brazil proved they are a team. Throughout the tournament they have shown they have gifted individuals. Similarly, Germany owe much to moments of individual brilliance by Kahn, Ballack, and Klose, but also Thomas Linke and Oliver Neuville. Success at this level is about harnessing individual talent for the collective good, not relying on either aspect in isolation.