Craig Brown: 'Big Phil' mixes width and steel with the beautiful game

It was not quite the "beautiful game" which had me doing the conga and high-fives with the locals on Wednesday night. The cauldron of patriotism had spilled across the entire country from Pusan to my base in Seoul. It had been a great game nevertheless, especially for the courteous Koreans, who celebrated extensively and in style. Their irresistible urge to believe anything was possible resulted in an impressive victory over Poland.

The disturbing fact for Uefa, which could boast six of the last eight in the previous World Cup, is that Korea's opponents were one of four European countries who were beaten, and none by South American opposition.

One South American performance stood out for me this week. In spite of the fact that many of their squad play in Europe, the 1994 winners and 1998 runners-up gave a sparkling opening performance against the unfortunate Turkey. What intrigued me, though, was their team selection and playing strategy.

The coach, "Big Phil", Luiz Felipe Scolari, has departed from the traditional Brazilian 4-4-2 house-style of play. His three-man defence of Roque Junior, Lucio and Edmilson looked solid enough, although I was disappointed by Edmilson, a right-footed left-centre-back who was caught in possession needlessly and struggled when the Turks played a diagonal ball over his left shoulder into space behind.

One criticism of the three-at-the-back formation is that, unlike a back four, the unit of three does not adequately cover the full width of the pitch. This can be obviated in two ways. Firstly, the outside players of the three, in this case Roque Junior and Edmilson, have to mark – except when they are in or near their own penalty box – on the outside of the strikers, thus giving them a start if the ball is played into the corners. Edmilson in particular still has this to learn. For this reason, Anderson Polga of Gremio may start against China in Sogwipo today.

A second protective strategy, brilliantly demonstrated by Uruguay against France using Dario Rodriguez and Gustavo Varela, is to withdraw the wide players, or wing-backs as they are now called. These guys, I contend, should not be wingers but primarily defenders with a midfield mentality. Needless to say, Cafu and Roberto Carlos fulfil these roles to perfection and it has surprised me that recent Brazilian coaches did not deploy this system.

"Big Phil" is a law unto himself. He knows that coaching Brazil means dealing with political and commercial pressure, but he is aware that he must win, and win with panache. Yet he is alleged to be prepared to sacrifice the flowing, artistic football, for a more pragmatic style based on work rate and pressing opponents. He insists that "the beautiful game" is dead. Not, thankfully, on the evidence of his team's opening game.

Scolari replaced the indecisive Emerson Leão, although he was hugely popular in Brazil. Similarly the people's choice, Romario, was excluded for "tactical reasons". Now he has a fine balance of youth and experience. A sound youthful inclusion in a key position has been Gilberto Silva. This unglamorous role in front of the defence was filled admirably in the recent past by Mauro Silva and by Dunga. When Brazil played their usual four-man defence it effectively became a three-man unit: in France four years ago Junior Baiano and Aldair were protected by Dunga. This allowed Cafu and Roberto Carlos to charge forward; I know this to my cost because it was from one such run that Cafu laid on the winning own goal by Tommy Boyd against Scotland in 1998.

The obvious man for this role would have been Emerson, but his dislocated shoulder on the eve of the tournament has given a chance to the quiet, softly spoken Gilberto Silva.

With arguably the best players, why did Brazil not win the World Cup for 24 years from 1970 till 1994? Carlos Alberta Parreira, the 1994 coach, confirmed that, although gifted with the ball, he had to teach most of his winning team that year how to play when the opposition had possession. For this reason he was unhappy with his star man, Rai, and sometimes replaced him with the more reliable Dunga.

In winning the World Cup Parreira bucked the current trend of the big target player up front; Romario and Bebeto did a magnificent job for him. Recently there has been a return of the tall, powerful mainline striker such as Hakan Sukur of Turkey, Carsten Jancker of Germany, David Trezeguet of France, and Diego Tristan or Fernando Morientes of Spain.

You don't usually associate these big guys with other attributes, such as great pace and skill, but both Argentina and Brazil are blessed with strikers who have both, Gabriel Batistuta and Ronaldo. The return of Ronaldo, justified by his typical goal from a great Rivaldo cross, has been a major boost for Scolari. In contrast to the recent twin striker fashion, he is up there on his own with a diamond shape in midfield. Gilberto Silva at the base, Rivaldo free in what I call the "spiv's role" behind the strikers, and Juninho and Ronaldinho on either side. Many teams are playing with one up and two just dropping off behind this arrowhead formation. It is awkward to combat, as France found out against Uruguay: Dario Silva and Alvaro Recoba often got behind Patrick Vieira and Emanuel Petit, while Sebastian Abreu kept Marcel Desailly and Frank Leboeuf (later Lilian Thuram) fully pinned back and occupied to create the yawning space necessary.

Against Turkey, Ronaldo showed enough to confirm that he is well on the way back and will continue to justify Bobby Robson's comment to me that he is the best striker he has ever worked with. Some predicted that the last had been seen of the "beautiful game" but the three Rs – Ronaldo, Rivaldo and Ronaldinho – will surely refute that as this World Cup progresses. Of the 734 players remaining here in Japan and South Korea, Brazil have the largest number of the best quality.