BRAZIL REMAIN WORLD'S FAVOURITE TEAM

For so many years we waited for it,even hoped against the hope that we will be part of it and when the show finally gets underway with an official opening ceremony that will light up Johannesburg skies,we will sit down to enjoy it.And we have every reason to believe that the first FIFA World Cup to be host by an African country will be great whilst it lasts - a defining moment to say the least.

The World cup soccer finals - there will never be anything like it in the world.

Not even the Olympics,the commonwealth games,the Euros or anything you can dream of -the winter olympics included.Not even all these tournaments or showcases put together can rival the global interest in the world cup finals.

Maybe my affection with the world cup is just natural - i was born almost a decade after,the greatest team ever assembled,inspired by a dark skinned legend Edison Arentes Do Nascimento(to be later known as Pele) and a flying winger called Jairzinho,struck gold for Brazil under the Mexican sunshine in 1970.Jairzinho(a natural successor to the outstanding winger Garrincha),scored in every game during that tournament,something that Rivaldo tried and failed in the 2002 edition,something that Moroccan born French legend Just Fontaine tried and failed in 1958 despite scoring 13 goals and something that every other man who is not Jairzinho has tried and failed.

Brazil is to global football what Ferrari and McLaren is to formula one,what Tiger woods is to grand slams in golf and as much as it hurts to say it,the Samba boys are the heart and soul of world football.When Ronaldinho smiles the entire world smiles with him,when Brazil wins the whole world wins with them and when they lose,it somehow takes the gloss off the world cup.Brazil are the neutrals' favoutites,have been the neutrals' favourates' since Pele shed tears after inspiring the team to world cup glory in Sweden in 1958.And,it seems,they will always be neutrals' favoutites.For as long as the Brazilians stick to their values and play football the way they do,which is the way the game should be played anyway,they will always be the world's favourite national team.

The Germans play to frustrate their opponents by massing their defence,Brazil play to destroy their opponents with attack-minded players who always believe they can score more goals than their opponents.In an ideal Germany football world,the world cup would be won by a team that never scored even one goal and also never conceded any in open play throughout the tournament - waiting always to gatecrash via penalty shootout.

An ideal Brazilian football world is completely the opposite - the world cup returns it's dignity,its entertainment,you are assured of goals and the fans get the value for their money.Rewind your memory to Japan-South Korea 2002,Ronaldo clearly not 100 percent fit throughout the tournament,scored eight goals in seven matches,while his strike partner Rivaldo slammed home five - that is Brazilian football.Miroslav Klose scored five for German,all with his head,but in reality this man is Polish and there was something different from Deutschland,you could tell he was born in Poland.His major strike partners,Casten Jancker and Oliver Biehorf scored one apiece,all of them coming in the first game of the tournament - that is German football at its best.It's no big surprise that their last world cup triumph in 1990(Italy),under the name (West Germany),came courtesy of a 1 - 0 win,a controversial penalty three minutes from time converted by Andreas Breme as they edged Diego Maradona's Argentina.

Even the Bundesliga is boring to watch for some of us brought up under a weekly dosage of the artistry of african football,the passion of english football and ,once every four years,the real football of the Brazilian masters

Of course,you have to salute the Brazilians - they did not invent the game and they did not play it until a certain Englishman called Miller who worked in the railways brought the round ball to the beaches of Rio De Janairo.From those humble beginnings the game took the Brazilians by storm,each generation perfecting the art of playing football and by the time the world cup came to the Maracana in 1950 it evolved into a national passion - something more important than sport.For when something becomes so powerful that it attracts 205 000 people into a stadium - the crowd that watched Brazil take on Uruguay in the Maracana in 1950 for the world cup - then this is no longer just a sporting discipline.Football is part of the very fabric of Brazilain society and you have to look at the crowds,the expressions of their faces as they welcomed their heroes back home in 2002,to realise what the beautiful game means to these people.It's only when you see these pictures that you get to realise that,contrary to what the English keep fooling themselves,they are not a football mad nation.

The Brazilians have a culture for success in football and their coaches know that they have little choice - anything short of winning the world cup in style is not good enough.That is what separates them from the rest and that is the answer to why they have five world cup titles - all won away from home soil.While the Irish will celebrate losing in the second round,the English are deemed heroes for making the quarter finals and the Germans are mobbed at home for losing in the final,the Brazilians have to win it to be declared heroes.They are in their own league,they have their own class and they have their own different football that is so refreshing ,you would want to watch it again and again.In 2002,when the world was focussed on Rivaldo,Ronaldo and Ronaldinho - it was a midfielder called Kleberson who emerged as the best player on a glamorous night in Yokohama.It is such a pity,his beautiful effort,trying to lob Oliver Kahn from 30metres while on the run,crushed against the crossbar.It should have been the defining moment of the final.

But it was Kleberson who orchestrated the team's second goal with that fine run on the right before drawing the ball across the edge of the penalty area and as they say,the rest is history.Rivaldo sold that dummy,Ronaldo fired that goal and Brazil weer world cup champions again.Such extraordinary team work performance will remain embedded in our memories.

Now 2010 South Africa - the world is waiting.