Team spirit comes before personal glory - Cafu

Brazil captain Cafu’s record-breaking exploits may not have had the same publicity as Ronaldo’s but the 36-year-old skipper admits that collective success for the world champions is more important than individual landmarks.

Cafu already has a claim to footballing immortality as the first man to play in three World Cup finals and this summer hopes to be the first to play in three winning final sides.

In the last-16 match with Ghana, however, the 140-cap veteran will make a record-equalling 19th appearance for a Brazilian in World Cup tournaments while, if the champions see off the Black Stars, it would be his 16th win at a World Cup, also a Brazilian record.

“These are numbers to be proud of,” said Cafu, who was born on the day Gordon Banks made his legendary save from Pele in Mexico.

“It makes me happy but first of all we must concentrate on the game with Ghana which is the most important thing.”

Much attention has been focused on striker Ronaldo, who needs one goal to beat the record he shares with West Germany legend Gerd Muller, but Cafu insists the performance of the team is the priority for the five-times World Cup winners.

Speaking to reporters at Brazil’s base camp at Bergisch-Gladbach, Cafu praised Ghana’s maiden performance on the World Cup stage but insisted Brazil must not become distracted by the abilities of the Black Stars.

“I can’t wait to play because we will have had some time to rest and the break has done us good,” said Cafu. “They have some good players but we must concentrate on ourselves because the responsibility lies with us to win the game.”

Cafu laughed off reports that Adriano was unhappy at the selection policy of Carlos Alberto Parreira with rumours that Robinho could start against Ghana - the Internazionale striker looked downbeat on Saturday and refused to talk to reporters.

Speaking before Robinho tweaked a thigh in training on Saturday in an incident which team doctors insisted did not jeopardise him playing against Ghana, Cafu said: “Adriano’s always been like that and he’s not going to change now.

“That’s the kind of person he is.”

Brazil started the World Cup slowly with laboured victories over Croatia and Australia but were impressive in the 4-1 win over Japan with which they concluded their World Cup Group F phase.

Parreira was giving few clues to his starting line-up for Tuesday’s game, saying that only 23 players were available for selection.

Goalkeeper Nelson Dida paid tribute to Cafu who is playing in his fourth World Cup.

“Cafu talks a lot to the players and has some great experience in the World Cup,” said Dida who was understudy to Marcos in the 2002 World Cup-winning side but is now first choice for the “Canarinha”.

“He has played in so many games that he can contribute a lot to the team in this way.”