Japan unlikely to cause an upset

Group F: With Brazil assured of their place in the second round despite having barely hinted at the sort of football they produced on the way to their fifth world crown four years ago, manager Carlos Alberto Parreira will avail of the opportunity to make a couple of changes for this evening's game against Japan.

Four of his players are currently on single yellow cards and two of his preferred starting line-up - Cafu and Emerson - are set to be rested while Robinho will almost certainly remain on the bench.

The fourth is Ronaldo and with Parreira admitting that the Real Madrid striker needs to get as much football as possible under his generously proportioned belt, the coach looks likely to risk the possibility that the 29-year-old might get himself suspended for the second round.

Cicenho and Arsenal's Gilberto Silva are first in line to benefit from the rotation policy but it is pretty much unthinkable that either will retain his place for the first of the knockout games.

For Japan it's make or break tonight with Zico's side desperately needing to pull off an unlikely victory against their manager's nation of birth if they are to have any chance of progressing to the last 16, as they did on home turf four years ago.

In seven previous meetings with the South Americans, the best they've done is draw (twice, in Confederation Cups) and their performances here in Germany so far, for all the toil and effort involved, would not inspire a huge amount of confidence.

They will, however, benefit from the later kick-off and will hope to steal something from potentially complacent opponents.

Central defender Tsuneyasu Takahara is suspended and so Keisuke Tsuboi stands by to return to the starting line-up.

Zico may well decide to shake things up in attack as well, though, with Atsushi Yanigisawa perhaps paying the price for his woeful miss early in the second half against Croatia.