Cole's life about to get harder

One of England's conundrums is just what will be the best approach against the Brazilians. They offer you inviting space behind their three defenders and the detailed statistics kept by FIFA for every game suggest that Emile Heskey and Michael Owen will have goal chances.

Indeed, Costa Rica had 30 in their first- round game, 17 of them on target, which is an extraordinary number for an international fixture.

So do you attack Brazil's weaknesses or defend their strengths? Ideally, of course, you do both and Cole must not be so inhibited that he neglects to play to his greatest asset of getting into forward positions. He cannot, however, do it at the expense of not being able to get back.

The match will be played in midafternoon and the weather forecast is ominously good, so the temperature and the humidity could climb into the high nineties. Shuttling up and down the touchline could be exhausting work for Cole and he needs to make the right allowances. Fortunately, England will have had six days to re-charge.

There was a time 12 months ago when Cole thought his career had hit a wall, and he could not come to terms with the fact that glowing references were suddenly laced with doubts. Making the Arsenal first team and the England side in the space of six months was not so much high-speed as jet-propelled. There was bound to be some fall-out.

'The ups and downs are hard but I have to learn to deal with them,' he said. 'I have to work at making myself a better player. I knew the chances were that I'd be built up, then knocked down again. It always happens.'

The learning curve has taken a sharp upward turn here but this weekend brings the defining moment for a man who has the reputation of treating the half-way line like the starting blocks in a sprint.

Yet it is in his own half where he needs to be vigilant. Cafu will share the raiding down the Brazilian right with Ronaldinho, the young forward who kept Romario out of Luis Felipe Scolari's squad and loads the bullets for Ronaldo and Rivaldo.

It is essential those two world stars, with nine goals between them so far in this World Cup, have their firearms muzzled otherwise England could be blasted out of the competition.

For Ashley Cole, it is his biggest responsibility yet.