Scolari wears out Beckham videos

He may be known to his friends as Big Phil, but Luiz Felipe Scolari is a man with an eye for the smallest detail.

Yesterday, as his players lazed in a hotel jacuzzi, their coach was locked in his bedroom watching videos. He is respectfully addressed as 'professor' - which, given the time he has devoted to studying TV footage of David Beckham's free-kicks, is a title he has obviously earned.

Scolari's ambition is to achieve the unlikely union of natural Brazilian flair with hard-nosed tactical discipline.

As such, the attitude he has adopted is exemplary. He only emerged from his assiduous examination of Sven Goran Eriksson's players at the team's Hamamatsu hotel to take the reserve team training.

If four wins on the trot and 13 goals scored so far in the tournament is anything to go by, his effort has been worth it. Asked about the prospect of trying to shackle England's most talented player, Scolari said: 'We have watched countless videos of Beckham's free-kicks and, as a result, we know where the ball will go 90 per cent of the time - and even where it will go when it goes wrong.' It is unlikely that even Beckham would make such a bold claim about his own technique, but the Brazilian seems to have seen more of the England captain recently than Posh Spice.

So would he introduce any special measure to prevent Beckham from running the game? 'Nothing,' he replied blankly. 'Beckham is a specialist player in world football known for his crosses, passing and free-kicks and, in that respect, he is like Rivaldo for us.