Bumpy roads lead to Cup final

YOKOHAMA, Japan -- Facing humiliation, Germany and Brazil began winning soccer games.

They haven't stopped since.

On Sunday, the two most successful nations in World Cup history meet for the title. The Brazilians own an unprecedented four, the Germans have three. Both are in the championship game for a record seventh time. Yet both struggled just to qualify for the tournament.

That may not be a coincidence.

"For me," said Pele, who led Brazil to its first three crowns, "the two strongest teams are here."

The Germans finished with a 5-1-2 mark in European qualifying, but the numbers were deceiving. They lost 5-1 to England at home and tied Finland 0-0 in the final two group games, forcing them to win a home-and-home playoff with Ukraine.

When the teams tied 1-1 at Kiev, some anxious moments followed. After winning the World Cup in 1990, the Germans had been knocked out in the quarterfinals of the next two tournaments. Now they needed a home win or a 0-0 tie just to make the final 32-team field in Asia.

Despite a 4-1 victory over Ukraine, the anxiety lingered. Oddsmakers made Germany a 16-1 shot to win the World Cup when the tournament began.

"Nobody really expected us to even go to the round of 16," said coach Rudi Voeller, a former star striker for the national team. "Those were the hardest days in my career. I had never been under so much pressure.

"But that's when the team grew together, when we created this spirit we have and when we showed that we are able to produce under pressure."

This team has been compared unfavorably with some of the great German teams of the past. But like those teams, this one clamped down defensively and allowed just one goal -- by Ireland's Robbie Keane, in second-half injury time in the first round.

The Germans then won three straight 1-0 games with magnificent goalkeeping from Oliver Kahn, a tightly packed defense in front of him, and just enough scoring.

That's the German way -- not fancy, but efficient. The players don't care about the other team possessing the ball most of the time, as long as they get it long enough to score at least once. Then they protect, protect, and of course, protect.

"We've only allowed one goal and we'd like it to remain that way," defender Carsten Ramelow said.

Brazil was a 6-1 shot to win on May 31 -- long odds for the perennial South American powerhouse.

What wasn't apparent then, as the brutal 18-game South American qualifying tournament drew to a close, was whether this team could play as a unit.

Usually Brazil dominates its continental qualifying. But with many players unavailable for practices because of injury or club commitments -- and with dissension rampant among those who showed up -- the Brazilians were upset by Bolivia, Chile and Ecuador.

At one point, they lost four of seven qualifiers. The nadir was a 2-0 loss to Honduras in last year's Copa America, after which Brazil fell to second, then third in FIFA's world rankings. It was the first time since 1994 Brazil wasn't No. 1.

Heading into their final game last November, the Brazilians needed to beat Venezuela to assure a spot in the World Cup. They won 3-0, but the storm surrounding coach Luiz Felipe Scolari's side didn't subside until Brazil made its run through the bracket, first in South Korea, and then Japan.

"Our team is reasonable to good," Scolari said. "It's no marvel, but we're competitive."

Competitive enough to be 6-0 at the World Cup, the only perfect mark. Competitive enough to be favored over the Germans, who, oddly enough, they've never met in the tournament. And competitive enough to fuel expectations back home, where the recent hard economic times have been forgotten -- for the moment.

But beating the Germans is a must.

"If we win the title, there will be three months of euphoria," forward Denilson said, "and then the demands will start again. That's just the way it is."