Brazil. Various images have been portrayed over the years to illustrate how Brazilians differ from all others in their approach to football.

Yesterday's training session, their last before they open their defence of the World Cup against Scotland at Stade de France tomorrow afternoon, provided another.

For less passionate races, these get-togethers are occasionally seen as an imposition.

Not this one. No fewer than 4,000 fans, most of them French, presented themselves in the small stadium where, for an hour or more, the champions cavorted in the early afternoon sunshine.

What set this cameo apart, however, was that the whole session, even down to the spectacle of the Mick Byrne of the technical staff rubbing away aches and pains out on the pitch, was televised live for the faithful back home.

"Our country lives football during the World Cup finals - it is much more important to the people than religion or politics at this time," said Roberto Hernandez, a Brazilian television operative.

"Brazilians want to know everything about their players when they are preparing for the World Cup finals - even down to what they do in training."

With the practised ease of men who have long since come to terms with the price of belonging to the game's aristocracy, the more established players took it in their stride.

Ronaldo, a member of the support cast in the US four years ago but now acclaimed as the most exciting player in football, is, one suspects, less comfortable with the responsibilities which go with that rating.

Every time he touched the ball, a cheer went up; any time he retrieved it from the side of the ground where the Brazilian supporters were gathered, he was in danger of not being allowed to rejoin his team-mates.

The pressures of kingship in this sport are enormous and Pele, the finest Brazilian of them all, was not alone when he wondered how the 21-year-old Inter Milan striker would handle them in France. Yesterday's performance was encouraging. But then there were no size 14 Scottish boots to dispel the feeling of camaraderie. Enter Colin Hendry in just over 24 hours' time.

While the Brazilians soaked up the adulation, Hendry and his fellow Scots had, presumably, far fewer admirers as manager Craig Brown supervised their last full session before the battle against the champions.

Apart from a little intercontinental revelry at Charles de Gaulle Airport, where Brazilian sambas competed with Scottish supporters bellowing for the attention of fellow arrivals, the two sets of supporters have not yet mingled.

When they do, the excitement off the pitch promises to be no less interesting than the action on it, at the start of the most-hyped World Cup finals in history.

Brazil's £20 million man Ronaldo knows he will never be mentioned in the same breath as Pele or Maradona until he has conquered the globe and put a World Cup winner's medal in his pocket.

He bears the hopes of a nation on his young shoulders and well knows that, in Brazil, second place counts for nothing.

"In Brazil it is victory or exile - there is nothing in between," he said.