BERGISCH GLADBACH, June 29: Some coaches spend the whole 90 minutes of a game ranting on the touchline as if they were dying to get on to the pitch and play themselves.Others chop and change their team and their tactics between every game as if they were more important than the players.

Brazil's Carlos Alberto Parreira, however, sits quietly on the bench with the expression of a man waiting for the next bus to come along.

It is hard to believe that Parreira carries the hopes of 180 million football-mad compatriots on his shoulders and is in charge of some of the planet's most gifted and highly-paid players.

In a sport where coaches are increasingly hogging the limelight, Parreira retains a firm conviction that the players are still the stars of the show. “That's my way of doing things,” he said after their 3-0 win over Ghana set up a quarter-final showdown with France on Saturday.—Reuters