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Recently, a colleague of mine asked Yordan Letchkov, Bulgaria's hero in their shock run to the soccer World Cup semi-finals in 1994, if it surprised him how well the team performed at that tournament. He replied: "Not at all" and continued to state that "everything came together at the same time; we had confidence and momentum from a superb qualifying campaign [when they defeated France 2-1 in Paris with an injury-time winner], a settled team, a game-plan we knew how to execute, and the preparations in the build-up to the tournament were spot on".

Perhaps pre-tournament preparations are similar to a match referee; they're very important but people only notice them if they are bad. Changing captain just five months before the World Cup, as coach of England, Fabio Capello, has done, could yet prove a touch of genius but rest assured that if England fail at some point in South Africa, the story behind John Terry's loss of the armband will become the focus. Over in Germany, the failure to renew coach Jogi Low's contract means that he could officially leave his post at the end of June, following the Round of 16 matches.

Four African sides had an advantage, with regards to preparation, before this summer as they qualified for the African Cup of Nations, which some approached as a mid-season World Cup training-camp to improve tactics and build morale. That ambition failed badly in the Ivory Coast's case; they were so upset by the Togo bus attack in Cabinda that they wanted to go home before playing a game.

Paul le Guen, the coach of Cameroon who was placed under pressure after his disorganized team played badly and then lost to Egypt in the quarter-finals, said before the competition's start: "Whatever happens, we have to remember that this tournament is preparation for the real thing. What matters is the World Cup, and we mustn't deflect from that goal." His side are 2.06 (+106) to qualify from Group E.

In three weeks, there is one round of international friendlies that for coaches will act as the final audition for players pushing for a place in the squad. Because the Rio carnival starts in Brazil next week, Brazil (6.2 (+520) to win the world Cup) coach Dunga will be forced to name his squad for the game against Ireland early, and so this week the spotlight will be on the boss, and specifically whether he picks Ronaldinho, Robinho, or neither of them.

Both men have been forced by this debate to take decisive action this season. After three years of living off past glories, and without a call-up since mid-2009, Ronaldinho shed his excess weight and has flourished in AC Milan's 4-3-3 system. South American writer Tim Vickery believes that the departure of Kaka to Real Madrid has helped Ronaldinho in general and there is no doubt that his form has given Dunga a problem to solve.

On the other hand, Robinho has looked average at best and disinterested at Manchester City, the nadir coming when, after coming on as a substitute, he was subbed off against Everton. He moved on loan to his first club, Santos, just last week and on Sunday was able to score the winning goal on his debut. Without a doubt he needs games and goals to boost his confidence and the fact he's up against poor defenses in Brazil should be irrelevant to Dunga.

At the moment, his preferred attacking line-up is Kaka, Robinho, and Benfica wide-man Ramires, more of an orthodox midfielder who can slot back when Maicon storms upfield, behind Luis Fabiano as the lone forward. It seems unlikely that Ronaldinho can work in that system, and though he may be the best playing option as back-up to Robinho, whether his ego would deal with that might be a different matter.

Time may be running out for Dunga in his selection process, but the same certainly can't be said for his Mexican counterpart, Javier Aguirre. Mexico, who play hosts South Africa in the opening game on June 11th and are 2.0 (evens) to qualify from Group A, have arranged up to 12 friendlies between now and then, playing against teams including Bolivia, New Zealand, and Iceland (in March), Ecuador, Senegal, and Chile (early May), and England, Holland, and Italy (late May). If Aguirre still can't work out his best team after all that, he really should be worried.

Different teams may approach the tournament in different ways but the same adage holds true for all of them. As Letchkov said, preparation matters.