OSAKA, Japan, 21 June — Brazilian legend Pele said yesterday that meeting England at the World Cup should be a good omen and that Ronaldo should make the difference in tomorrow’s quarterfinal showdown.

“I believe that Ronaldo is the man to make the difference,” said Pele in a column for the Daily Yomiuri daily on the eve of the big game in Shizuoka.

“I am delighted with Ronaldo. People doubted me when I said that this World Cup would be a great turning point for him. But look at Ronaldo now: five goals in four games and many more to come,” he said.

Ronaldo has scored in every match so far at the World Cup. He is bidding to emulate Jairzinho’s seven goals from the 1970 edition and with nine overall goals is also just three shy of Pele’s 12 World Cup goals.

Brazil and England have met three times at the World Cup, a goalless draw in 1958 while Brazil won 3-1 in the 1962 quarterfinals and 1-0 in the 1970 group stage.

Brazil won the World Cup at each tournament. Pele named the games with England “a springboard to go on and win the title”. “So maybe meeting yet again could be a good omen,” he said.

“Really, Brazil vs. England would be worthy of a final. Brazil is the greatest nation in football history, England the home of football,” Pele said.

Pele said England’s 1-0 win over Argentina was impressive but named goalkeeper David Seaman not as good as legend Gordon Banks, whose save against Pele’s header in the 1970 game has gone down as one of the biggest goalkeeper heroics in football history.

“I still don’t know how he got back across his goal so fast,” wondered Pele.

Pele, who is at the World Cup as a representative of World Cup sponsors MasterCard, played only Brazil’s 1970 World Cup match against England, but said that he effectively owed his World Cup debut in 1958 aged 17 to the English.

“I missed the (1958) match because I was recovering from a knee injury. The game ended 0-0 but it was because Brazil didn’t score that day that I got my chance in the next match,” he said.

Pele didn’t score in his debut June 15, 1958, against the Soviet Union but then gained stardom in the next three games. He scored the winner in the quarterfinal with Wales, a hat trick in the 5-2 semifinal win against France and two more in the 5-2 final with Sweden.

Pele said that today’s game was a contrast of styles.

“For Brazil, the ideal style is our ‘beautiful game’ plus determination to score the goals which win matches.

“For England, the ideal style is much more pragmatic, with all the players dedicating themselves for the full 90 minutes to teamwork,” he said.