Brazil manager Carlos Alberto Parreira is set to rest players against Japan for their World Cup tie today, while Japan coach Zico has refused to give any clues about his team selection.
Brazil are already through to the knock-out phase, while Japan need a win and Australia and Croatia to draw and finish with a better goal difference than the Aussies to progress.
Those Brazilians on yellow cards - another would see them suspended for the first knockout game - are first in the queue to be taken out of the line of fire so that is likely to see the veteran Cafu kept on the bench.
The 35-year-old is a game away from making the Brazilian World Cup finals appearance record his own, with Dunga and Claudio Taffarel also having played in 18 of these high-profile encounters.
Juventus midfielder Emerson is another likely absentee because of a previous yellow card but Perreira seems prepared to allow Ronaldo to walk the disciplinary tightrope in the hope the 29-year-old can find either his earlier form or the net.
Perreira said: "Usually I like my players to go to sleep knowing who is playing but this is a special match and Ronaldo is a special case."
Japan coach Zico refused to give any clues about his team selection other than to confirm he had already decided on his starting XI.
Not surprisingly, up front is the area where changes are most likely, with the places of Naohiro Takahara of Hamburg and home-based Atsushi Yanagisawa, who had been guilty of an appalling close-range miss against Croatia, under threat.
Seiichiro Maki and Keiji Tamada are both keen to take their places in a side that could boast three British-based players in the shape of Bolton's Hidetoshi Nakata, Shunsuke Nakamura of Celtic and West Brom's Junichi Inamoto.
As well as a Brazilian in the Japan dugout there will be 12 on the pitch as defender Alex - real name Alessandro Santos - did not move to the Far East until he was a teenager and was granted citizenship only five years ago.
