Brazil coach Carlos Alberto Parreira hailed Ronaldo after the burly centre forward struck twice to equal Gerd Muller's World Cup scoring record in his side's comfortable 4-1 victory over Japan in Dortmund.

The Real Madrid man's brace - his first goals in this year's competition - took him to 14 World Cup goals.

It also helped Brazil come back from a goal down to comfortably defeat the Asian champions.

"Ronaldo is back," said Parreira. "He scored two goals today and we always believed in him. We believe he is special and that is why we have kept him in the team."

Keiji Tamada had given Japan a surprise lead when he raced onto Alex's through-ball before blasting past Dida in the 34th minute.

The goal came after Japan goalkeeper Yoshikatsu Kawaguchi had kept out Brazil with a string of top-class saves before Ronaldo equalised in injury time with a header.

In the second half Juninho unleashed a drive from distance in the 53rd minute that finally beat Kawaguchi, the former Portsmouth man flapping at the shot before it nestled in the back of the net.

Six minutes later the game was as good as over when Gilberto was released down the Brazil left by Ronaldinho's through-ball and the Hertha Berlin full-back fired across Kawaguchi and into the bottom left hand corner of the keeper's goal.

And with nine minutes to go Ronaldo sealed the win - and equalled Muller's record - after an exchange of passes with defender Juan before curling his shot past Kawaguchi from the edge of the penalty area.

"We did more than in the last games and today we played a more Brazilian style," said Parreira.

"We kept the ball on the ground. We planned that the team would improve game by game. It doesn't matter how it happens but we have reached the last 16 with confidence."

Parreira's team featured five changes from the one which started against both Australia and Croatia and the 1994 World Cup-winning coach was happy to have increased his options ahead of the second round game against Ghana.

"This makes my work easier," he said. "You don't win the World Cup with only 11 players, you have to have a group that is prepared to play whenever.

"It's very important for them to play a game because they need to have the confidence and it was important to win this game the way we did.

"The victory was because of the performance. We had more than 10 corners and 24 shots of which 14 were at the goal."

The game was the last for Zico at the helm of the Japan national team and the Brazilian joined Parreira in praising Ronaldo.

"Ronaldo is a gunner," he said. "If you leave him like we did he scores. I would love to have Ronaldo in my team because he makes the difference. He's a player that has the smell of goals.

"He can position himself well and playing with a team that makes such great goal scoring opportunities helps.

"Brazil had their task made easier today because they have already qualified and were playing against a desperate team that had to win by more than one goal.

"If we had gone into the second half ahead it would have been different but Ronaldo scored."