avid Beckham fears England lost their best chance ever of winning the World Cup last year and he might not get such a good chance again.

England captain David Beckham prepares to leave Manchester Airport on his way to the Macedonian capital, Skopje, September 4, 2003. England are due to play Macedonia in a Euro 2004 qualifying game on Saturday. [Reuters]

England crashed out 2-1 to Brazil in the quarter-finals after taking the lead through Michael Owen but Beckham admits England players could not cope with the heat in Japan and faded during the second half of every match.

"I'd expected so much of myself and England," he says in his new autobiography, My Side, serialised in the Sun newspaper.

"We'd prepared right. Everything had felt right - and we'd missed maybe the best chance any of us would ever have.

'All the momentum had been snatched away from us'
"I thought we'd missed out that afternoon on a real chance of winning the World Cup - and so did all the other England players.

"With all due respect to Brazil, it wasn't as if we'd lost the game so much as handed it over - and that was a horrible feeling."

And he says Brazil star Ronaldo was laughing as Englands players wilted in the heat.

Even with England 1-0 up just before half-time against Brazil in Shizuoka, Beckham was stunned to see a carefree Ronaldo joking with the referee.

The England skipper admits his team were left knackered and drained after Rivaldo equalised for Brazil on the stroke of half-time.

'Life had been drained away from us'
England, beaten 2-1 by Ronaldinho's free-kick which caught goalkeeper David Seaman off his line, failed to make an impact in the second half even after Ronaldinho was sent off.

"Ronaldo was standing with the referee, talking about something - and then he started laughing and put his arm around the refs shoulder," says Beckham.

"He looked like this was him and a few mates enjoying a Wednesday night kickabout down the local park, without a care in the world.

"How can you be doing that, 1-0 down at the World Cup?" asks Beckham who is now Ronaldo's team-mate at Real Madrid.

Beckham says Rivaldo's coolly-taken equaliser was the goal that killed England and not the Ronaldinho free-kick which embarrassed keeper Seaman after the break.

If it had remained 1-0 at half-time I genuinely believe England might have won the World Cup," he says.

"But instead of going back into the cool of the changing room on a high, all the momentum had been snatched away from us.

"The look on the England players faces said it all. Were knackered, weve nothing left.

"It was the story of our World Cup. We played our best football in the first half of games and then ran out of steam after half-time.

"Im not sure how much was physical and how much was mental. I do know Rivaldo's goal killed us.

"And I dont think there's anything that could have been said or done in the break to change that.

"We came out for the second half with our belief and our energy drained away.

"We sat back, couldnt keep possession and couldn't get forward. When your legs go, your head goes too.

"It was well over 100?down on the pitch and trying to keep your concentration fixed was like trying not to screw your eyes up in the sun. We hadn't a chance."

England boss Sven Goran Eriksson was criticised for lacking passion and failing to make tactical changes as his team faltered.

But Beckham believes there was nothing the manager could have done.

"Svens never been a shouter, a manager to jump up and down. He may not be as passionate in a vocal sense as Alex Ferguson or Martin ONeill but hes just as single-minded about winning.

"A manager can't give players what they haven't got - the job is to make them find what they need inside themselves."

Beckham insists Ronaldinho's 50th-minute effort was a fluke.

"The moment he struck the ball I could see he'd shanked it. It was a cross that had gone wrong," says Beckham.

"There was an eerie silence as the ball spun beyond Dave Seaman and dropped over his head, under the bar. I was certain it was a fluke.

"When we got back to the dressing-room, you could see 10 months of top-level football catching up with the lads.

"It was as if the life had been drained away from us."

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