Nick Westby: New predators on the prowl with real hunger for success

Thus the big five – Lionel Messi, Kaka, Fernando Torres, Wayne Rooney and Cristiano Ronaldo – were likened to the host nation's fabled quintet of wild animals; the lion, leopard, elephant, buffalo and rhinoceros.

What the advertisers – and us football fans – could not have envisaged was that these big-name players would struggle to emerge from behind the trees and spring to life out in the open veld.

Rooney never bared his teeth in four games, a Ronaldo never changes his spots and...well, you get the picture.

Metaphors aside, the 'big five' footballers have conjured one goal between them in 20 performances.

Granted, Lionel Messi has done everything but score, and when not being kicked from Johannesburg to Polokwane by opposition man-markers, Barcelona's diminutive magician has still had a big influence on Argentina's progress.

And Kaka, without scoring, has been Brazil's catalyst. But neither has grabbed the tournament by the scruff of the neck.

Liverpool's Torres looks like someone who has had exactly that done to him, while former Manchester United colleagues Rooney and Ronaldo are already at home with nothing but regrets and their status as the world's best reduced solely to club merits.

So as the big five seek shelter from the midday sun, their demanding club schedules trotted out as the reason for a fallow summer, other big-game predators have emerged, and with the quarter-finals kicking off today, this new pack have the chance to show that true world status requires performances on the grandest of international stages.

David Villa, for one, has been on the fringes of the world's elite for some time, and at last the deadly striker – with four goals to his name already this World Cup – appears ready to jump straight into its heart.

Gonzalo Higuian, the Argentina striker, aims to challenge him all the way for the golden boot, while Ajax's Luis Suarez has steered Uruguay to a quarter-final for the first time in four decades.

Wesley Sneijder is not retreating behind the excuse of a marathon season with Inter Milan as a reason for anonymity in South Africa, merely turning a Champions League triumph and a domestic double into a motivation for greater glories with Holland.

And those England fans who could bare to look up from behind their despairing hands on Sunday will have seen two young attacking midfielders from Germany in Thomas Muller and Mezut Ozil, whose quick feet are matched by their equally quick minds.

Ghana's Asamoah Gyan carries the hopes of a continent on his shoulders but has yet to wilt under the pressure, and even Robinho – a multi-million pound flop for Manchester City – appears to be enjoying his football again on the Brazilian beat.

There have been others in this World Cup whose stock has risen but are already back in their homelands, namely Robert Vittek of Slovakia and Japan's Keisuke Honda.

So as the big five fail to dominate, those on the prowl face a defining week in the hunt for sporting immortality.