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Argentina is out of the World Cup, and coach Jose Pekerman is leaving as coach.
   Pekerman announced he was stepping down Friday just minutes after Germany defeated Argentina 4-2 in a penalty shootout in the World Cup quarterfinals.
   Penalties settled things after the two former champions were level at 1-1 after 90 minutes and 30 minutes of extra time.
   ‘For sure I am not going to continue,’ said the 56-year-old Pekerman, who took over the team in September of 2004 from Marcelo Bielsa.
   ‘This is over,’ he added when asked a second time about his decision. ‘A cycle comes to an end and I will certainly not go on. I am convinced that I did whatever was within my reach. It’s time to look for something else.’
   Pekerman won three world youth titles for Argentina - 1995, ‘97 and 2001 - before moving up to the top job in Argentine soccer. Of the 23 players on this team, 17 played for his youth teams.
   ‘I don’t know if we let people down again,’ said 22-year-old striker Carlos Tevez, who started in place of Javier Saviola and was Argentina’s biggest threat. ‘We feel that we left all we had on the field.’
   The game wasn’t quite a classic, though it did recall their two World Cup finals. Argentina won 3-2 in 1986, and Germany prevailed 1-0 in 1990.
   The loss means two-time champion Argentina hasn’t reached the World Cup semifinals since 1990, but it partially made up for 2002 when the Gauchos were ousted in the first round.
   Three-time champion Germany is into the semifinals for the 11th time, repeating it semifinal appearance four years ago in South Korea and Japan.
   ‘I always believed in these players and they never betrayed me,’ said Pekerman, his graying hair mussed and his forehead deeply wrinkled. ‘To the very last penalty we still believed.’
   The penalty miss that put Argentina out was by midfielder Esteban Cambiasso, who was stopped by Jens Lehmann diving to his left on a low shot. Cambiasso walked toward the sideline, breaking into tears. Others like Juan Pablo Sorin and Javier Mascherano also cried openly.
   Seconds later, players from both teams charged each other at the center of the field. There was pushing and shoving, apparently set off as both teams taunted each other during the penalty shootout.
   ‘Sometimes emotions will flare up,’ Pekerman said. ‘It was a very emotional moment. Let’s leave it at that.’
   The game got away from Argentina, which had 65 per cent of the possession in the first half and took the lead in the 49th minute on Roberto Ayala’s leaping header. Instead, the goal lifted Germany, which began to apply unrelenting pressure, spurred on by the 72,000 sellout at the Olympic Stadium.
   Then disaster struck. With about 20 minutes of regulation time to play, goalkeeper Roberto Abbondanzieri went off with a leg injury in a collision with Miroslav Klose. That set off a string of substitutions, two of which were forced on Pekerman.
   Leonardo Franco came on in the 71st to replace Abbondanzieri, making his World Cup debut and playing only his third game for the national team. Pekerman later called Abbondanzieri the ‘team’s ace of spades,’ particularly in penalty situations.’
   A minute later, Pekerman sent on defensive midfielder Cambiasso for playmaking Juan Roman Riquelme. Pekerman said Riquelme was tiring.
   And in the 79th, he took off striker Hernan Crespo and, instead of replacing him with 19-year-old Lionel Messi, sent on striker Julio Cruz.
   Cruz is the team’s tallest striker at 1.87 meters (6-foot-2).
   One minute after Cruz entered the match, Klose equalised with a header.
   Pekerman was forced to defend not playing the short, fleet, game-breaking Messi.
   ‘If a player is tired and we need somebody or something, I don’t think I’m betraying anybody,’ Pekerman said. ‘Today there was a need to refresh the team. I felt they were tired.
   ‘We know Julio is a great player with a clear role,’ Pekerman added. ‘We thought we would perhaps place him in front of the goal. ... We wanted more high balls, more headers.’
   Pekerman also defended Franco. ‘You cannot simply crucify anybody or the goalkeeper for not having stopped the penalty,’ he said.
   Franco failed to stop any of the penalties - Lehmann stopped two - and guessed the wrong way on three. He was inconsolable.
   ‘I feel very bad. I’m very sad and devastated,’ Franco said.

Luca Toni scored twice as Italy beat Ukraine 3-0 in the World Cup quarter-finals here on Friday to set up a mouth-watering last four clash against hosts Germany.
   Gianluca Zambrotta, who earlier this week flew back to Italy to visit his stricken former Juventus team-mate Gianluca Pessotto after an apparent suicide attempt, gave the three-time champions an early lead with a left-footed shot.
   Toni’s close range header near the hour mark put the Azzurri firmly in the driving seat after a spell of heavy Ukraine pressure, and the giant Fiorentina marksman doubled his tally by tapping in Zambrotta’s cross.
   Italy’s second goal came shortly after Gianluigi Buffon pulled off a superb save to deny Oleg Gusev, with Zambrotta blocking Anatoliy Tymoschuk’s follow-up on the goalline.
   Ukraine’s Andriy Gusin’s header hit the bar shortly after Toni had made it 2-0.
   Ukraine striker Andriy Shevchenko, who spent seven years playing in Italy for AC Milan before signing for English champions Chelsea last month, was superbly snuffed out by a well-drilled Azzurri defence.
   The match between Germany and Italy, which will be played in Dortmund on Tuesday, is a repeat of the 1982 final which the Italians won 3-1.
   Midfielder Mauro Camoranesi, recalled to Italy’s starting line-up to provide extra width on the right, threatened first, firing wide after a robust run through the middle in the fourth minute.
   Italy went ahead through an unlikely source in the sixth minute. Zambrotta played a one-two with Francesco Totti before firing a low drive past Oleksandr Shovkovskyi.
   Ukraine came out fighting at the start of the second half and they might have levelled the score had it not been for Buffon’s quick reflexes.
   Gusin’s downward header looked goalbound, but the Italy keeper managed to claw the ball away and picked up a bump on the head in the process after falling back onto the post.
   Buffon came to Italy’s rescue again when he palmed away Gusev’s angled shot, and although Tymoschuk was first to the loose ball, Zambrotta was on hand to keep out the rebound.
   Toni eased Italy’s jangling nerves in the 59th minute, meeting Totti’s left-wing cross with a meaty header.
   And Toni had the final word 10 minutes later when he nudged Zambrotta’s cut-back over the line from a yard out.

Brazil have been far from the consummate defending champions at the Germany World Cup but should they rediscover their missing spark against France here todaytheir chase for a record sixth world crown will be on in earnest.
   Coach Carlos Alberto Parreira is demanding more consistency from his exotically-talented team as Brazil face up to Zinedine Zidane’s recharged Les Bleus for a place in the last four against England or Portugal.
   Also underscoring Brazil’s quest for the ‘Hexa’ or sixth world title is that no South American team has won the World Cup in Europe, stretching back to young Pele’s Brazil in Sweden in 1958.
   Parreira, who once vowed never to coach Brazil again after the 1994 title victory over Italy after the personal abuse he received for the way the team played, wants a more patient buildup rather than throwing away possession.
   ‘We lack consistency with our moves. It’s one thing to have speed. It’s another thing to be in a hurry. We confused speed with hurry. We have been in a hurry too often and we have made a lot of mistakes,’ Parreira said ahead of the Frankfurt quarter-final.
   ‘What we have to do is work the ball around the pitch more before we make the move.’
   Brazil face a recharged France coming off their 3-1 spanking of Spain in the round of 16 in Hanover and memories of their 1998 final humbling in Paris when Zidane scored twice in a 3-0 World Cup boilover.
   Gilberto Silva, likely to play in the midfield in place of Emerson who has a knee problem, rates France highly.
   ‘France are a spectacular team full of great players and we will have to be at our best to get a result against them,’ he said.
   ‘I really believe that we are not playing to the best of our ability right now,’ the Arsenal player said.
   ‘We can play much, much better than this and we will need to if we want to go to the final.’
   France played their best football for years to beat Spain, but defender Lilian Thuram believes they will have to improve further if they are to have any chance of derailing Brazil’s title defence.
   The Juventus defender, who passed Marcel Desailly’s record as France’s most capped player last week against Togo, said: ‘It was good to come up against a talented team in Spain in the second round, we had to raise our game.
   ‘Now we have to raise it again for Brazil, not only in terms of quality of play but also our level of concentration.’
   Thuram, who will be winning his 119th cap having passed Desailly’s benchmark of 116 appearances, knows what lies ahead of his team in Frankfurt.
   ‘When you look at Brazil’s players it’s extraordinary the talent they’ve got, two Footballers of the Year in Ronaldo and Ronaldinho, Kaka, Adriano, Cafu and a very good keeper.
   ‘They’re favourites but the beauty about football is that favourites don’t always win.’
   Thuram, along with Zidane, are playing in their last major tournament for France after being coaxed out of retirement during last year’s qualifiers to help get the team to Germany.

England are determined to strike it third time lucky here today by hurdling Portugal and their charismatic coach Luiz Felipe Scolari to reach the World Cup semi-finals.
   Twice in two tournaments under Sven-Goran Eriksson, England have been bundled out in the last eight, suffering the crushing disappointment of early exits at championships they had entertained hopes of winning.
   The common thread linking those twin ejections at the 2002 World Cup and European Championship in 2004 is Portugal coach Scolari.
   Unsurprisingly, Saturday’s instalment has been billed as aduel between the larger-than-life Scolari and the passionless Eriksson, whose team have stumbled into the last eight without coming close to producing their best form.
   Eriksson, who has insisted that England will be able to raise their game when it counts, may never have a better chance of getting the Scolari monkey off his back as Portugal struggle to regroup after suspensions to key players.
   But if Eriksson sees Saturday’s showdown as a personal shoot-out with his nemesis, he is not letting on in public.
   ‘I don’t feel it’s me against Scolari at all,’ he said. ‘It’s England against Portugal, it’s the quarter-final of the World Cup, and it’s important to win it. I think we can.’
   Eriksson’s pointed refusal to view the contest as a time to settle a score with Scolari is partly his problem, according to the Swede’s critics.
   A more formidable character would seek to use past defeats as a motivational tool to inspire his players.
   Eriksson, however, does not do revenge and makes no apologies for his reserved dug-out demeanour, which is in stark contrast to the arm-waving, gesticulating touch-line histrionics of Brazilian Scolari.
   ‘I couldn’t care less,’ Eriksson said when asked if he was bothered by the unflattering comparisons of his management style to Scolari.
   ‘I’ve heard it for 30 years. Every time you lose a football game, something is wrong with the manager. I have no intention of changing. And if I haven’t changed by now then I probably never will.’
   Yet regardless of whether Eriksson’s management is to blame, it is undeniable that England have been far less than the sum of their parts in four matches so far.
   Having started the tournament lined up in 4-4-2, Eriksson is expected to persist with a 4-1-4-1 formation against Portugal.
   With Gary Neville expected to return from a calf injury, Owen Hargreaves is likely to move into the holding role, allowing midfielders Steven Gerrard and Frank Lampard licence to surge forward in support of lone striker Wayne Rooney.
   David Beckham knows that another below-par performance could well spell the end of England’s World Cup.
   ‘It has to click,’ the England skipper said. ‘Because we’re talking about the quarter-final of a World Cup, the biggest competition in the world.
   ‘If it doesn’t click now, we have to sit back and look at why it hasn’t done. There are certain times in games where we have come together for moments—that has to happen for the whole of the match.’
   Beckham’s loyal lieutenant Neville said that there could be no more excuses if England failed again.
   ‘I believe there is a time and a moment for players to deliver, and I believe it is Saturday,’ said Neville.
   ‘If we fail then we have to hold our hands up and say, ‘we haven’t delivered, that the talk about us being potential world champions was rubbish.’ So this is it for us.’
   Eriksson has drilled into his players the need for discipline against Portugal, with John Terry, Jamie Carragher and goalkeeper Paul Robinson all just one yellow card away from suspension.
   Portugal’s players were involved in what was officially the dirtiest match in World Cup history on Sunday, when they downed Holland 1-0 in a brutal encounter that saw 16 yellow cards and four sendings off.
   Among those to see red were key playmaker Deco and midfield enforcer Costinha, both of whom will be suspended against England.
   Despite the blood-curdling nature of Portugal’s second round win over the Dutch, Eriksson is not expecting a similar contest on Saturday.
   ‘I’m not afraid of the behaviour of Portugal’s footballers,’ Eriksson said. ‘I would be very surprised if there’s a problem. Portuguese football is not known as violent or unfair and I worked in that country for five years. ‘But we have to be careful. Four years ago you could do some tackles that you would get away with but today you don’t get away with anything.
   ‘You get a yellow card for the smallest thing. So it’s important not to make bad tackles when you absolutely don’t need to do.’

Brazil will have some insider information when they face France in the quarterfinals of the World Cup.
   Three of Brazil’s players – Juninho, Cris and Fred – play in France, all for five-time defending French league champions Lyon. Robinho plays for Real Madrid alongside veteran French midfielder Zinedine Zidane.
   ‘I can’t call it a test but France are definitely the best team that we’ve had to face,’ midfielder Juninho said. ‘It’s a strong adversary ... I know several of the players – five of them are from Lyon. They’ll be hard to beat.’
   The last time Brazil played France at the World Cup, hosts France won the title with a 3-0 victory.
   ‘It’s a very compact team,’ defender Cris said. ‘France are a very strong team, a team that’s growing and that has class in the world of soccer.’
   Brazil earned their spot in the quarterfinals by beating Ghana – Africa’s last survivor in the tournament – 3-0 on Tuesday in Dortmund.
   France had a comeback 3-1 win over Spain in Hanover, with Zidane crucial to the result – setting up a goal and then scoring one of his own late in the match. He was also key in the final against Brazil in 1998, scoring twice.
   Cris said Brazil would need to watch out for Zidane, who he described as ‘the brains’ of the French team.
   ‘He regained his form during this World Cup,’ Cris said. ‘If you let him do his thing, he’ll unbalance the game so we have to pay special attention to him. He is the most dangerous player.’
   Brazil have been the most successful team in World Cup history, but their record against France is slightly checkered.
   France eliminated Brazil in the quarterfinals of the 1986 World Cup in Mexico, winning on penalty kicks after a 1-1 draw.
   Brazil’s only World Cup win over France came in 1958, when Pele scored a hat-trick in a 5-2 victory in Sweden.
   Both teams have faced heavy criticism at home for their lacklustre starts at the World Cup.
   Brazil’s assistant coach Mario Zagallo said France had improved significantly since the start of the tournament.
   ‘France’s game against Spain was already completely different to their first games. They have evolved and played well,’ Zagallo said. ‘They were verging on exiting the competition. But they won their game and are now on equal footing with Brazil.’
   Juninho agreed that it was normal for teams to take a while to warm up.
   ‘No one, not even Argentina, started off that strong. It’s hard in a World Cup,’ he said. ‘Sometimes even teams like Brazil aren’t playing that
   well but are still able to win games.’
   The defending champions got three goals against Ghana, extending Brazil’s World Cup record to 11 consecutive wins – including seven in 2002.
   While the Brazilians have respect for their experienced French adversaries, the team is not worried.
   ‘We’ll play on top of (Thierry) Henry and Zidane. They are two experienced players.
   ‘They control the centre with a very strong defence,’ Cris said. ‘They have experience, have been playing together for quite a while.
   ‘But they also have their faults and we will have to make the most of those.’

Cristiano Ronaldo and Luis Figo have been fingered as the main danger men by England as they prepare to take on Portugal in the World Cup quarter-finals on Saturday.
   Ronaldo is set to come up against Manchester United team-mate Gary Neville, with both men expected to have recovered from injuries, while Figo will pit his wits with former Real Madrid colleague David Beckham.
   Neville knows he will have his hands full with Ronaldo’s trickery, having watched him run rings around many a defender in the English Premiership.
   ‘It’s very difficult to play against Cristiano,’ he said.
   ‘With his quality, speed and skill, you’ve got to get so tight to him so he can’t begin to run. There are times during the game, because of the fact Portugal do keep the ball well, that he will get at you.
   ‘We knew two years ago, with Simao (Sabrosa), Ronaldo and Figo, it’s very important and we have to defend well one-on-one on Saturday.’
   Neville, who has recovered from a calf injury that forced him to miss England’s last three games, was referring to England’s loss to Portugal at the same stage in the European Championships in 2004.
   Winger Ronaldo, 21, resumed light training on Wednesday after picking up a thigh injury in Portugal’s victory over the Netherlands, and Neville warned he was the sort of player that needed watching every minute of the match.
   ‘The difficulty any defender has playing against Ronaldo is you can play brilliantly against him for 89 minutes, but he can still produce a magical moment in the 90th minute,’ he said.
   Wayne Rooney, also a Manchester United team-mate of Ronaldo, would prefer if he was not playing, if only to give England a better chance of winning.
   ‘Although I want him fit it would be nice if he could just miss our game because he is a great player,’ he said.
   ‘If he plays it will be a tough job for us – I have played with him week-in, week-out for the last three years and he is a handful for any team and hopefully we can keep him quiet on the day.’
   With midfielders Costinha and Deco suspended and unable to play, Figo’s role will become even more important to Portugal as they look to make a World Cup semi-final for the first time since 1966.
   He may well move into Deco’s central midfield position with Benfica’s pacy striker Simao filling the void on the left flank.
   ‘I think Luis is one of the best players in the world and has been for a while. He’s played for many big clubs and performed well at the highest level for years,’ said Beckham.
   ‘So he could cause problems for any team and any defences and he’s one player that we always have to watch.’

Probably today it is the greatest day in this edition of the World Cup as three former champions take the field. Portugal may be the semifinalists only once in 1966 but they also will provide the spark to ignite the field. Breathtaking football is very much on the cards and the fans can experience some unforgettable moments today.
   Talking about the unforgettable moments? There were plenty of them by now. Joe Cole’s goal against Sweden was the first. Though Cambiasso’s strike against Serbia Montenegro is the finest team goal but Maxi Rodriguez’s strike against Mexico will be remembered by the spectators as long they live. The nimble footwork of Ronaldo against Ghana is another one that will live longer in the fans’ memories. This is World Cup and these electrifying moments are only produced at the highest level of football.
   So the friends turn into foes. Just a few days ago Zidane was providing perfect through passes for Ronaldo and Roberto Carlos was sending long balls to Zidane. Today they will not know each other. Above all they will be thinking to serve their countries. Personally I think it matters very little when two friends take two sides in the field. With the ball in your feet there is very little time to think of anything else.
   It’s champions Brazil against the resurgent France. Coach Perreira must have chalked out some special strategies to exploit the ageing France players’ lack of pace and of course to stop pacy Franck Ribery. So far the Brazilian defence has performed well against the constant pressure of the opponents. Brazil will look for something special from Ronaldinho who can excel in his duties today.
   Matches of this kind raise the energy level of the players as Brazil will look for revenge on their 1998 defeat and France will try to hold the flag high. Zinedine Zidane, Patrick Vieira, Lilian Thuram all were there in the 1998 final and they surely had not forgotten the greatest moment of their careers. It would be a fascinating contest.
   The other game can easily be dubbed as the duel between Sven-Goran Eriksson and Luiz Felipe Scolari. In the last two tournaments where Portugal had played England, Scolari had won against Eriksson and the master tactician will be in action again. In the England- Portugal battle it is the same story of club-mates turning into opponents. It will be Gary Neville and Wayne Rooney against Cristiano Ronaldo and David Beckham against Luis Figo.
   Both the matches will be full of skills, strategy and tactics. But a simple mistake by a player or a defensive lapse may make the difference.

Ronaldinho is the worst Brazilian player to date at the World Cup after underperforming so far, whereas Ronaldo has made the critics eat their words, a poll by the Datafolha group said Friday.
   The poll said that 27 per cent of men questioned - and 30 per cent of women - made Ronaldo their man of the tournament so far for the ‘auriverde’ following his three goals in the past two matches on the back of a slow start.
   However, 13 per cent said that Ronaldinho’s report card after four matches should read ‘must do better,’ compared with nine percent who were still dissatisfied with Ronaldo despite his becoming the tournament’s all-time top scorer with 15 goals.
   Against that, 14 per cent made the Barcelona star and world player of the year their favourite along with Kaka.
   Despite abiding reservations on Brazil’s form to date, 83 per cent of the 2,828 people asked Wednesday and Thursday said they believe the Selecao will win their sixth crown, with six percent going for Germany and two per cent for Argentina.
   The poll also showed that coach Carlos Alberto Parreira, who also led the side to the 1994 title, was riding the crest of a wave of popularity with 64 percent of fans supporting him compared with just 47 six months ago.
   Parreira earned some brickbats even after the 1994 triumph as his team was seen as dull compared to previous Brazilian sides.
   And despite four wins in four games in Germany, this year’s vintage has been bitterly criticised in some quarters for a lack of verve.
   Overall, 71 per cent of those questioned in the snap poll said they believed Parreira was the man for the job with only 17 per cent thinking he should step down.
   Were he to call it a day after the finals, 29 per cent of fans would like Brazil’s 2002 champion handler Luiz Felipe Scolari to return and drop his current post with Portugal.

Grasping for words, Sergey Kuz’min shaped his hand like a knife and cut the air in two.
   ‘After revolution in Ukraine, there were two sides—West, East,’ he said.
   Then, soccer and the World Cup intervened.
   He spread his arms wide, and slowly brought his hands together in a tight clasp.
   ‘After win over Switzerland: one country,’ the banker from the Black Sea port of Sevastopol said.
   Ukraine’s unity after reaching the quarterfinals in its first World Cup will now be tested in Friday’s match against Italy.
   It may be for a fleeting moment, but soccer can overcome divisions, unite people.
   ‘In politics, you can’t agree, but football can unify and that’s the most important,’ Ukraine coach Oleh Blokhin said.
   Not only in Ukraine.
   In Germany, it brings old East and West together in a common celebration of the flag.
   From the Olympic Stadium in Berlin or the old Nazi parade grounds in Nuremberg, to the wooden homes deep in the southern Black Forest and the BMW-lined banks of Hamburg harbor, one theme dominates: the ‘Schwarz-Rot-Gold’ flag is being waved with a new conviction.
   ‘We have never seen our country in this way,’ said Lewe Timm, a 30-year-old chemistry student who was proudly wearing a Germany jersey during a shopping spree on the eve of the match against Argentina. ‘It is normally the German way to say we are so bad, we don’t play good soccer. Now we say, ‘This is nice.’’
   Whatever the outcome of the quarterfinal match, Germany will be able to show off its newfound pride as hosts until the July 9 final in Berlin.
   For Ukraine, it’s different. On Friday, the euphoria after a roller-coaster World Cup ride could suddenly end with defeat.
   In its maiden World Cup, Ukraine was looking for a lift, but started out disastrously, losing to Spain 4-0. Back in Kiev, Prime Minister Yuriy Yekhanurov, wearing a yellow-and-blue scarf, banged his fist in frustration on a table.
   After the 2004 revolution, the Russian speakers faced off with the Ukrainian speakers. A divide ran across the country from those looking westward toward the European Union and those seeking to reinforce the traditional ties with Russia.
   Bad soccer results would not help bridge divisions. Then, unexpectedly, things picked up in the next games with advancement to the second round and a penalty-shootout victory over Switzerland.
   Suddenly, newcomer Ukraine was among the top-eight nations in the world and political bitterness made room for a mellow unity.
   ‘After the win, from Sevastopol to Kiev, cars, buses honked all night. Flags were everywhere and everybody was singing,’ Kuz’min said.
   He dressed up in the team colors and took the next plane for Hamburg to come see Friday’s piece of soccer history.
   Blokhin, a former forward when Ukraine was still part of the Soviet team, realizes what is at stake.
   ‘I know that people are getting closer together in Ukraine because of our team’s success and hard work here, because they are getting together for one hope,’ he said.
   That sense of togetherness through soccer has been important in Germany since 1954. Still demoralized and battered after World War II, West Germany got a huge lift when it won the World Cup against all odds by beating the ‘Magical Magyars’ of Hungary 3-2.
   Now, Germany is united again and finds in the World Cup a way of expressing a new patriotism where East and West are blended perfectly. Two of the team’s biggest stars, Michael Ballack and Bernd Schneider, come from the former East Germany, and the eastern fans are also falling in the World Cup fold.
   ‘This is also for the people from the East, it is their country, too, now,’ Timm said.
   While Germans long felt queasy about expressing national pride decades after the war, it comes unabashed and unburdened by history now.
   ‘You would not normally see this,’ Timm said. ‘Normally, you don’t show the flag, you don’t sing the anthem. We want nothing to do with nationalism in our history. It is a new feeling. It is OK.’
   German President Horst Koehler said it showed that ‘the nation has normalized. That we can show our national flag without second thoughts.’
   There are limits to the power of soccer, though. The civil war in Ivory Coast is not solved because of its first participation in the World Cup and, famously, the 100-hour ‘Soccer War’ in 1969 between Honduras and El Salvador following a World Cup qualifier claimed 2,000 lives.
   And despite all the goodwill in Germany, the Bundesliga kicks off again in the fall, and German soccer unity will be just a warm summer feeling.
   ‘When Bayern Munich comes to play Hamburger SV,’ Timm said, ‘we will be talking about ‘those Bavarians’ again.’

Far-right National Front leader Jean-Marie Le Pen, who says there are too many black players in the France team, does not know French history, defender Lilian Thuram said on Thursday.
   ‘Maybe Mr Le Pen hasn’t been told that some French people are black and others have got blond or brown hair,’ Thuram told reporters at France’s World Cup base in northern Germany.
   ‘I’m a bit surprised to see that this gentleman, who keeps running for presidency, does not know the history of our country,’ added the experienced central defender, who is preparing for Saturday’s quarter-final against Brazil in Frankfurt.
   ‘An American, for instance, would never be surprised to see black players on his national basketball team.’
   Le Pen told Reuters this week he felt French people did not fully identify with their national soccer team because there may be too many ‘players of colour’.
   ‘We feel that France doesn’t totally recognise itself in this team,’ said Le Pen, who caused an electoral shock in the 2002 presidential elections by beating the Socialist candidate to the second round.
   ‘Our fans support us and love us without asking themselves whether we’re black or not because they know we are French,’ Thuram replied.
   A member of France’s 1998 World Cup and Euro 2000-winning sides, the 34-year-old Thuram, who has won a national record 118 caps, was born on the French Caribbean island of Guadeloupe.
   Le Pen also said that goalkeeper Fabien Barthez should be kicked out of the team if he refuses to sing the national anthem.

The head of FIFA’s Referees Commit-tee denied accusations of poor officiating at the World Cup finals on Friday saying the standard had never been higher.
   There has been widespread condemnation in the global sporting media about the abundance of yellow cards and the record number of red cards shown in these finals. Both FIFA president Sepp Blatter and German great Franz Beckenbauer, the president of the German World Cup organising committee, have also criticised the standard of refereeing this week.
   High-profile controversies involving English referee Graham Poll and Russian referee Valentin Ivanov have thrust match officials into the spotlight, but Angel Maria Villar, the Spanish chairman of the referees’ panel denied any serious problems.
   ‘Ninety per cent of the refereeing has been at a very high level at this World Cup, a far cry from Korea and Japan in 2002,’ he said.
   ‘We have far less serious injuries, and far more goals scored.
   ‘Most of the matches have been played fairly in a great sporting spirit. We want a clean World Cup and we are achieving that.
   ‘It is the World Cup of the assistant referee. More goals are being scored in situations where before the flag would have gone up and the goal not stood.
   ‘Of course there have been errors – but we are all human beings and we have the right to make mistakes.’
   He backed both Poll, who showed a yellow card to the same player three times before sending him off, and Ivanov who sent off a record four players in a second round match, which Portugal defeated the Netherlands 1-0.
   Although both referees have now been released from their World Cup duties he praised both as ‘outstanding referees.’
   ‘Mr Poll is a great ref and a great man,’ he said, ‘who has admitted to a mistake. Mr Valentin is a great referee who showed the cards as he saw fit.’
   He said that ideas such as introducing sin bins for cautioned players, or looking again at whether a red card should be awarded after only two yellows were not matters for the referees to consider but for FIFA and the International Football Association Board, the game’s ultimate law-making body, to examine if they saw fit.

Steven Gerrard has called on coach Sven-Goran Eriksson to stick with the 4-5-1 formation so he can play the way he does with Liverpool.
   The 26-year-old has been hugely successful doing as he pleases at his club side but has had more restrictions placed on him by England, with Eriksson traditionally favouring two strikers up front.
   Michael Owen’s injury, though, forced Eriksson to play 4-5-1 in their last match against Ecuador and Gerrard hopes it stays that way.
   ‘That suits me down to the ground, it’s a lot closer to the role I play at Liverpool so if the manager decides to go 4-5-1 it suits me,’ he said ahead of England’s quarter-final
   clash with Portugal here on Saturday.
   ‘It gives two midfielders the freedom to attack, and you’ve got a holding role midfielder to do most of the defending duties.
   ‘I know people talk about that formation as a 4-5-1 but it almost becomes a 4-4-3 if you like, and you have more options out wide. I quite enjoy that formation.’
   Gerrard could get his wish with Eriksson expected to retain Wayne Rooney as his sole striker and move Owen Hargreaves into the holding role with a fit Gary Neville regaining his place at right back.
   That would give Gerrard and Frank Lampard more licence to roam and score the goals that they consistently do for their clubs.
   With Rooney straining at the leash after his comeback from injury, Gerrard is tipping the Manchester United forward to do something special on Saturday.
   ‘I think he’s going to put a really big performance in for us and I think he could be
   hopefully our key man,’ he said.
   ‘He’s such a fantastic player and I know he’s still hurting from two years ago having to go off injured, and also going out of the competition in the last eight, so I am sure Wayne wants to put in a big performance.’
   Rooney went off injured in England’s Euro 2004 quarter-final against Portgual, and they eventually lost on penalties.
   ‘I believe the injury to Wayne Rooney was the turning point. Up till then we were matching them and doing okay,’ said Gerrard of that match two years ago.
   For Gerrard, the game on Saturday will be more about just losing to Portugal in 2004. Liverpool were also knocked out of the Champions League last season by a Portuguese side, Benfica, and he would love to pay them back.
   ‘I’ve had some bad experiences against Portuguese opposition over the last four years - obviously two years ago in
   the Euros and recently going out to Benfica in the Champions League. So it would be nice to get one over them,’ he said.
   To do that, England must close Luis Figo out of the game or pay the price, he added.
   ‘I think it is vital we stop Figo playing. If you give him time and space he will crucify you and he’ll win the game for Portugal single handedly.’

Imagine a strike force of Maradona, Pele, Ronaldo and Marco van Basten.
   Those are the strikers on a dream team picked by 20 World Cup players, plus tournament head Franz Beckenbauer. Each was asked by FIFA’s official Web site, www.fifa.com, to pick a star team, including themselves.
   Crunching the numbers, Brazilians Roberto Carlos and Cafu were clear choices at wingback, with Paolo Maldini and Sir Bobby Moore joining them in defence. There was no clear winner in goal with Peter Schmeichel, Gianluigi Buffon, Iker Casillas, Petr Cech and Fabien Barthez tying.
   With such talent at the back and front, there’s little room in the middle. Zinedine Zidane and Patrick Vieira were the players’ favorites in the midfield.
   Players polled included David Beckham, Juan Roman Riquelme, Steve Gerrard, Alessandro Nesta and Raul Gonzalez.
   Germany’s Lukas Podolski picked his father, a former defender. Fellow German Bastian Schweinsteiger selected his brother, Tobias.

Portugal said they had the talent and mental strength to overcome England in their World Cup quarter-final on Saturday but admitted the game would be difficult.
   Captain Luis Figo said the team had studied videos of the England players and knew Sven-Goran Eriksson’s men well enough to cope with whatever they threw at them in Gelsenkirchen.
   ‘We will treat them with respect. We know the English team well, we know the players one on one, we know the way they play and we are prepared for the game,’ the midfielder told a news conference, adding, ‘We hope they don’t surprise us.’
   Much has been made of the fact that Portugal put England out of Euro 2004, and that their coach, Luiz Felipe Scolari led Brazil when they sent England home from the World Cup in Japan four years ago.
   Figo, however, dismissed suggestions of a psychological advantage.
   ‘There is not a revenge problem for Portugal, the problem is more for England after the last Euro...You should ask the England players about this,’ he said. ‘But the past is there for us to remember but it cannot help us in 90 minutes.’
   Figo was uncharacteristically physical in the bad-tempered 1-0 victory over the Netherlands in which he was booked for butting Dutchman Mark van Bommel.
   ‘Against the Netherlands we had to pull together and be as strong as possible to get a good result,’ he said on Thursday.
   But that performance, in which Portugal collected a total of nine yellow cards, has prompted criticism of Portuguese tactics. Costinha, one of those dismissed for two bookings, said the claims were not ruffling Portugal’s feathers.
   ‘Everyone is free to say what they want. We have to respond on the pitch. We are mentally strong and we don’t think about that kind of pressure. We have to believe in ourselves,’ he said.
   Figo agreed that Portugal would not be swayed by the English capacity for refusing to believe they were beaten.
   ‘We are showing a great mentality in this competition and we hope to beat the English in all ways. They have a great mentality but we have to be better if we want to win,’ he said.
   Figo, 33, would not be drawn on his international future.
   ‘Every game could be my last, I’m not eternal,’ he said.

Brazilian centre-back Juan says France star Thierry Henry will be man-marked in the highly-awaited World Cup quarter final today.
   The prolific Arsenal captain has scored twice at the finals whilst playing as a lone striker, and will be the attacking talisman for Les Bleus as they attempt to repeat their famous 1998 final victory over the South Americans in Frankfurt.
   However, the Samba stars, fully aware of the danger Henry represents, have revealed they have formulated a plan to deal with the lightning quick superstar.
   ‘Henry is very fast and will have a player as his shadow throughout the game,’ said Brazil centre-back Juan in The Sun.
   The Bayer Leverkusen stopper has also played down suggestions that revenge will be on the cards as Brazil attempt to make up for their insipid 3-0 defeat in the 1998 final.
   That game was preceded by controversy as Ronaldo suffered a fit, only to start against Les Bleus, and with the Real Madrid man one of the few surviving members from the night still playing in Carlos Alberto Parreira’s squad, Juan believes the new generation of stars will not be motivated by the defeat.

Klinsmann’s hometown names street after him The town where Germany’s coach grew up has named a street after him.
   Jurgen Klinsmann is coach of the German team that face Argentina in a tough World Cup quarterfinal on Friday. But the southwestern town of Geislingen saw no need to wait for him to deliver the trophy before honouring him.
   On Thursday, the new ‘Jurgen-Klinsmann-Weg’ street sign was unveiled on a street that runs alongside the local soccer team’s stadium, town spokeswoman Angela Rosenberger said.
   The young Klinsmann played for SC Geislingen in the mid-1970s. He was captain of the Germany team that won the 1990 World Cup final.
   Mayor Wolfgang Amann convinced the town council to honour Klinsmann on Wednesday night, prompted by the initiative of a local radio station. — AP
   
   Henry backing for Brazil ace
   France striker Thierry Henry claims he is bemused by critics of Brazilian striker Ronaldo.
   Henry, whose team face Brazil today in Frankfurt in the quarter-final of the World Cup, claims he is an admirer of Ronaldo who, in scoring his 15th goal in three of his four World Cups – he was in the squad but did not play in 1994 – eclipsed the 32-year-old record of West Germany legend Gerd Muller.
   ‘Ronaldo has always been a very dangerous player,’ said Henry of the 29-year-old who has three times been named FIFA World Player of the Year.
   ‘If you give him a shooting chance or the chance to accelerate, he always makes you pay.
   ‘He does not move much and gets criticised but scores 20 goals every season.
   ‘What he is good at is getting between two defenders and beating the offside trap and we have to realise what a danger he is.’ — New Age Desk
   Ghanaian fan dies after Ronaldo goal
   A Ghanaian fan died suddenly as his country conceded their first goal against Brazil in Tuesday’s World Cup second round clash.
   Richard Amenawu, 25, fainted and collapsed as Real Madrid’s Ronaldo scored the first in
   Brazil’s 3-0 victory over the last remaining African side in the tournament.
   The young man was watching the match on a screen installed in the train station at Takoradi.
   He was taken to hospital in the centre of town but could not be revived. — AFP
   French have no fears over Spanish referee
   The quality of the refereeing has been a hot topic at this World Cup and further fuel was added to the flames, for conspiracy theorists at any rate, with the appointment of a Spanish referee for France’s quarter-final with Brazil.
   Eyebrows were raised by some Gallic supporters at the decision to assign Luis Medina Cantalejo the match after France knocked his fellow countrymen out of the competition in Tuesday’s 3-1 last 16 win in Hanover.
   Yet French veteran defender Lilian Thuram said he had faith in the ability of the 42-year-old, who awarded Italy a stoppage time penalty against Australia, to be completely impartial in Saturday’s game.
   ‘I trust the referee to be the guardian of the game’s integrity,’ the 34-year-old cornerstone of France’s experienced backline said here on Thursday.
   ‘I don’t think it’s necessary to question the work of the referees,’ the Juventus player added. —AFP
   Bend it like Beckham
   David Beckham loves proving his critics wrong, particularly using the favourite part of his game – free-kicks. His curling free-kick gave England a 1-0 win over Ecuador in the second round of the World Cup on Sunday. Beckham said it was one of his most important goals, coming after a constant stream of criticism from the British press and former England players.
   ‘Definitely,’ he said. ‘It’s always nice when you have had a certain amount of criticism to score a goal that puts your country through to the quarterfinals.
   ‘There was a lot of personal satisfaction for myself with that goal and also being the first English player to score in three consecutive World Cups. That was a big thing for me as well.’
   Beckham said it sometimes took time to get his dead ball deliveries on target.
   ‘It takes me a couple to get comfortable,’ he said. ‘Sometimes I can go into games and my first free-kick I’ll score with. But
   other games, the majority of games, I’ve scored with my second or third.’
   Even his most famous free-kick – the last-minute strike that earned England a place in the 2002 World Cup finals – took its time.
   ‘The one against Greece I had taken seven before that,’ Beckham said. ‘But I felt confident in that game.’— AP

A place in history is beckoning David Beckham to Gelsenkirchen, a chance to join an elite band of English heroes.
   Only two men have captained an England side into the last four of the World Cup, worn that armband into combat.
   Forget the ‘Spice Boy’. Beckham will walk out to confront Portugal at the AufSchalke Arena as ‘Destiny’s Child’.
   The list of predecessors to have surpassed his England performances to date is short, but iconic. Only Bobby Moore and Terry Butcher – and now David Beckham...?
   ‘That’s got a nice ring to it,’ smiled the England skipper. It would be nice to be part of that. It would be an honour to be amongst those amazing players.
   ‘To lead out your country, for me, is the proudest thing. I’ve always said it’s the proudest thing I’ve ever been given in football.
   ‘Leading this team into another quarter-final is a very proud moment, but I want to go further. I don’t want to just stop at the quarter-finals.
   ‘It would be sad if we didn’t go further. We are a team of great talent and great players and we deserve to go further. The only way we can make ourselves go further is by playing well and beating Portugal.’
   By his own admission, Beckham is not a tub-thumper in the manner of Butcher, who has become arguably the fiercest critic of his successor as skipper.
   Today, though, in the bowels of Gelsenkirchen’s roofed arena, he will bare his teeth in the England dressing room, stirring the players to perform.
   Beckham added, ‘We do say something before the game. There are players who come out and talk before the match in the changing room.
   ‘I’m one of those and there are a couple of others who do it. It’s up to whichever player feels like saying something on the day of the game. But I do shout and swear. It’s a very passionate changing room that we’ve got at the moment and sometimes it takes that to get players and yourself lifted.
   ‘There’s not much swearing on my part, but there is some. You do have a think the night before a game what you want to say, but it is an off-the-cuff thing too. You go into the dressing room and say what’s on your mind.
   ‘Before the Ecuador game we were psyched up. In the tunnel I could see the players were worked up for it, and ready for it.
   ‘I think that’s what we’ve got to get in our minds now because Portugal is a huge game for everyone. We have to be ready, mentally and physically ready.’
   Everything Sven-Goran Eriksson’s men were not in Lisbon two years ago, when Beckham’s penalty shoot-out miss was symbolic of a night about what might have been. Tomorrow, though, is payback time.
   ‘What happened against them last time is a driving factor, definitely,’ said Beckham.
   ‘Every time we go out of a competition at that stage it’s very painful. To have it against Portugal twice at the quarterfinal stage would be very tough.
   ‘For us now, we can’t think about what’s gone on in the past. We have to look forward, we have to believe that we’ve got the beating of this team.’
   Beckham denied that, having tasted quarter-final heartbreak under his captaincy twice at the hands of Luiz Felipe Scolari, a third time would not be so bad. ‘It never gets easier to take,’ he insisted. ‘It always feels more difficult to accept going out of a major competition.’
   He admits that England have to step up from their performances to date and a look around the dressing room, at the faces of John Terry, Rio Ferdinand, Steven Gerrard, Frank Lampard, Wayne Rooney and the rest will reassure him that they will.
   ‘It just has to click,’ Beckham said.
   ‘We’re talking about the quarter-final of the World Cup, the biggest football tournament in the world. We’ve not been at our best, but we’re in the last eight and that’s what matters.

England’s performances at the World Cup may not have convinced many that they are capable of winning the trophy but it will not stop British bookmakers from taking a 50million pounds hammering should they do so.
   Mike Dillon, Public Relations Director of Ladbrokes, told AFP on Thursday that despite being a proud Englishman if it came to the day of the final and England were in it he knows what result he would prefer.
   ‘I would rather they lost actually,’ said Dillon, allowing his head to overrule his heart.
   Dillon added that the team that would be a big winner should they go all the way was not surprisingly 40/1 outsiders Ukraine but instead a team with a blueblood pedigree in the tournament.
   ‘Italy would be the best result for the industry,’ said Dillon, who will be hoping they progress at Ukraine’s expense on Friday in Hamburg.
   Dillon revealed that this World Cup and the amount bet on it didn’t bear comparison even with the one in 2002.
   ‘One billion pounds has been bet on this World Cup, not just with us but with the industry as a whole,’ he said.
   ‘Why so much more than previous World Cups? Because now you can bet in play so to speak. That is to say, in the past most bets on the World Cup were placed prior to the tournament and people sat back and watched it.
   ‘Now with the ability to bet in play you can have a bet with 10 minutes remaining of the match or even closer to the end. In short there is a market for everything.
   ‘One of the most popular is the number of red and yellow cards issued during a match.
   ‘I would imagine anyone who went big on the Portugal and Netherlands match will be on holiday by now!’ added Dillon referring to the World Cup record 16 yellows and four reds handed out by Russian referee Valentin Ivanov in their second round match.
   Dillon, who was responsible for bringing Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson into horse racing which resulted in the Group One recordbreaking exploits of his miler Rock of Gibraltar, said that punters had taken to the breadth of choice of bets with alacrity.
   ‘From their living rooms to the betting shops there are bets being placed on matches in play virtually every minute.
   ‘The punters have embraced it really enthusiastically.’
   The scope for placing bets stretches to the unusual or silly bets as Dillon demonstrated with England coach Sven-Goran Eriksson and the WAGS of the England squad the butt of most of them.
   ‘You can bet on whether Sven is going to propose to Nancy (del Olglio his long-time girlfriend) or it is 66/1 for the WAGS to release ‘We Are the Champions’ if England win the World Cup.
   ‘Also it is 50/1 for Sven to admit that he made a mistake in only taking four strikers to the finals.’

Portugal’s Luiz Felipe Scolari and England’s Sven-Goran Eriksson are among soccer’s elite managers. The resemblance ends there - except neither wants to manage England.
   The World Cup paths of Scolari - an excitable, mustachioed South American, and Eriksson - a stoic, fair-haired Scandinavian, cross in the World Cup quarterfinals Saturday.
   It’s an encounter between two teams featuring some of Europe’s best players but with contrasting styles.
   Recent off-field events have added intrigue to the meeting.
   Eriksson is leaving his job after the tournament, two years before his contract expires.
   Scolari, who led his native Brazil to the 2002 World Cup title, last month snubbed an approach from the English Football Association to replace Eriksson.
   The Brazilian has got the better of the Swede in their two previous meetings, knocking England out of its last two major tournaments in the quarterfinals.
   With Brazil, he dashed England’s hopes at the 2002 World Cup. He did it again at the 2004 European Championship, guiding Portugal past England on penalties.
   Even so, Scolari says he holds Eriksson in high regard.
   ‘Eriksson is a competent coach with a proven track record. Both of us have ability and respect for each other. A win or a loss (on Saturday) won’t change that,’ Scolari
   said.
   Eriksson also dismissed suggestions of animosity between the two, both in their late 50s and both with four decades in the sport.
   ‘I’m not a man of revenge. It’s not a word in my head,’ he said.
   The Gelsenkirchen enco-unter brings a contrast
   on the bench as well as on the field.
   Scolari is a tempestuous figure on the touchline. He badgers match officials, waves his arms in the air and wags his finger. He rebukes and encourages his players, and rarely manages to stay seated for very long.
   Eriksson mostly sits bent over in the dugout with his arms on his knees in quiet contemplation.
   England midfielder Owen Hargreaves discarded the difference.
   ‘At this level, whether you scream or yell or whether you talk to someone normally, I don’t think it has that big an effect on the players,’ he said. ‘A manager cannot intervene on the pitch.’
   The differences, though, may show through.
   Scolari has built a team in his own image, endowing it with a winning momentum that comes from self-belief and an uncompromising attitude.
   The result: Portugal has produced its best World Cup showing in 40 years.
   Deco, a midfielder, says that’s attributable to Scolari’s motivational skills.
   ‘He’s a strong personality who’s always there for the players. The mood he’s created in the squad is incredible,’ Deco said.
   The record books read heavily in Scolari’s favor.
   He has never lost a World Cup match.
   He has won a tournament-record 11 consecutive matches as a coach, after winning seven games with unbeaten Brazil in 2002.
   A year after moving to Lisbon, he steered Portugal to the final of the 2004 European Championship - the country’s best showing in the quadrennial competition.
   Portugal’s current 18-game winning run is a team record. And he’s Portugal’s longest-serving coach in history - 47 games with a record 31 victories.
   Though sometimes abrasive, the Brazilian is a national hero in Portugal.
   Eriksson’s image in England, meanwhile, has been tarnished by scandals.
   Sensationalist coverage in the British tabloids, which exposed Eriksson’s romantic affairs and tricked him into making indiscreet remarks about the England players to an undercover reporter, hastened his early departure.
   His team’s unconvincing performances so far in Germany have amplified fans’ dissatisfaction.
   Eriksson has not won a title with England, however he has earned some memorable victories, including a 5-1 win over Germany in a 2002 World Cup qualifier. The two coaches have plenty riding on Saturday’s match.
   Scolari is eyeing the chance of becoming the first coach to win the World Cup title twice with different teams; Eriksson is looking to restore his reputation before his departure.

Frank Lampard is expected to be fit for England’s World Cup quarter-final showdown with Portugal after concerns over a late injury scare eased Friday.
   The Chelsea midfielder twisted an ankle in training on Thursday and was reported to be an injury worry ahead of England’s meeting with the Portuguese in Gelsenkirchen.
   But an FA spokesman said Lampard was expected to take a full part in training later Friday, indicating that he was likely to play.
   Lampard has struggled for form during the tournament, but coach Sven-Goran Eriksson regards him as a key member of the England line-up especially for his goal-scoring abilities.
   Voted second best player in the world this year behind Ronaldinho, Lampard has vowed to rediscover his touch in front of goal.
   ‘The goals are just not going in for me, chances which I would normally eat up,’ he said after the Ecuador game during which he missed a sitter after being set up by Wayne Rooney.
   ‘Unfortunately it’s the World Cup and I’ve now gone four games without a goal although they’re going in during training.
   ‘That’s not unusual for a midfield player but with the standards I have set I expect to score.’

England will play Portugal under a closed roof at the AufShchalke Arena in Gelsenkirchen when they meet in the World Cup quarter-final on Saturday.
   Although no inclement weather is expected, FIFA spokesman Markus Siegler said on Friday that the roof at the stadium would be closed for ‘sporting reasons’.
   When the roof was closed there for the Group C match between Argentina and Serbia & Montenegro on June 16 the stadium became only the fourth in World Cup history to stage a game ‘indoors’.
   World Cup matches had previously been played under a closed roof at the Silverdome in Detroit in 1994, the Sapporo Dome in 2002 and Frankfurt’s Waldstadion where the roof was closed for the Group G match between South Korea and Togo on June 13.

If Thierry Henry only plays one second of France’s quarter-final with Brazil it will be longer than he managed in the two countries last World Cup meeting in the 1998 final.
   Henry, only 20 for that Stade de France clash, was put on the bench by then manager Aime Jacquet but was all set to make an appearance in the second half when suddenly the complexion of the game changed dramatically.
   ‘Aime had told me I was going on in five minutes. I started warming up then Marcel Desailly was sent off (in the 68th minute) and that changed everything,’ the Arsenal attacker recalled here Thursday 48 hours before Saturday’s rematch in Frankfurt.
   Henry admitted to being upset at not having been given the chance to feature in French football’s crowning moment.
   ‘I can’t lie, I did feel put out but it only lasted for a split second and then my only thoughts were for the team which was much more important.’
   Henry’s team-mate Lilian Thuram remembers the night from a completely different perspective.
   ‘For me it had a dream-like quality, from start to finish,’ said the Juventus defender and les Bleus’ most-capped player.
   ‘From the moment we got on the bus at Clairefontaine (France’s training headquarters) to the final whistle, to having friends in the stands, for the game to be in Paris, and then win the title.
   ‘At the end I said to myself “it’s not possible that this is actually happening”.
   ‘I don’t have any concrete memories of the game itself because it remains something incredible.’
   Thuram, Zinedine Zidane and Henry and the other two members of the Class of ‘98 starring in Germany – Claude Makelele and Fabian Barthez – are renewing rivalry with a trio of Brazilians in action eight years ago – Ronaldo, Cafu and Roberto Carlos. France had a distinctly less enjoyable time of it defending their title four years later when they got no further than the first round, and Thuram said that embarrassment was in the forefront of his mind when the current World Cup began.
   ‘When I arrived in Germany I was thinking I just hope it’s not going to be the same story as 2002. For if it was I was going to find it really hard to deal with that situation.
   ‘I’d done everything not to go through that again by retiring after 2004 (before he was persuaded to return with Zidane and Claude Makelele a year later).
   ‘But qualifying from our group with that win over Togo released something in me and the team.’

Brazil play 4-4-2, a formation they have used in every match since Carlos Alberto Parreira took over as coach at the start of 2003.
   Parreira, preparing for Saturday’s quarter-final with France, likes to keep things simple and rarely changes his team, invariably making his first substitution in the 70th minute.
   France coach Raymond Domenech is expected to opt for his preferred 4-2-3-1 formation with Zinedine Zidane orchestrating play in midfield and Thierry Henry on his own up front.
   Brazil
   Defence:
   Lucio, who managed to go through Brazil’s first four games without committing a foul, and Juan form the heart of the defence with Cafu and Roberto Carlos on the flanks.
   The full-backs, with a combined age of 69, usually like to get forward but so far they have been less adventurous than usual. Parreira replaced them with the more sprightly Cicinho and Gilberto for the group game against Japan, when the Brazil attack looked livelier in a 4-1 victory.
   Midfield:
   One player, either Emerson or Gilberto Silva, does most of the dirty work in midfield and protects the back four with Ze Roberto helping out.
   Ronaldinho, who plays much deeper than for Barcelona, and Kaka play attacking roles. Ronaldinho usually attacks down the left and Kaka along the right, although this can change. Kaka’s pace, strength and vision make him the lungs of the midfield.
   Forwards:
   Brazil field Ronaldo and one other player in attack. Adriano has started three of the four games but has given some plodding performances despite scoring two goals. Robinho was a breath of fresh air against Japan but was injured for the Ghana match.
   France
   Defence:
   Domenech started pairing William Gallas with Lilian Thuram in the centre of defence in the build-up to the tournament. Gallas, who had previously been made to play at left-back, adapted in no time and the new formula works perfectly.
   Right-back Willy Sagnol likes to get forward. Eric Abidal, on the left, is a little more cautious.
   France’s tight, flat back-four has satisfied Domenech so far but will be really tested by Brazil’s unpredictable forwards.
   Midfield:
   Patrick Vieira and Claude Makelele play in front of the defence, covering plenty
   of ground. Zidane sticks to his playmaker’s role with Franck Ribery and Florent Malouda acting as wingers, often switching sides.
   Forwards:
   Domenech is likely to go for a single striker in Henry, who was repeatedly caught offside in France’s 3-1 win over Spain in the second round. David Trezeguet has been used mostly as a late substitute so far and is expected to play that role again.

For World Cup fans who couldn’t make the trip to wave their national flags in packed stadiums or Germany’s streets, emotions run just as high—and low—on hundreds of Web sites, blogs and discussion boards.
   Soccer is dubbed the world’s sport and its each reach across the World Wide Web is just as great. Since the monthlong tournament started, scores of blogs have appeared—some professional, some decidedly less so—where fans cheer, jeer or bemoan each mighty win or devastating loss.
   Some bloggers tout the triumphs of their favorite teams and players. Others dissect each match, opine on what teams should have done or raise the complaint that is as old as sport itself.
   ‘One of the truisms of this World Cup is emerging,’ wrote Alex Ooms on The Denver Post’s soccerbawl, part of its Bloghouse feature. ‘If a referee can damage and deplete a game, they will.’
   Casual fans can get a free account with Google Inc.’s Blogger, transfer digital photos to Yahoo Inc.’s Flickr or other image-sharing sites, and even record short dispatches from a fanfest in Nuremberg or inside the stadium in Kaiserslautern.
   For fans such as Bob Kellett of Portland, Ore., the World Cup is a chance to blend a passion for soccer, a love of technology and rapid reporting of the day’s events.
   The 31-year-old former journalist took the helm of www.worldcupblog.org last year, building on the blog’s beginnings from the 2002 World Cup in South Korea and Japan.
   ‘It was four guys who stayed up late at night and (got) some random traffic,’ he said. ‘In 2006, they decided they wanted to do it right. They recreated the site, with 32 team blogs, and hired me as the managing editor.’
   Unlike the blogs favored by the hordes of traditional media, which use content from paid staffers, The World Cup Blog uses volunteers to cover each country before, during and after the event.
   ‘These are all fans ... not journalists,’ he said. ‘They are just people who love the team. Some are in the country, some are scattered around the world.’
   It also offers written and photo essays on fans and the 12 host cities as well as biting commentary about everything from the bikinis worn by female spectators to the hairstyles sported by some players.
   ‘The World Cup is such a fun event and there are so many odd stories. A dog named Rommel from Japan? You can’t beat that,’ Kellett said.
   There’s also the matter of sport.
   The site, like those maintained by The New York Times, Britain’s The Guardian and dozens more, offer live coverage of games for those who can’t watch.
   Each game is being blogged in real time with shots, yellow and red cards and goals tracked along with failed plays and balls gone out of bounds.
   ‘It’s stream of consciousness,’ said Kellett. ‘If I see a player and he’s got really bad hair, I write about it.’
   Readers can comment as the action takes place, making for a lively discussion.
   ‘It’s like this virtual pub from around the world of people who don’t know each other,’ he said.
   Others merely take to the Web to post their musings on the beautiful game and the disruptions it causes.
   One, Limey’s World Cup Blog, reminds readers that the world is like a soccer ball, ‘round and constantly being kicked around by a bunch of fanatics in short pants.’
   The blogger wrote about throngs of Italy and Portugal fans in Switzerland celebrating their teams’ victories.
   ‘For the second week in a row, depending on who is playing, I have had to fight hordes of street paraders armed with air horns and flags on my way home,’ the blogger wrote. ‘If this goes on much longer, I will start spending the night at work. That is all.’

Ever since the second World Cup, in 1934, when Italian dictator Benito Mussolini could be seen flashing his fascist salute from the stands, the specter of politics has lurked closely in the shadows of soccer’s biggest event.
   That’s even more true in the television age.
   With billions in over 200 countries expected to tune in to the monthlong tournament, the games’ telecasts have become one giant political pulpit for promoting everything from a jobs program in France to recruiting Arab interpreters for the U.S.-led war on terrorism.
   In Latin America, a region whose passion for soccer is surpassed only by its affinity for populist-style politics, politicians are trying to capitalize on the futbol fanfare with some rather remarkable patriotic appeals.
   In Colombia, President Alvaro Uribe’s government is taking advantage of tournament broadcasts to wage a propaganda war against leftist rebels, who almost certainly are having the games beamed to their hideout camps deep in the jungle.
   In regular intervals, snappy, 15-second advertisements interrupt the play-by-play commentary to urge guerrillas to give up their fight. To most Colombians, the ads are as humorous as they are a stark reminder that even ‘the world’s most beautiful game’ has been tainted by decades of violence.
   In one ad, an authoritatively deep male voice urges ‘Guerrilla: lay down your arms now and become a true champion joining the greatest team of all - Colombia.’ Another begins: ‘Guerrilla, you could be enjoying this game in the company of your friends and family.’
   Similar nationalistic appeals can be found throughout the region.
   In Ecuador, the unpopular government of president Alfredo Palacio has been trying to ride the success of the national team’s run to the second round of the tournament - it lost to England 1-0 to be eliminated - to boost its populist credentials and stave off a swell of recent street protests.
   With a record 71 percent of the nation watching, the government ran audio and banner ads during the games touting its decision, in May, to expropriate oil fields owned by U.S.-based Occidental Petroleum Corp.
   The politics of petroleum also was behind sponsorship of the tournament’s broadcast in Bolivia by Venezuela’s state-owned oil firm, part of Washington-bashing president Hugo Chavez’s campaign to promote Latin American brotherhood.
   In countries where elections are pending, no more effective method exists for scoring votes.
   Ahead of Sunday’s election in Mexico, conservative presidential hopeful Felipe Calderon, a bespectacled lawyer and economist, has tried to spice his gray image among a working-class electorate by showing off his ball-handling skills at staged soccer games during campaign stops.
   And in Brazil, president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, a devoted soccer fan who’s running for re-election in October, can’t seem to go a day without commenting on the national team’s exploits.
   While inaugurating an oil refinery this month, he praised state-owned Petrobras as the ‘Ronaldinho of industry,’ referring to the country’s two-time FIFA Player of the Year award winner who plays for FC Barcelona.
   If Brazil’s superstar lineup somehow doesn’t take home the country’s sixth World Cup trophy, the president may be able to claim he saw it coming. In an awkward moment before the tournament started, he joked on national television that striker Ronaldo looked fat.
   Surprisingly, given previous governments’ nefarious abuse of past World Cup appearances, the Argentine public has been largely treated to news coverage focused mostly on the team, known as the Albiceleste for its blue-and-white striped shirts.
   That’s a far cry from 1978, when a military junta tried to exploit its staging of the World Cup to overwhelm reports of its murderous, anti-communist campaign in which thousands of young people were tortured or dumped from cargo planes into the ocean.
   This time around, the only message the government is trying to get in edgewise, in short spots during the games, is a campaign against drug addiction - ‘the one thing in which we don’t want to be world champions.’

France coach Raymond Domenech said he hoped Saturday’s World Cup quarter-final against holders Brazil would be a memorable occasion.
   ‘Brazil will be the favourites but they have been for 40 years,’ Domenech said of the mouth-watering Frankfurt clash, a repeat of the 1998 final which France won 3-0.
   ‘You will have 11 players on each side wanting to write history,’ the coach told reporters at France’s training base in northern Germany on Wednesday.
   ‘My wish is to see a match that people will still talk about in 10 years time, a great moment of football.’
   Domenech said he was not surprised that his ageing team, who made a sluggish start to the tournament, stepped up a gear to defeat Spain 3-1 in the last 16, producing their most convincing performance in years.
   ‘Deep inside, that team had something that was asking to come out,’ he said.
   ‘We knew it was there and it was just a matter of time before it showed,’ added the coach, looking relaxed for a change.
   Domenech and his team had faced criticism from the French media after starting their campaign with dismal draws with Switzerland and South Korea and a 2-0 win over modest Togo. ‘The players had heard what was being said about them and wanted to react by showing what they were really capable of,’ Domenech said.
   The France players embraced each other after the final whistle and lingered on the pitch to take the acclaim of their fans.
   ‘I’ll never forget what happened last night, that moment of joy shared by a team and a country, but it’s the next match that counts,’ Domenech said.
   The France coach had said before the tournament that his target was the Berlin final on July 9 and he has kept repeating it ever since.
   ‘We’ve got a few steps to climb still. We have a compact team and that’s something we can build on. We might need something extra against Brazil but we can still improve.’

While it is only natural for any footballer to want to place in his team’s starting line-up, football is an 11-a-side game and not everyone gets to play. Yet with coaches rotating their squads today more than ever, it is not unusual for a player to come off the bench to have a decisive impact on a game. Read on as FIFAworldcup.com takes a look at some the ‘super subs’ at Germany 2006.
   Francesco Totti, the ‘Prince’ of Italian football, was surprisingly left on the bench for the start of Italy’s Round of 16 clash with Australia. Italy coach Marcello Lippi later explained his thinking, ‘Totti had trouble going the distance against the Czechs, and that’s why I gave him a breather today. I intended to bring him on when the match had settled down and that’s what I did.’
   Totti expressed understanding at his coach’s decision. ‘Lippi came to see me at two this afternoon and explained why he was leaving me out. I have no problem with him. He showed faith in me and picked me for the squad, and I respect his decisions.’
   As it was, the Roma captain came on for Alessandro Del Piero in the 75th minute with the match still scoreless. Yet a quarter of an hour was plenty of time for the 29-year-old to stamp his authority on the game as he calmly put away a stoppage-time penalty to send Italy through to the quarter-finals.
   Italy goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon, unable to stand the tension, averted his eyes at the moment when Totti decided Italy’s fate, but there was no need to worry. After grabbing the headlines with his cool finish, Totti declared confidently, ‘I’m fit and ready for the next matches.’
   Australia midfielder Tim Cahill is not someone Japanese supporters will forget in a hurry. Joining the action in the 53rd minute with Australia trailing Japan 1-0, the Everton player dealt a body blow to Japan’s hopes with strikes on 84 and 89 minutes, before another substitute, John Aloisi, made sure with a third in added time.
   The collapse prompted Yomiuri Shimbun, a leading Japanese daily, to question the system and substitutions of national team coach Zico and declare, ‘The way the two coaches marshalled their teams was as different as night and day.’ The paper praised Australia’s coach Guus Hiddink, saying, ‘He showed his magic once again, with all the goals scored by the substitutes he brought on.’ Interestingly enough, even though Cahill started the next three matches he failed to score again.
   Appearing at his fourth FIFA World Cup, Saudi Arabia’s veteran striker Sami Al Jaber also performed outstandingly. After starting on the bench in his team’s opening game against Tunisia, the 33-year-old joined the fray in the 82nd minute and took just two minutes to show just why he is considered one of Asian football’s all-time greats. Running into space in the box, the Al Hilal front man found himself with just the goalkeeper to beat and calmly slid the ball home to put the Saudis 2-1 up. His goal-scoring instincts had served him well with his very first touch of the ball.
   ‘Playing at the World Cup has always been a dream,’ the striker reflected afterwards. ‘I felt very proud to have scored.’ However, the game itself ended on a low note: Tunisia’s Radhi Jaidi fired in an equaliser in stoppage time, and Saudi Arabia were left still seeking their first victory at a finals since USA 94.
   Even though Shaka Hislop, the 37-year-old Trinidad and Tobago goalkeeper, started his team’s first group game against Sweden, in a sense he too was a substitute. Kelvin Jack was supposed to be wearing the No 1 jersey for that match, but he told coach Leo Beenhakker shortly before kick-off that he was unfit to play. It was a bolt from the blue for Hislop, but this true professional responded magnificently in his country’s hour of need.
   Although Sweden threatened the Trinidad and Tobago goal from the word go, Hislop produced a string of outstanding saves to keep his goal intact as the Caribbean newcomers battled on to earn a historic first point in their inaugural appearance at a FIFA World Cup. ‘I don’t know about unbeatable,’ Hislop commented after the game, ‘but I certainly enjoyed myself today. I didn’t have any really good saves to make because the team defended very well.’ Modesty is all very well, but there is little doubt that Hislop was a hero for the Soca Warriors.
   Substitutes were first used at a FIFA World Cup in 1970 and football is now more of a squad game than ever before. ‘Starters? Subs? What are those? All I know is I have the best 23 men in my squad,’ Czech Republic coach Karel Bruckner once observed. However, no coach can deny that seeing a player come off the bench and turn the course of a game is satisfying. For the players themselves, the thrill must be even greater.

Luis Figo is banking on England coming up with no nasty surprises when they meet Portugal in the World Cup quarter-final in Gelsenkirchen.
   Portugal coach Luiz Felipe Scolari has gone through videos of England’s recent games with his players over the last few days and they are confident they know England back to front ahead of today’s clash.
   ‘We know them well. We have prepared for the game and know the way they play. We just hope the English team do not surprise us,’ said Figo.
   ‘We are showing a great mentality in this competition. We have got to beat England in all ways. They have a great mentality but we have to be better than that mentality if we want to win.
   ‘We respect England. They have a very good team. These kind of games are decided by small things.
   ‘It is most important to concentrate and not do so many mistakes.’
   The psychological edge is with Portugal, who beat England in the European Championships in 2004 and 2000, Figo scoring a thunderous goal in the latter.
   Said Figo: ‘It was a happy moment in my career, but it’s over. The past is there to remember, but it can’t help us in the 90 minutes.’
   Figo admitted Portugal had not yet seriously practised any penalties, which is how they beat England in Euro 2004.
   He said: ‘It’s a question of luck.’

England captain David Beckham has shrugged off criticism of his team’s tactics by FIFA chief Sepp Blatter ahead of Saturday’s World Cup quarter-final.
   Outspoken world football boss Blatter has stoked controversy once more by describing England as negative after they played with a lone striker during their 1-0 second round win over Ecuador.
   ‘I am happy that the play is very offensive. The only exception is England who fielded just one striker in their second round match,’ Blatter said in an interview with a German newspaper.
   ‘That is not the kind of offensive football you would expect from a title contender.’
   But Beckham and his team-mates have dismissed Blatter’s remarks and stressed that it is results that count.
   ‘We don’t really care as a team or as a nation what people say about us,’ Beckham said when asked about Blatter’s comments.
   ‘There have been better performances by other teams in this competition—and they’re out. At the end of the day people have got their opinions, but as a team we don’t care.
   ‘We know we haven’t played as well as we can, everyone knows that—I’m fed up of saying it—but it’s only us that can put that right.’
   Beckham’s loyal lieutenant and former Manchester United team-mate Gary Neville echoed his captain’s comments.
   ‘My thoughts are that I don’t listen to Sepp Blatter because I don’t want to listen,’ Neville said when asked for his view on the FIFA supremo’s remarks.
   ‘I’ve got a World Cup quarter-final on Saturday and so have 21 other players and I don’t want to hear about negative things.
   ‘People can say whatever they want.’
   England manager Sven-Goran Eriksson has also pointedly refused to apologise for his team’s failure to set the tournament alight thus far.
   ‘We’re trying to play good football but the most important thing we have to do is to win the football game,’ Eriksson said.
   ‘They don’t give a premium for beautiful football. Ghana played wonderful football, Ivory Coast played wonderful football, Holland played wonderful football, Spain played wonderful football. And where are they now? At home.
   ‘To win the World Cup I’m prepared to do whatever. If that means to play bad football, then come on, who cares?

England seem set to retain a five-man midfield supporting lone striker Wayne Rooney despite their struggles with the system against Ecuador while Portugal will line up the same way behind Pauleta in a formation they have long used and perfected.
   England
   Defence:
   Central defence, traditionally an English strength, has been a worry in Germany. Woeful defending at set-pieces allowed Sweden to score twice in the 2-2 Group draw as John Terry, Rio Ferdinand and substitute Sol Campbell all looked poor while a Terry error almost gifted Ecuador the lead in the second round.
   Ever-reliable right-back Gary Neville is set to return after a calf injury and should link well with former Manchester United team mate David Beckham while fleet-footed Ashley Cole on the left has probably been England’s most reliable performer.
   Midfield:
   England arrived in Germany boasting “world class midfielders” in the shape of Beckham, Steven Gerrard and Frank Lampard but the trio have failed to shine as a unit, Lampard especially off-beam with his shooting.
   Joe Cole has been an occasional threat cutting in from the left while Owen Hargreaves, set to get the holding role, is solid enough but England have never really looked comfortable away from 4-4-2.
   Attack:
   In the absence of injured Michael Owen everything will flow through powerhouse Rooney who will be winning his 33rd cap at the age of 20. He has looked menacing and purposeful rather than dangerous so far as he regains sharpness after his broken foot layoff.
   Both sides will remember how the game swung dramatically in Portugal’s favour when he went off injured in their Euro 2004 quarter-final.
   If England fail to make progress then Sven-Goran Eriksson can throw on big striker Peter Crouch and revert to 4-4-2 and also has the speed of winger Aaron Lennon to introduce from the bench.
   Portugal
   Defence:
   The back four have vulnerabilities but have proved rugged and determined, held the Dutch at bay and have conceded only one goal in four games.
   Centre backs Ricardo Carvalho and Fernando Meira will be happier trying to contain Rooney on the ground than Crouch in the air while fullbacks Miguel and Nuno Valente sometimes appear to enjoy getting forward more than holding position.
   Midfield:
   Coach Luiz Felipe Scolari has had to make adjustments to cover for suspended duo Deco and Costinha but his regular squad rotation means that the new men are also very experienced and should slot in without too many dramas.
   Armando Petit will replace Costinha in the holding role while Simao Sabrosa should step in for Deco - though captain Luis Figo may be switched inside from the wing to provide the through balls on which Pauleta thrives.
   Maniche has been impressive so far, looks full of running and has two goals, while Cristiano Ronaldo, should he overcome a thigh injury, will need to be at his absolute best to get the better of Cole in a repeat of a battle within a battle that was one of the tactical highlights of the Euro 2004 quarter-final.
   If Ronaldo fails to make it then Tiago will come into the middle with Figo staying wide.
   Attack:
   Pauleta took his tally to 47 goals in 85 games when he scored the winner against Angola but has been pretty well shackled since. He knows his role well though and makes endless runs off the ball to provide a target for the midfield quintet.
   General:
   England have done little to strike fear into any opponent so far but their tournament history is littered with slow starts followed by big displays when it really matters.
   They rarely excel against teams they are expected to beat but Portugal offer the sort of opposition that brings the best out of them.
   Many players owe Eriksson a performance while England’s vociferous supporters can be relied upon to deliver uplifting backing.
   Scolari has plotted victories over England in the quarter-finals of the 2002 World Cup with Brazil and Euro 2004 with Portugal but this is his toughest test as he is forced to re-mould his team because of the suspensions.
   However, all his players know each other well, the system is tried and tested and the squad are no longer overawed by the world’s big-name teams.

Even with scoring down, there’s been no shortage of drama at the World Cup.
   That was the view of FIFA’s top technical analysts Thursday. With eight games remaining, this World Cup has produced 132 goals in 56 matches, an average of 2.36 a game. Of the 17 previous tournaments, only Italy 1990 averaged fewer goals per game at 2.21. Overall, the tournament average is 2.93.
   Sophisticated defenses, good coaching and the heat of the German summer have all played their part in the tournament to date. Not to mention the rash of fouls and record number of yellow and red cards.
   ‘The game is not as open as it was. But I don’t necessarily think that it makes it any less dramatic,’ said Andy Roxburgh, UEFA technical director and a member of FIFA’s technical and development committee. ‘You can get a game that’s won 5-0 and it’s a terrible game because one team wins easily and the other’s hopeless...
   ‘What you really want to have is a drama in the match. And if we get a drama, like we’ve had in some of the games here, if you watch Mexico-Argentina as an example, it’s a fantastic example of football played at the highest level. ... We saw everything in the game. That’s also football. It’s not just about the goals count. The goals count can be an indicator, but it’s not just about that. You can have a wonderfully exciting match that ends up as it did with Argentina-Mexico, 2-1 into extra time.’
   Some of the drama has come from the flurry of yellow and red cards.
   Roxburgh and Holger Osieck, head of FIFA’s technical department, did not address refereeing or cheating by players in the form of diving. But Roxburgh rejected a suggestion that FIFA’s clampdown at the tournament had unsettled players.
   ‘I think if you tell people in advance what to expect, you’ve got a better chance of getting it,’ he said. ‘And FIFA were quite clear at the beginning about the things that they were going to emphasize in the World Cup. So nobody was in any kind of doubt about the way this World Cup was going to be approached.’
   The technical committee saved special praise for Argentina’s goal against Serbia and Montenegro, with Esteban Cambiasso capping an attack that covered some 25 passes and lasted a minute.
   The FIFA committee also noted:
   Scoring first is crucial. Only eight matches have seen the team that didn’t score first recover to win.
   The power of the set piece, which has accounted for some 20 goals already.
   Teams are using fast breaks to penetrate defenses playing deeper, especially on the counterattack. The committee counted almost 20 defense-splitting balls to date.
   Young stars. The committee pointed to Argentina’s Lionel Messi, Spain’s Cesc Fabregas, Switzerland’s Philippe Senderos, England’s Wayne Rooney and Germany’s Lukas Podolski.
   Coaching savvy. Examples included Australian coach Guus Hiddink getting goals from substitutes Tim Cahill and John Aloisi in a 3-1 comeback win over Japan; Trinidad and Tobago’s Lee Beenhakker putting on an extra striker despite going a man down in the 0-0 tie with Sweden; and Italy’s Marcello Lippi bringing in Francesco Totti against Australia, adding to the lineup someone with the composure to convert a last-second penalty kick for a 1-0 win.

Portugal coach Luiz Felipe Scolari said Friday that his principles had stood in the way of him accepting to become the English coach.
   Scolari, who led Brazil to the 2002 World Cup title and took Portugal to the final of Euro 2004, had been widely tipped to succeed Sven-Goran Eriksson as England coach after the current World Cup finals.
   But the Brazilian withdrew from the race because of the ongoing pressure associated with the high-profile job.
   Scolari had met with England FA chief executive Brian Barwick in Lisbon in April to discuss the job but he had become instantly disenchanted with the intense attention the job attracts.
   Talking ahead of Portugal’s quarter-final clash with England on Saturday, Scolari said: ‘Some people like me like to respect contracts and I had a contract with the Portuguese FA. I’m very happy with it.
   ‘If my ‘no’ to the English FA hurt someone, I’m sorry, but I respect contracts and will stick with Portugal until the end.
   ‘My contract ends on July 31, so I’ll be a free coach after that, and can speak with whoever.’
   The Brazilian added that he was ‘very proud that the English FA came up with their proposal.
   ‘But the timing was not correct. Come July 31 I’m a free man and the Portuguese FA is also free to choose another coach.
   ‘I have some ideals in my life that I like to show my players and I can’t break them.
   ‘In the future, who knows? If the English FA comes again with another proposal, probably we can speak again and maybe we can deal.’
   Meanwhile, Scolari sprung to the defence of World Cup quarter-final opponents England on Friday, saying he too preferred results over beautiful football.
   Sven-Goran Eriksson’s side, who meet Portugal in Gelsenkirchen on Saturday, were criticised by FIFA president Sepp Blatter for a lack of attacking football at the tournament.
   ‘I’m not a trainer who lies and says that I want to win beautifully with the beautiful game,’ Scolari told a news conference.
   ‘I want results, England and Portugal both do. Some of those who have played beautifully are already at home,’ he added.
   ‘Big Phil’, as he is known in his native Brazil, said he was expecting an emotional and exciting game on Saturday, but was not losing any sleep.
   ‘I can sleep with helicopters or mosquitoes. I don’t pay a sleeping tax,’ he said, adding:. ‘It’s going to be a hard-fought game, strong and vibrant, as is the spirit of the two teams.’
   The coach said beating England—which he has done twice already, once with Portugal and once with Brazil—and taking Portugal through to the last four in this World Cup would be ‘one of the three best achievements in my sporting career.’

Portugal will play with England in today’s quarter-final clash with fire in their belly, coach Luiz Felipe Scolari warned.
   ‘We will play with fire in our belly,’ Scolari told a press conference at the Portuguese training camp here.
   ‘If we talk about the Portuguese fighting spirit and the English fighting spirit then you can see that we’re going to have an emotional game, a tight game.’
   The Brazilian, who has masterminded quarter-final wins over England in the 2002 World Cup with Brazil and Euro 2004 with Portugal, added that a win over the English would represent a career high.
   ‘If we go through, it will be one of the best achievements of my career,’ he said.
   In keeping with the much-played difference in coaching styles with English counterpart Sven-Goran Eriksson, Scolari’s most animated moment of the press conference came when asked what he would say to his players in the pre-match pep talk.
   ‘I’m going to work with them, I’m going to tell them to enjoy it,’ he said.
   ‘To enjoy playing a nice team like England, to enjoy the fact of being one of the eight best teams in the world, to enjoy being in a World Cup quarter-final, to have fun with it, take pleasure from it - that’s the main thing we want from Saturday.’
   But Scolari added that a free-flowing game of football was not necessarily top of his agenda. A similar thing could be said of England, who have failed to hit top gear while progressing to the quarter-finals.
   ‘I’m a coach who likes to have results,’ he said. ‘I can’t say I want to play beautifully. England has the results in this tournament and so do we.
   ‘Those who played beautifully are out.’
   Asked for the secrets behind his two previous quarter-final wins over England, Scolari was pragmatic: ‘There was no main reason.
   ‘Brazil simply scored more goals than England in 2002 and Portugal were better in the penalty shoot-outs in 2004.’
   Scolari put his successful coaching philosophy down to being popular with players and association officials alike.
   ‘I think I’m a good coach and I have good results. I’m a very good friend of the people I work with.
   ‘I’m a happy person and
   99 percent of the places
   where I’ve been, people have liked me.
   ‘In Kuwait, where I spent three years, Saudi Arabia, three years, Japan, one year, my homeland Brazil, and now Portugal, you can see for yourself that people like me.’

Franz Becke-nbauer thinks players who simulate fouls should share the blame for the high level of discontent with World Cup referees.
   The German soccer great and head of the local organizing committee said referees had been too quick to issue yellow cards, but players diving and faking injuries hoping to get rivals cautioned were making it ‘extremely difficult for referees to do their job.’
   ‘The players aren’t making it easy when they fall over,’ he said. ‘It’s so exaggerated now—players simulating—we must protect the referees.’
   Some matches here have turned on contentious refereeing decisions when players have exaggerated falls after challenges or faked injuries in collisions. Beckenbauer said FIFA, the sport’s governing body, should review the problem after the World Cup and try to stamp it out.
   FIFA president Sepp Blatter has been critical of referees for being inconsistent, reflecting a typical complaint from players, coaches and fans at the World Cup.
   Beckenbauer said Valentin Ivanov, who handed out a World Cup-record 16 cautions and four ejections in Portugal’s 1-0 second-round win over Netherlands, was ‘too generous with the cards and ... lost control of the match.’
   But if complaints about refereeing decisions are the extent of trouble at the World Cup, Beckenbauer said, his work over the last nine years would have a positive legacy.
   ‘Der Kaiser,’ a World Cup winner in 1974 and coach of the champion team in 1990, was widely credited with securing the hosting rights for the tournament. And he’s the public face of it.
   Since the World Cup kicked off with Germany’s 4-2 win over Costa Rica at Munich on June 9, Beckenbauer has attended 38 of the 56 games, crisscrossing the country in a helicopter, sometimes to three venues a day.
   In between, he managed to sneak off to the Austrian Alps to get married in a quiet family ceremony and return to work the next day.
   ‘It would be impossible for things to have been much better,’ Beckenbauer said of the first two rounds. ‘We’ve triggered so much euphoria inside and outside the stadium.’
   Some saw a successful World Cup as a good launching pad for Beckenbauer to become a future FIFA president. That came into focus Thursday, when a local newspaper quoted Blatter saying that Beckenbauer could not do the job.
   Blatter qualified that, via a spokesman, by stipulating he said Beckenbauer would not have time to fit the work into his already heavy schedule.
   ‘He’s right in principle,’ Beckenbauer said. ‘I speak some Bavarian, German and my English could use some improving. In that job, it’s important to speak several languages.’
   Not having Spanish or Portuguese languages could be a barrier, he added, given the strength of the sport in South America.
   He could pick up some lessons in the Fan Zones, the free public viewing areas around Germany that have been the unexpected success of the tournament.
   Beckenbauer said up to 700,000 people flooded into a fan zone near Berlin’s landmark Brandenburg Gate to watch some matches on giant TV screens.
   ‘Going to these Fan Fests, people of all different color, creed, religion—they meet, they get along and have a great time ... in peaceful coexistence,’ he said. ‘That is what the world should be like. It will have a lasting impression.
   ‘Up to this date we’ve been successful, we’ve been good hosts. Now we’re looking forward to the last eight matches.’
   Beckenbauer said he’d love to see a Brazil- Germany final, a rematch of the 2002 final won by Brazil to extend its record to five World Cup titles. And he thought the German team had a good chance of beating Argentina in Friday’s quarterfinals.
   Local organizers say all 64 matches have been sold out and have revised their revenue targets from $538 million to more than $563 million for the tournament.
   ‘The sporting highlight is yet to come,’ said Horst Schmidt, a Germany 2006 vice president. ‘We can’t rest on our laurels. Everything has gone well so far, but we have to stay very attentive.’

Gary Neville believes it’s now or never if England are to end their 40-year wait for World Cup glory and avoid being remembered as the nearly men of international football.
   In a rallying cry ahead of today’s quarter-final showdown with Portugal, Neville said it was time for England to justify the hype surrounding their bid for the greatest prize in football.
   ‘I believe there is a time and a moment for players to deliver, and I believe it is Saturday,’ said the Manchester United defender, who is likely to start after recovering from a calf strain. If it is not I’ll be talking to you on Saturday night and saying that you have found the measure of this team. There’ll be no excuses. If we fail on Saturday then we have to hold our hands up and say, ‘We haven’t delivered, that the talk about us being potential world champions was rubbish.’ So this is it for us.’
   The straight-talking Neville represents the conscience of the England dressing room and has been an ever-present since making his debut in 1995.
   While Neville believes the current England team is the best he has played with, he is adamant that reputations will count for nothing if England fall in the quarter-finals for the third major tournament on the trot.
   ‘We have to win if we want to be recognised as a great England team,’ Neville said. ‘If we don’t we’ll be recognised as a nearly team, a team that had potential but didn’t deliver. ‘The measure of this team will be in this tournament. We couldn’t have had a better preparation. We’re two games away from a World Cup final.

Roberto Carlos is quite familiar with Zinedine Zidane.
   The two have been team-mates for five seasons at Real Madrid, and Roberto Carlos was one of six Brazilian players on the team that lost to France in the 1998 World Cup final. Zidane scored two goals in France’s 3-0 win.
   Today, Brazil and France will face each other again at the World Cup, this time in the quarterfinals in Frankfurt.
   ‘I haven’t spoken to Zidane,’ Roberto Carlos said. ‘(But) it will be very beautiful to play against Zinedine.’
   Zidane, who also won the 2000 European Championship and several other titles with Real Madrid and Juventus, was chosen FIFA player of the year three times. He is retiring after the World Cup, but Roberto Carlos said it was too early for a player of Zidane’s caliber to turn his back on international soccer.
   ‘A player like Zidane can be 30, 40, 50 years old and he will always know what to do with the ball at his feet,’ Roberto Carlos said. ‘Those who say he must stop, they don’t have any idea about soccer.’
   The Brazilians still haven’t forgotten what Zidane did to them in 1998 when France won its first world title. But Roberto Carlos said he had other memories of that year, too.
   ‘Eight years ago is when my daughter was born,’ he said, jokingly. ‘I have played twice against France. I lost one game and drew another. Now I just need a win.’
   Brazil have been the most successful team in World Cup history, but their record against France is less impressive. The French eliminated Brazil in the quarterfinals of the 1986 World Cup in Mexico, winning on penalty kicks after a 1-1 draw.
   Brazil’s only World Cup win over France came in 1958, when Pele scored a hat-trick in a 5-2 victory in Sweden.

As many as 30 million people in Britain are expected to watch England take on Portugal for a place in the World Cup semi-finals on Saturday, with pubs and bookmakers hoping for a sales bonanza.
   The BBC said up to 16 million people will tune in at home, with millions more watching captain David Beckham and the team in pubs, clubs and on big screens.
    Football fever and sunny weather will lead to a 20 per cent fall in the number of shoppers compared to the same day last year, according to retail research group Footfall.
   ‘It is a big national event and everyone is getting caught up in it as we go further on,’ a spokesman said. However, booming sales of barbecues, beer and televisions should offer some cheer for supermarkets.
   The Met Office forecast fine and mainly sunny weather on Saturday with temperatures as high as 30 Celsius (86 Fahrenheit) in the south of England.
   Bookmakers predicted the game in the German town of Gelsenkirchen will be the biggest-ever England football match for betting.
   William Hill make England 4-7 favourites to beat Portugal in Gelsenkirchen and 11-2 to go on to win the World Cup.
   ‘(It’s) the biggest betting match involving England ever played,’ said the firm’s spokesman Graham Sharpe.
   While red-and-white England flags will be adorning car and bedroom windows all over the country, one corner will be painted red and green for the day.
   An area of south London known as Little Portugal is braced for thousands of fans cheering for captain Luis Figo and his team.

Portugal coach Luiz Felipe Scolari admitted that he is sweating on the fitness of key winger Cristiano Ronaldo ahead of Saturday’s quarter-final match against England. Ronaldo resumed light training on Wednesday after picking up a thigh injury in the second round win over the Nethlerlands last weekend.
   The Manchester United player caught a boot from Dutch defender Khalid Boulahrouz early in the ill-tempered 1-0 win and was replaced after 34 minutes. He was not present during the first quarter-hour of Thursday’s on-field training open to the media and also did not take part in Friday’s open session.
   ‘We don’t know about Ronaldo,’ Scolari told a press conference at the Portuguese training camp. ‘We’re still awaiting word on his fitness.
   ‘I’ll decide if he plays just a couple of hours before the match,’ said the Brazilian.
   Scolari said the team would miss playmaker Deco and influential holding anchorman Costinha, out after being sent off in the win over the Netherlands, but added that he had full confidence in their replacements.
   ‘Costinha and Deco are special players,’ said the coach who took Brazil to the 2002 World Cup title and Portugal to the final of Euro 2004.

Come on guys, how about giving this World Cup a big finish?
   The game needs your help.
   The final eight teams at Germany 2006 are the most talented ever assembled in terms of star players. All eight coaches should give them freedom to entertain rather than retreat into a shell of no-risk soccer with the idea of winning games on penalty kicks.
   Will they allow the stars to shine?
   Listen to England coach Sven-Goran Eriksson, taking charge of the team in his final championship before he steps down.
   ‘To win the World Cup, I am prepared to do whatever,’ the Swede said as his team prepared for Saturday’s game against Portugal. ‘If that means to play bad football all the way, OK, come on. Who cares?
   ‘If you look at Ghana, they have been playing wonderful football and it’s been the same with Ivory Coast, Holland and Spain. And where are they now? They are back at home.’
   If the other seven coaches take the same attitude, the games on Friday and Saturday will provide a grim sight for the thousands showing up at the stadiums and the millions watching on television.
   FIFA president Sepp Blatter already is unhappy with the English, and that was before Eriksson’s latest pronouncements.
   ‘I am happy that play is very offensive. The only exception is England, who fielded just one striker in their second-round match,’ Blatter said Thursday. ‘That’s not the kind of offensive football you would expect from a title contender.’
   We hear you, Mr. Blatter.
   After a record number of red and yellow cards, fouls at the ratio of one every 2 ½ minutes and a match-fixing scandal tearing Italian soccer apart, the game needs a boost of attack-minded, high-quality play to mend its battered image.
   All the ingredients are there.
   Almost all of the ‘Galacticos’ famously assembled by Real Madrid are still alive in the championship: Ronaldo, Zinedine Zidane, Luis Figo, David Beckham and Roberto Carlos. So are Ronaldinho, Thierry Henry, Francesco Totti, Wayne Rooney, Kaka, Michael Ballack, Andriy Shevchenko, Juan Roman Riquelme, Carlos Tevez, Lionel Messi and many more.
   Two of the quarterfinal matchups should be classics.
   On Friday, host Germany faces Argentina in Berlin, which also will be the venue for the final. German strikers Miroslav Klose and Lukas Podolski have scored seven goals between them and there is a growing confidence in the nation that their team, remodeled by Juergen Klinsmann, can win its fourth world title.
   Two-time champion Argentina has both impressed and entertained, especially in a 6-0 rout of Serbia-Montenegro. Coach Jose Pekerman has so much talent that he swaps one effective strike force for another, Tevez and Messi going on for Javier Saviola and Hernan Crespo, with playmaker Riquelme setting up the chances.
   It will be a tragedy for the game if Klinsmann and Pekerman close the door on imaginative play, take no risks and instruct their players to fall back on defense whenever possible. Both team’s strengths are in attack.
   It’s unlikely that Brazil will alter its style when it takes on France in Frankfurt on Saturday. Flair and attacking soccer come naturally to Brazilians, and don’t expect coach Carlos Alberto Parreira to tell Ronaldo and Ronaldinho to fall back with their defenders when the French are attacking.
    France has been performing like an aging singer making one last comeback.
   After struggling through the first round, Raymond Domenech’s team managed a big performance, coming from behind to beat Spain 3-1 and reach the last eight. Now Les Bleus have to do it again before Zidane goes off into retirement and several of his contemporaries focus solely on club soccer.
   Ronaldinho vs. Zidane, Ronaldo vs. Henry. Just give them the ball and let them play a game that will stick in the memory for the right reasons.
   Italy-Ukraine in Hamburg on Saturday doesn’t look so positive.
   Italian soccer is weighed down by a Serie A match-fixing scandal that could wind up with champion Juventus, AC Milan, Lazio and Fiorentina all getting demoted.
   Winning the World Cup for a fourth time would clear away the gloom. But the Italians needed the lucky award of a penalty kick 12 seconds from the end of injury time to finally beat huge underdog Australia in the second round. They are likely to be traditionally cautious with two players suspended when they meet Ukraine.
   Making its World Cup debut, the former Soviet state is trying to shrug off the suggestion it’s simply Shevchenko plus 22 unknowns. After losing 4-0 to Spain, it has done well to get this far, but against poor opposition and without playing any mesmerizing soccer.
   Like the Italians, Portugal has two players sidelined because of suspension after an ugly victory over the Dutch, and the absence of Barcelona midfielder Deco could make it much less adventurous against England.
   What a shame.
   David Beckham had to produce one of his best free kicks for England to beat modest Ecuador 1-0 as his teammates played like strangers for the fourth game in a row. Even England’s die-hard fans know their team won’t win the title on this form.
   Despite what Eriksson thinks.

World Player of the Year Ronaldinho says he only thinks about passing the ball to the strikers and not scoring goals when he is playing.
   ‘I don’t think about scoring goals but about helping my team to win,’ the Brazilian ace told France’s Le Parisien daily.
   ‘My job consists of making passes to strikers. I concentrate on that.’ Ronaldinho said he has thought about the consequences of being eliminated in the quarter-final.
   ‘As I often say: in Brazil, coming second is the same as coming last,’ he said.
   Brazil won their fifth title four years ago and have not lost a World Cup match since being stunned by the French in 1998 when Zinedine Zidane scored two goals.
   Saturday’s match could be the last for Zidane, who will end his glittering career after the World Cup.
   ‘I admire Zidane a lot for everything he has brought to football. My team members respect him too,’ Ronaldinho said.
   ‘He plays very well and off the pitch he’s a good person. All that means it will be a big match, a very interesting one to play.’

Portugal’s World Cup quarter-final with England may give Sven-Goran Eriksson the chance to avenge the Euro 2004 defeat but for Portuguese footballing legend Eusebio it represents a possibility of revenge 40 years on from his adopted country’s most crushing defeat.
   The ‘Black Pearl’, as the Mozambique-born striker was known, has been to the Portuguese what Diego Maradona has been to the Argentinians at this World Cup, a motivator from the sidelines.
   It may have been England who broke Portuguese hearts in 1966 when they beat Portugal 2-1 in the semi-finals and went on to win the tournament but it was Eusebio who was the star of the tournament.
   He top-scored with nine goals, including four in the remarkable 5-3 victory over North Korea when they trailed 3-0 at one point, and such was his lustre that a waxwork of him was immediately installed in Madame Tussauds in London.
   Now, however, all he can do is sit and watch as the team commonly known as ‘The Brazil of Europe’ try to set aside once and for all their tag of under-achievers and land the biggest trophy of them all, first of all by beating England in Gelsenkirchen on Saturday.
   Eusebio, his country’s record scorer until he was overtaken by Pauleta last year, is confident that the Portuguese can step up to the plate at last.
   ‘I have a gut instinct that Portugal are going to go that extra mile further than we did in 1966,’ said the 64-year-old, who was moved to tears after watching the 2-0 group stage victory over Iran.
   ‘I can sense this feeling of confidence, not complacency certainly, but genuine optimism that at last that bridge is going to be crossed.
   ‘It will be ironic in a way that it will be the first major finals with most of the ‘golden generation’ gone,’ added Eusebio, referring to the Portugal youth world champion team of the early 90s which had players like Rui Costa, Fernando Couto and Luis Figo, although the latter is still there.
   For the players and firebrand Brazilian coach Luiz Felipe Scolari there is no mistaking the value they put on having Eusebio around the camp and handing on some motivational advice.
   ‘He is quite rightly judged to be Portugal’s greatest ever player and was party to the greatest as yet moment in the country’s footballing history,’ said Scolari.
   ‘What he has to say is invaluable to the players, because he is an idol to most of them and also a large reason why they took up the sport.
   ‘I have seen them take on board what he has to say and it has certainly helped in building up their self-belief.’
   Eusebio acknowledges, however, that for all his advice and encouragement there is nothing to be done once the players are out on the pitch and he knows only too well how hard defeat can be, a point he has impressed on them.
   ‘The crushing feeling I felt after the England match was unimaginable. Having come within sight of making the greatest final in the sport and to lose left me completely devastated.
   ‘I just hope that I have conveyed that to the players and it will only serve to get them even more determined to avoid that feeling.’

The memories of the 1998 World Cup final between France and Brazil remain fresh.
   And as the teams prepare to meet again in the quarterfinals on Saturday, players and coaches on both sides can’t escape talking about the historic game in Paris in which the host came out on top 3-0 at Stade de France.
   ‘The image I have of the ‘98 final is one of being in a dream,’ France defender Lilian Thuram said Thursday. ‘I told myself ‘It’s not real, it’s not real.’
   Thuram is one of 12 players in Germany - six from each team - who participated in the 1998 tournament.
   ‘I’m out of words to talk about that match, it left a scar,’ said Brazil midfielder Ze Roberto, who was a reserve eight years ago.
   Even those who were not there still talk about it.
   ‘I was really little, but it’s a sad memory,’ 22-year-old Brazil striker Robinho said. ‘I hope the story will be different this time.’
   Indeed, Brazil enters the match eager for a different outcome on Saturday in Frankfurt. A victory would keep alive Brazil’s hopes for a record sixth world title - and third in four World Cups.
   France is trying to add to the 1998 title, and erase the embarrassment of being eliminated in the first round of 2002 in South Korea and Japan.
   This time, the French struggled in the group stage, drawing Switzerland and South Korea and advancing only after beating lightly regarded Togo. However, rallying for a 3-1 victory over Spain in the second round has boosted confidence.
   Veteran midfielder Zinedine Zidane, who has said he will retire after this tournament, was key against Spain and seems to be peaking.
   ‘There is a great atmosphere, and we are feeling better and better,’ French striker Thierry Henry said.
   Brazil reached the quarterfinals with an unimpressive 3-0 win over newcomer Ghana. The five-time champion also underwhelmed in first-round victories over Croatia and Australia.
   Only against Japan, when coach Carlos Alberto Parreira fielded five reserve players to rest some of the regular starters, was Brazil able to display some of the flair many expect from the five-time champion.
   ‘Brazil and France is a classic matchup,’ Parreira said. ‘It should be a great game.’
   The winner will face either England or Portugal, which play in Gelsenkirchen earlier on Saturday.
   Parreira isn’t likely to be able to count on all of his players for the match against France. Midfielders Emerson and Kaka remained doubtful despite improving considerably from knee injuries on Thursday, and striker Robinho, who missed the match against Ghana, also is uncertain because of a pulled muscle in his right thigh.
   The coach was sure to get some insider information, however, with three of his players - Juninho, Cris and Fred - currently on the roster of five-time defending French league champion Lyon.
   France, which was expected to be at full strength on Saturday, has defeated Brazil twice in the three times they’ve face each other in the World Cup.
   In addition to the 1998 final, it eliminated Brazil in the quarterfinals of the 1986 World Cup in Mexico, winning on penalty kicks after a 1-1 draw.
   Brazil’s only win was in 1958, when Pele scored three goals in a 5-2 victory in Sweden.
   Brazil and France have played twice since the 1998 final, with France winning 2-1 in the 2001 Confederations Cup in South Korea and then playing to a 0-0 draw in a 2004 friendly in Paris.
   Despite the loss in 1998, the Brazilians say revenge is not an issue in Saturday’s match.
   ‘There’s no atmosphere of revenge. We don’t think about this here,’ Parreira said. ‘We will be playing France in another decisive match, like it was against Ghana.’
   Brazil captain Cafu agreed.
   ‘We can’t think like this,’ he said. ‘That we need to win in 2006 because we lost in 1998, it doesn’t work that way.’
   Ronaldo, who scored against Ghana to become the tournament’s all-time leading scorer with 15 goals, had unexplained convulsions in the hours leading up to the 1998 final and played poorly.
   Zidane, on the other hand, was crucial, scoring twice to end Brazil’s title hopes.
   ‘I hope he makes his last World Cup match on Saturday,’ said Brazil’s assistant coach Mario Zagallo, who in 1998 was Brazil’s manager. ‘I don’t know if it’s going to be his last (career) match, but I hope it’s his last match at this World Cup.’

He may be re-writing football history with every goalkeeper he beats, but Ronaldo has stressed that it is the lifting of trophies, rather than breaking of records, that drives him on.
   That, certainly, was the World Cup’s all-time leading scorer when he took time out for an exclusive interview with FIFAworldcup.com on the day which saw the Canarinho star put Brazil on the road to the quarter-finals with his 15th goal on football’s biggest stage.
   Thus Gerd Muller was eclipsed as the tournament’s most prolific marksman and, though delighted by that achievement, Ronaldo made it abundantly clear that his appetite for goals, far from satisfied, has merely been whetted. He said: ‘The record is the culmination of many years of hard work, but I still want to win more with Brazil. My objective was always to win the tournament. I am very happy to break the record, and I would like to set even more records, but winning the Trophy has been, and always will be, my number-one priority.’
   Brazil might not have been entirely convincing thus far, but their iconic number nine was in defiant mood about their form and prospects, stating boldly: ‘We are ready for anything.’ He also strongly disagrees with the view that the Auviverde’s galaxy of superstars has not yet been properly tested at Germany. ‘Of course we have,’ was his swift response to that suggestion. ‘In every game, we have given everything, we have fought and battled and we are managing to impose our style of play on things. If the results are going our way, then we deserve credit. Brazil never get anything for free.’
   With 1998 champions France now lying in wait in a repeat of the match which brought Les Bleus their only World Cup crown to date, Brazil know that only their best will do.
   Although Carlos Parreira’s side may approach the game with caution, having tasted bitter defeat on that memorable night in Paris, they can be sure that their most dependable of goalscorers will be doing everything he can to put one over his great friend and Real Madrid team-mate, Zinedine Zidane.
   Given his welcome return to form, who would bet against Ronaldo extending his record in the process?

England have a last chance to salvage a measure of pride from the one-day series against Sri Lanka when the two sides meet at Headingley today.
   They have not been whitewashed on home soil since losing 3-0 to Mark Taylor’s Australia side 13 years ago.
   Captain Andrew Strauss told BBC Sport: ‘There’s a lot of guys with a hell of a lot of talent in our dressing-room.
   ‘We haven’t shown what we are capable of yet and we are motivated by that rather than avoiding a whitewash.’
   Strauss, who may be able to welcome back batsman Kevin Pietersen and all-rounder Paul Collingwood, added: ‘We have one more chance to show what we can do.’
   Sri Lanka lead the series 4-0 after performances up and down the country which have been far more convincing than England’s.
   Organisers at Headingley plan to use drinks breaks to screen updates from England’s football World Cup quarter-final against Portugal in Gelsenkirchen.
   That match starts at 1600 BST, but Strauss hopes that if England’s players are in the field they will be fully focused on the cricket.
   ‘We can’t afford to be distracted. We need to be right on top of our game,’ he said.
   ‘If the crowd’s a little bit distracted we’ll forgive them for that, but hopefully we will provide enough entertainment for them not to follow the football too closely.
   ‘As captain I’ll be a bit annoyed if the fielders aren’t watching what I am doing and watching the football instead!’
   England have a good recent record at Headingley, having won seven of their last one-day games at the ground, including a nine-wicket success against Australia last year when Marcus Trescothick hit an unbeaten 104.
   He is again likely to have Alastair Cook as his opening partner after they launched the innings with a stand of 77 at Old Trafford on Wednesday.
   Sri Lanka coach Tom Moody said it was ‘very exciting’ to have a chance of beating England 5-0.
   ‘We didn’t anticipate this at all,’ said the Australian, who has impressed many with his handling of the side.
   ‘We are going through a rebuilding stage.
   ‘As a side we have young players who don’t have a lot of experience - they are maturing all the time.
   ‘Hopefully the two months here will put them in good stead for the future.’

Roger Federer continued to cut a swathe through the Wimbledon field on Friday, beating Frenchman Nicolas Mahut in straight sets to ease into the last 16 of the men’s singles.
   Federer, who has yet to drop a set in this year’s tournament, won 6-3, 7-6 (7/2), 6-4 with another immaculate display of grass court tennis, extending his winning streak on the surface to 45 matches.
   The only slight hiccup for the defending champion came when he failed to serve out the match at 5-3 in the third set, but he made amends immediately by breaking Mahut in the next game to wrap up victory in two hours five minutes.
   Federer, a short odds favourite to win a fourth successive title here on July 9, next faces the winner of the third round tie between Germany’s Tommy Haas and the Czech Tomas Berdych.
   His path to the final was eased earlier in the day when David Nalbandian, the fourth seed and one of only four players to have beaten him in the last 18 months, went out of the tournament to Fernando Verdasco.
   Meanwhile, Li Na became the first Chinese woman to reach the fourth round at Wimbledon with a stunning come-from-behind win against Russian fifth seed Svetlana Kuznetsova on Friday.
   Li, the 27th seed, beat the former US Open champion 3-6, 6-2, 6-3 and now faces either Nicole Vaidisova of the Czech Republic or Karolina Sprem for a place in the quarter-finals.
   China, who began the tournament with six women in the first round draw, also have Zheng Jie meeting Belgian second seed Kim Clijsters in the third round later while, on Saturday, Peng Shuai faces Italy’s Flavia Pennetta, the 16th seed, for a place in the fourth round.
   The 22-year-old Li, who clinched her first tour title at Guangzhou in 2004, is making her debut at Wimbledon and is the first Chinese player to be seeded at a Grand Slam.
   Her passage to the fourth round also equals the best Grand Slam performance by a Chinese competitor after Zheng’s run to the last 16 at the French Open in 2005.
   American eighth seed James Blake was knocked out of Wimbledon on Friday losing his third round match to Max Mirnyi of Belarus 6-4, 3-6, 4-6, 6-1, 6-0.
   Argentina’s David Nalbandian suffered a World Cup own goal on Friday when he crashed out of Wimbledon.
   Passionate football fan Nalbandian asked the All England Club if they could schedule his third round match against Fernando Verdasco as early as possible so he could see his country face Germany in the World Cup quarter-final, which was due to kick off at 1500 GMT.
   Nalbandian got his wish with an 1100 GMT start on an outside court. But the plan backfired as the fourth seed was beaten 7-6 (11/9), 7-6 (11/9), 6-2 by the Spanish 28th seed.
   Lleyton Hewitt breathed a huge sigh of relief on Friday after keeping his Wimbledon campaign alive by completing a marathon five-set victory over South Korea’s Lee Hyung-Taik.
   Hewitt, the sixth seed and one of the few men seen as having a chance of stopping Roger Federer, broke Lee’s service in the tenth game of the fifth set to clinch a 6-7 (4/7), 6-2, 7-6 (8/6), 6-7 (5/7), 6-4 victory in a match that had been interrupted on Thursday night at the end of the fourth set.
   In total, the Australian was on court for five minutes short of four hours — far from ideal preparation for Saturday’s third round meeting with Belgian Olivier Rochus.
   Belgian third seed Justine Henin-Hardenne reached the Wimbledon fourth round on Friday with beating Anna Chakvetadze, the Russian 30th seed, 6-2, 6-3.
   She will face Daniela Hantuchova of Slovakia or Slovenia’s Katerina Srebotnik for a place in the last eight.

Mike Gatting says Andrew Strauss should lead England in the entire Test series against Pakistan if Andrew Flintoff is not fit for the opening game.
   Michael Vaughan will not play again this summer because of his knee problem and Flintoff is doubtful for the first Test on 13 July with an injured ankle.
   ‘You need to keep up continuity. If Freddie is not there you tell Strauss he’s doing it for the four Tests.
   ‘And if Freddie comes back you have an able lieutenant,’ said Gatting.
   ‘They will also need someone for the Champions Trophy so I can only suggest that whoever captains the Test team will captain the team in India.’
   Strauss stood in as captain for two one-day internationals in India and has led the team in the one-day series with Sri Lanka, in which England have lost the first four matches.
   But Gatting believes he should continue in the role, particularly if England want Flintoff to focus on being ready for the Ashes series this winter.
   ‘You have to be sensible about it. If they’re happy with the way things are going, stick with Strauss.
   ‘It sounds like they’re hedging their bets a bit and we’ve got to make sure Freddie is fit for Australia.’
   Another ex-England skipper, Mike Denness, says chairman of selectors David Graveney is right not to make any firm decisions about who should lead the side in Australia if Vaughan does not recover in time.
   ‘Strauss is learning at the top level, and he has the level-headed Trescothick to call upon, with coach Duncan Fletcher around anyway.
   ‘There is stability if you know you are going to do it for a period of time and, assuming he doesn’t get injured, Strauss will be captain for the summer and they will re-assess it in the latter stages of the summer.
   ‘By that time we will see how England are doing and how Andrew is coping with the situation,’ Denness told BBC Sport.
   ‘In many ways it’s better for him not to have an announcment so he can do it on a leisurely basis and keep working hard on his game without worrying about the full extent of the captaincy.’
   Brian Close, however, believes the selectors need to clarify the position as soon as possible.
   He believes the disarray the team appear to be in at the moment is down to a lack of strong leadership, saying: ‘They’ve made a mess of it.
   ‘It’s important to have stability - if you’ve got the right captain - because players have to understand the man in charge as much as he has to understand them.
   ‘It always helps if a captain is going to be there for a while, although he must deserve his place in team and it depends on the character and personality of whoever is chosen.
   ‘Strauss doesn’t have a good record so far and they look like a team of schoolkids at the present, wondering what’s going to happen next.’
   Close feels Flintoff should assume the leadership as soon as he regains fitness.
   ‘I’d give it to Freddie. All-rounders have always been the best captains because they understand bowling as well as batting,’ he added.
   ‘The main part of captaincy is when you are in the field trying to get the opposition out and it’s then that the bowler’s attitude is worthwhile.’

Andy Roddick believes fellow American Andre Agassi can defy the years and beat French Open champion Rafael Nadal when they clash in the Wimbledon third round today.
   Agassi, the 1992 champion and playing for the last time at the All England Club, is 16 years older than the Spanish second seed, but Roiddick believes the Centre Court grass will favour the veteran.
   ‘He’s definitely capable of it,’ said Roddick.
   ‘I haven’t really seen Andre exhausted too many times.
   He went through the US Open last year five setter after five setter.
   ‘If there is a surface where he is going be able to dictate play, it’s going to be on something like this where not only is it quicker, but I don’t think Rafa’s footing is going to be as good as it is elsewhere.
   ‘If you’re asking me if Andre has a shot in this, I definitely think he does.’

England captain Michael Vaughan is to have a fourth operation on his right knee on Monday and will be out of action for between four and six months, the England Cricket Board (ECB) said on Thursday.
   Vaughan has not played for England since returning home early from the tour of India in February.
   The surgery, following a visit to a specialist on Thursday, means he will miss the home series with Pakistan which starts next month and makes him extremely doubtful for the tour of Australia over the New Year.
   Peter Gregory, the ECB’s chief medical officer, said in a statement: ‘Michael worked extremely hard with the support of the Yorkshire medical staff to strengthen the knee to the point where he was able to begin playing again.
   ‘However, he has still been experiencing some discomfort and further surgery is necessary if he is to regain the level of fitness required for international cricket.
   ‘Our priority now is to safeguard Michael’s long-term interests and ensure he can resume his playing career.’ Vaughan last had surgery on his knee in December and made his comeback for Yorkshire at the end of May. But soreness in the joint prevented him from fielding in a match against Sussex last week.

If there is one place at the World Cup finals where you are sure to find a dearth of happy sporting internationalism it is at the England training camp and media centre.
   In Buehlertal, high above the vineyards that tumble down the valley towards Baden-Baden, only one language is spoken, the press corps’s favourite tea is shipped in from England and endless supplies of British crisps and biscuits are on offer.
   While in cities like Stuttgart or Munich, sun-bleached fans in T-shirts boasting ‘I’ll show you my Australian if you show me your Brazilian’ have turned each game into a multinational frolic, the England party has created and retreated into its own little island.
   Flat screen televisions broadcast the news from England on British channels unavailable in local hotels, but ensure that soccer reporters—of all nationalities—who visit England’s World Cup camp are kept up to date with the latest score in the cricket series against Sri Lanka.
   Of the World Cup, beyond this delightful, flower-scented and pastoral hamlet of natural serenity in southern Baden-Wurtenberg, there is scant evidence.
   For visitors from Portugal, England’s opponents in Saturday’s quarter-finals, not to mention any German media interested in seeing what their old football enemies are up to, it is akin to arriving at the wrong wedding reception.
   England’s base is not only difficult to reach up winding roads through heavily wooded and steep hills, it is also accidentally both forbidding and hilarious.
   The enormous marquee-style structures in which the media centre has been accommodated are tailored for English-speaking media only and are packed with British journalists fighting for their exclusive rights.
   The facilities on offer are sumptuous but, unlike those at other team camps, there are no translators available to look after German-speaking and other visitors.
   Even Togo laid on interpreters who worked from French into German and English.
   Sweden conducted their pre-second round clash news conferences in Swedish, German and English while Paraguay always made everyone available in any language that could be mustered.
   On Thursday, two days before England played Portugal, several Portuguese visitors sat dumbfounded as David Beckham, Gary Neville and then Steven Gerrard were escorted in for group interviews with the media.
   Not just one interview, however, but at least three—one of which is supervised in such a way that certain agency reporters may only ask questions and report the answers taken from the opening five minutes.
   The rest, to suit the workings of the British dailies, may be used but must be held until an agreed embargo later that day, night or even the following day.
   Portuguese reporters were told—in English only—before Gerrard began his news conference that all material must be held back from publication until Friday evening at the earliest.
   In a bizarre twist, one English reporter innocently asked Beckham how he reacted to a statement Gerrard had made earlier in the same room.
   The reporter was admonished by another journalist because he had asked a question ‘out of turn’ by using a Gerrard answer that, in Planet England’s news-managed time-line, was not to be used until the following day.
   Outside, England’s manicured training pitch, with turf imported from the Netherlands and laid early in May, glistened in the morning sunshine.
   Compared to the dry, difficult surfaces used for the finals, with longer coarser grass, it was like a billiard table, watered and cut for the England players, who descend from their nearby luxury accommodation at the Schlosshotel for training.
   For 15 minutes, their stretching and warming-up exercises are examined by the media and then the gates are closed.
   The real World Cup work, tactical and technical, is to be done in private and so the pack, politely moved on by security officials, return to their marquee headquarters and the sumptuous hospitality, and check the cricket scores again.

Australia batsman Michael Clarke is convinced veteran seam bowler Glenn McGrath will play in this winter’s Ashes series against England.
   McGrath has been out of action since February in order to care for his wife, who has cancer.
   But Clarke said: ‘We trained together a couple of times last week and he’s in good spirits. I know Glenn is keen as mustard to play and it’s just a matter of making sure everything is OK at home.’
   Australia are desperate to reclaim the Ashes after losing 2-1 in England last year, beaten at Edgbaston and Trent Bridge.
   Ironically, McGrath miss both those Tests because of injury.
   The 36-year-old is the most successful seam bowler in Test history, having taken 542 wickets in 119 appearances, and a return to action by him would be a major boost to Australia’s chances.
   ‘He’s an absolute champion. He is great for someone like me, a young guy, to associate with. He loves training and he loves pushing himself. It’s great to be good mates with him and it’s great to see him back at training,’ said Clarke.
   McGrath would be first choice to take the new ball with Brett Lee, leaving the selectors to choose a third seamer from Stuart Clark, Jason Gillespie, Shaun Tait or any other bowler who thrusts himself into the reckoning before the opening Test starts on 23 November.
   ‘I think there’s going to be a few tough calls to make. I am looking forward to seeing what the first team is for the Brisbane Test,’ Clarke added.

The Tour de France was thrown into its biggest crisis since the 1998 drugs scandal following the suspension of at least one of the yellow jersey favourites here Friday.
   A day before the start of the race, the first since seven-time winner Lance Armstrong retired, organisers said even more riders could follow Jan Ullrich and Oscar Sevilla in being suspended from the race by their teams.
   1997 winner Ullrich, and his teammate Spanish teammate Sevilla, were suspended by T-Mobile when fresh evidence from an ongoing doping probe in Spain - which has implicated a reported 58 riders to blood doping - arrived late Thursday.
   Francisco Mancebo, who finished fourth overall last year, was also suspended by his AG2R team because his name appears on the list.
   If the 28-year-old Italian is thrown out by his team, it would mean that three of the top five finishers from last year’s race would be absent.
   There are also doubts over Alexandre Vinokourov of Kazakhstan, whose team Astana was given the green light to race the Tour by the Court of Arbitration for Sport late on Thursday.
   Astana is the team which has most riders’ names on the list.
   After a series of crisis meetings Friday between the recently-installed Tour director Christian Prudhomme and the AIGCP, the body which represents the the managers of all the teams taking part, Prudhomme was unequivocal in the race organisers’ position.
   ‘We’re happy about T-Mobile’s decision to suspend Sevilla and Ullrich,’ said Prudhomme, who is directing his first race in place of Jean-Marie Leblanc.
   ‘Last night we received official documents from the Guardia Civil (Spanish police) via the Spanish cycling federation.
   ‘We then had a meeting with the AIGCP. During that meeting it was decided that the race’s ethical code will be applied to the letter and that none of the riders suspended will be allowed to be replaced.
   ‘The sporting directors of each team will now contact the riders concerned.’
   Tour organisers, who have been keen to avoid any repeat of 1998 when the race almost collapsed due to a major drugs scandal, are putting pressure on teams whose riders are being linked to the probe in Spain.
   Prudhomme meanwhile reserved special criticism for the Astana team of Vinokourov, suggesting organisers could put further pressure on them to pull riders out.
   Prudhomme said fresh evidence from Spain which arrived late Thursday was even more damning and would have condemned them in the eyes of the CAS had it been made available earlier.
   ‘Astana Wurth is a bit more complicated because there are so many names from that team being linked to the doping probe,’ added the Frenchman.
   ‘Some of those implicated are on the Tour, and some are not. To us, it looks like they have been operating a team doping policy.’
   Meanwhile, Italy’s Ivan Basso has been suspended by his team, CSC, and will not take part in the Tour de France which begins here today.
   CSC team manager Bjarne Riis told reporters here Friday that Basso’s link to an ongoing doping probe in Spain had forced the team’s decision.
   The name of Basso, the recent winner of the Tour of Italy and the Tour de France runner-up last year, is on a 58-strong list which Spanish investigators claim have been involved in blood doping.
   CSC team manager Riis, a winner of the Tour in 1996 when he finished ahead of Ullrich, told Danish radio: ‘It’s my responsibility to make this decision and suspend Ivan from the race.
   ‘I have to think about the team, that is now the most important thing. I trust Ivan Basso, but now it is up to him and his lawyers to show he has nothing to do with this affair.’

The International Cricket Council (ICC) will decide whether to allow players to appeal against decisions to
   the third umpire at a two-
   day meeting of its chief executives starting at Lord’s on Sunday.
   If accepted, the plan to allow three appeals per innings would have to be ratified by the ruling body’s executive board which meets on Wednesday, an ICC news release said on Friday.
   The proposal was narrowly endorsed by the ICC’s cricket committee in May but faces opposition from Pakistan.
   ‘We are opposed to this proposal and we will put across our point of view strongly to the ICC,’ Pakistan Cricket Board chairman Shaharyar Khan told Reuters this week.
   If endorsed, the process would be on trial at the ICC Champions Trophy in India in October and November.
   The cricket committee, headed by former India opening batsman Sunil Gavaskar, gave guarded approval last month and expressed reservations about the implications such a plan would have on the spirit of the game and the authority of the on-field umpires.
   The chief executives will also take up a recommendation to equip umpires with ear-pieces connected to the stump microphones for
   international matches, helping them hear edges more clearly.
   Confirmation of guidelines relating to scheduling in the Future Tours Progr- amme will also go before the panel.
   The meetings will end with the ICC’s annual conference on Friday when South Africa’s Percy Sonn is set to take over from Ehsan Mani as president.

One of the two most celebrated ‘golden generations’ in European soccer will reach the end of the road today when England meet Portugal in a tantalising World Cup quarter-final.
   The fixture, in Gelsenkirchen, is entwined with intriguing human links and echoes of past clashes.
   The two men who wear number seven, David Beckham and Luis Figo, captain their teams and for two years were club mates at Real Madrid. Manchester United’s Portuguese winger Cristiano Ronaldo faces a direct confrontation with his club captain, England’s right back Gary Neville.
   But hanging over both teams is a sense of the march of time with Neville admitting that for him, Beckham and the rest who represent the crop of players known as England’s ‘golden generation’, the clash represents a date with destiny.
   It could be a step towards realising a World Cup dream or the end of those hopes as many of the squad will be past their prime by the time of the next finals in South Africa in 2010.
   For Portugal, and for Figo in particular, the same holds true as he remains the last survivor of their own ‘golden generation’ - a group that once included Fernando Couto, Manuel Rui Costa and Manuel Joao Pinto among others.
   Like Beckham, once a running winger who crossed the ball with pin-point accuracy, Figo has lost some pace and penetration, but his guile and vision has helped guide Portugal through their best World Cup in 40 years.
   At 33, he remains strong, swift and blessed with a supreme technique that Beckham clearly respects. ‘He is one of those great players that you always have to watch out for,’ said the England captain on Thursday.
   Figo, in the absence of Portugal’s suspended playmaker Deco, may have to dictate play for his team as he bids to justify his decision to return from international retirement.
   ‘We all have high hopes of winning, although it goes without saying that if we reach the last four, then it won’t have been a bad tournament for us,’ Figo said recently.
   A World Cup semi-final appearance for Figo would mean Portugal had equalled the feats of the Eusebio-inspired team that lost 2-1 at Wembley in 1966 when Bobby Charlton, in one of whose soccer schools Beckham developed his boyhood skills, thundered in two goals.
   Having left Real Madrid for Inter Milan last year, Figo has found a new lease of life, looked fitter and sharper than many expected and delivered most of Portugal’s assists for goals on their run to the last eight.
   His exit from the Bernabeu ended competition with Beckham for a place on the right of Madrid’s midfield from where the England captain shone last season.
   Like Figo, Beckham has provided important assists for England goals as well as the crucial free-kick goal that defeated Ecuador in the second round.
   But Beckham is approaching the veteran stage. He, Neville and fellow squad member Sol Campbell are all 31 already.
   For them, it is a case of now or never.

Hundreds of thousands of people were gathering here and millions across the country were preparing to watch the host nation take on Argentina in the most eagerly awaited match of the World Cup so far.
   With only 72,000 lucky spectators able to be in Berlin’s Olympic Stadium for the quarter-final which kicks off at 1500 GMT, the next best option for most fans was to go to one of the fan areas to watch the match on a big screen.
   More than 11 million people have gone to the zones across Germany so far in this World Cup, and millions more will follow in the buildup to the final on July 9.
   The biggest hit of all has been the so-called Fan Mile which leads up to Berlin’s best-known monument, the Brandenburg Gate.
   Fans were advised to be in place in the capital five hours before the match to be sure of getting a place before the security cordon is closed.
   Police said they were expecting around one million
   people to fill the streets of Berlin.
   Street vendors were doing a roaring trade in German flags, reinforcing the fact that Germany has finally seemed at ease with itself at this
   World Cup after decades when overt displays of patriotism were frowned on because of the horrors committed by the Nazis.
   The weather in Berlin was cooler than in previous days, with cloudy skies keeping the temperature down to 22 degrees Celsius.
   German TV stations meanwhile were getting in the mood by playing ‘Don’t Cry for Me Argentina’.
   ‘3-1 to Germany’ seemed to be the most widely held prediction of German supporters at the Fan Mile early on Friday.
   Sebastian Boecker, of the German Red Cross, told N24 television that he was expecting the atmosphere on the Fan Mile to remain calm regardless of the result.
   ‘It has been very peaceful so far. And we hope it will stay that way,’ he said.
   Despite Germany’s promising start to the World Cup, with four wins out of four, they have not beaten a top-
   level footballing nation since 2000. Argentina, with two World Cups to their name, are among the strongest countries,
   but Germany have the undoubted advantage of home support.
   In the search for the luck which could tip the match in Germany’s favour, Bild newspaper revealed it had buried an old pfennig coin under the turf of the Olympic Stadium before the host nation’s 3-0 win over Ecuador in their
   final first-round match on June 20.
   The winner of the Germany v Argentina match will face the winner of the Italy v Ukraine quarter-final being played in Hamburg at 1900 GMT, in the semi-final in Dortmund on Tuesday.

I’ll swap best man role for England game
   A football fanatic is selling his role as best man on the ebay Internet auction site so he can watch TV coverage of England’s quarter-final match against Portugal on Saturday.
   James Circus, whose online name is pokerchipsuk, is offering his seat at the top table at his friend’s wedding in Essex, southern England, it was reported today.
   Bidding has started at two pounds (three euros, 3.5 dollars) for the role, which includes a speech and meal, the Evening Standard newspaper reported.
   He intends to turn up for the start of the wedding and carry out his duty handing the rings to the groom, then race off to the start of the match against Portugal, which starts in Gelsenkirchen just two hours after the ceremony begins.
   Circus says on ebay that he will be returning from the pub at 7pm to resume his role, adding ‘at that point you will have to leave.’
   
   Don’t flag it up, England
   Patriotic football fans in England could be fined up to 2,500 pounds (4,000 euros, 4,500 dollars) for flying the St George’s Cross, with flags flown out of windows or at an angle technically illegal unless the owner receives formal planning permission from the local authority under a 1992 law.
   Housing minister Yvette Cooper now intends to change the rules and said that she would be ‘shocked’ if any council enforced the regulations during England’s World Cup campaign.
   The Local Government Association said that England’s legions of flag-waving supporters are unlikely to face a fine.
   
   Buried treasure helps hosts
   An old one pfennig coin has been helping Germany in their World Cup bid, having been buried under one of the goalposts at the Olympic Stadium, renovated in 2004.
   According to German paper Bild, the coin - scrapped on the introduction of the euro along with the Mark, was allegedly a lucky charm for former coach Rudi Voller on the way to the 2002 final in Japan.
   
   All in a name for Gerrard
   A baby has been named in honour of England star Steven Gerrard after being born as the midfielder netted against Sweden.
   Gerrard Hodson weighed in at 8lb 7oz at Birmingham’s Heartlands Hospital following his birth on June 20.
   His mother Wendy, who kept track of England’s 2-2 draw with Sweden via a television in the delivery suite, already has four daughters.
   The 35-year-old charity worker, from Chelmsley Wood, told the Birmingham Mail: ‘As soon as the baby was born and we knew it was a boy we decided he had to be called Gerrard.’
   
   Hotels moan
   Only 48 percent of hotels and restaurants in Germany say they are happy with World Cup turnover.
   A poll for the Infratest marketing organisation on behalf of the German tourism authority said that operators were finding that the tournament had not brought the rich pickings they had been expecting.
   However, earlier in the World Cup hotels said they had seen a higher than normal level of visitors across April and May.
   
   Robots are go - again
   Two weeks on from the robot world cup in the northern city of Bremen another ‘alternative’ tournament is taking place in the football-mad western city of Dortmund. A total of 51 teams comprising students and scientists from 18 countries are competing - only this time via computer.
   
   Globe gets a buyer
   The 60-ton globe showing the outline of the planet superimposed on a football and on display at the Brandenburg Gate has found a buyer.
   ‘The globe, standing 20 metres (65 feet) tall, has been sold for 300,000 euros to the Hamburg-based firm Medienpool Extra which intends to make it ‘the symbol of our sports museum,’ spokesman Alexander Extra said.
   Austrian artist Andre Heller created the item, which went on a German tour prior to the World Cup before coming back to Berlin, where it has hosted multimedia items about World Cup history.
   FIFA says one million people have visited the globe.
   
   Scots in a flag flap
   A Scottish school has been criticised for flying too many England flags in a World Cup display.
   Hillhead High in Glasgow was ‘unwise’ to use a large majority of England flags in a corridor decoration, according to senior Scottish National Party councillor John Mason.
   The SNP’s group leader on Glasgow City Council reacted after receiving a complaint from a pupil who was apparently upset at the ‘excessive’ number of St George crosses.
   There have been several attacks in Scotland during the World Cup tournament on fans wearing England tops, including a seven-year-old boy who was punched in the head.
   And First Minister Jack McConnell has consistently pledged to support World Cup teams playing against England.
   — AFP

‘Revenge!’ bellowed newspapers here on Wednesday eight years after France trumped world superpower Brazil to win the World Cup on home soil.
   Brazil’s 3-0 drubbing of African upstarts Ghana and France’s masterful 3-1 elimination of more-fancied Spain to set up a quarter-final date between the 1998 finalists has the Brazilian media salivating.
   ‘Revenge Saturday,’ ran the front-page headline in the country’s leading newspaper Rio O Globo above photographs of Ronaldo’s history-making 15th World Cup goal and French captain Zinedine Zidane finding the back of the net.
   ‘Look out, it will be your turn soon,’ declared popular daily O Dia before adding: ‘Even if the players deny it, a climate of revenge is expected to account for the defeat of ‘98.’
   That was the year World Cup hosts France beat Brazil 3-0 with Zidane scoring two of his country’s goals in the final at Paris’s Stade de France.
   But while sports newspapers Lance and Jornal dos Sports went further with cries of ‘Vengeance’ and ‘Thirst for vengeance’, others pointed out that Brazil failed to convince against the Black Stars on Tuesday.
   ‘Brazil won 3-0 but ... even Parreira (coach Carlos Parreira) didn’t like it,’ Folha de Sao Paulo reported, pointing out Zidane’s goal had resuscitated the fortunes of a French outfit that many had all but written off.
   For Brazilian ex-international Ricardo, now general manager of French first division side Bordeaux, Saturday’s game in Frankfurt is a dream come true.
   ‘It’s the match of the year. I await it with patience but also with dread,’ said the former defender from the Brazilian team that defeated Les Bleus 2-0 at Paris’s Parc des Princes in 1992.
   ‘The one that goes through to the semi-final will have a big chance of becoming world champion,’ he added.
   ‘I don’t see another team winning. The other teams have qualities but also a lot of faults.’