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Italy coach Marcello Lippi, who has faced calls to resign, has been given a vote of confidence by the head of the Italian Football Federation.
   ‘I have total and full confidence in Lippi,’ federation emergency administrator Guido Rossi told reporters at Italy’s pre-World Cup training camp.
   Magistrates summoned Lippi on Friday as a witness in an investigation into allegations surrounding his former club Juventus. He is expected to be questioned more extensively next week.
   Lippi denied last week that former Juventus general manager Luciano Moggi, who is at the centre of match-fixing allegations, forced him to select certain players for the national side.
   Lippi’s son Davide is also an agent at the GEA players and coaches management agency being probed by authorities.
   Some politicians and newspapers called for Lippi to resign before the World Cup in Germany which starts on June 9 as a step towards improving the image of Italian football.
   But Rossi, who was appointed following the resignation of Federation president Franco Carraro, said that was out of the question.
   ‘I have never had any doubt about his position — it would have been a total folly to put the blame on Lippi and avoid the people really responsible for this situation,’ said Rossi.
   Lippi repeated his denial of any involvement in any wrongdoing.
   ‘Let me be clear once again for the final time — I have never had an agent in my life, I have never had a relationship with GEA. My son has never been my agent.
   ‘I have had a rapport with Moggi and other people in football but I have never received any pressure,’ said the Italy coach.
   ‘This is the last time that I will deal with these matters and from this afternoon I will think only about the team and the World Cup,’ he added.

The former head of the German company producing the official World Cup mascot has been arrested on suspicion of fraud a week after the company filed for bankruptcy.
   Ottmar Pfaff was detained on Saturday and was being held pending an investigation into charges that he defrauded the company, Gerhard Schmitt, a prosecutor in the town of Hof, said Monday.
   The company, Nici, holds the exclusive rights in Europe to produce the stuffed lion for the June 9-July 9 tournament.

Brazil were accorded a low key send-off here as they left for Europe on a quest to claim a sixth World Cup.
   For the first time Carlos Parreira’s defending champions flew out for a World Cup finals without any official leaving ceremony.
   The plane carrying the South Americans to their training camp in Switzerland was decked out with five stars representing each of their world titles in 1958, 1962, 1970, 1994 and 2002.
   Brazil will be based in the Swiss town of Weggis up to June 3 when they will move to Germany and their base for the June 9-July 9 finals at Konigstein im Taurus near Frankfurt.

If Italy manage to emulate the Azzurri’s 1982 World Cup-winning side at this year’s tournament, what price Filippo Inzaghi to be cast in the role of Paolo Rossi?
   Like Rossi 24 years ago, Inzaghi has made a dramatic late return to the Italian squad on the eve of the finals after a lengthy two-year exile that has seen him struggle to regain form and fitness.
   And although the reason for Rossi’s prolonged absence was more sinister—a lengthy ban for matchfixing—there are other similarities between the two which could augur well for Italy’s chances.
   Both Rossi and Inzaghi are prolific marksmen, classic penalty-box poachers capable of striking out of nowhere.
   ‘Inzaghi is the forward who is most similar to me,’ said Rossi in an interview last year. ‘Sometimes you don’t see him for a full match, but then when you least expect it, he changes the game.
   ‘He is always focused and even if he is not the strongest attacking player, he knows where to lurk in the penalty area.’
   The principal obstacle to 32-year-old Inzaghi enjoying a fairytale return to international duty though are team-mates Luca Toni and Alberto Gilardino, both of whom are expected to form Italy’s first-choice attacking partnership.
   Yet after a good season for AC Milan which saw him net 16 goals, Inzaghi has shown he still has it in him to score at the highest level and could yet force his way into the starting line-up.
   For now though, Inzaghi is simply delighted to be back in the fold having last represented Italy against Azerbaijan in 2003, a 4-0 win in which he contributed two goals to take his tally to 21 in 48 appearances.
   ‘It’s great to be back in these colours after such a long time away,’ said Inzaghi at a training camp in Rome earlier this month.
   ‘It’s a really satisfying and unique feeling to get back to this level after so many injuries.’
   Inzaghi is also delighted to be working with Italy coach Marcello Lippi after enjoying a successful spell with the silver-haired guru during his first stint at Juventus.
   ‘It’s great to see him again and the others who work with him and to feel the warmth again,’ said Inzaghi. ‘Moments like this are what it is all about.’
   Inzaghi, known affectionately as ‘Super Pippo’, has been at or near the top of the Italian game for close to a decade.
   He first rose to prominence at unfashionable Atalanta, netting 24 goals in 39 games during the 1996-1997 season, exploits which saw him snapped up Lippi’s Juventus the following year.
   He averaged over a goal every two matches during the next three seasons at Juventus before the arrival of David Trezeguet signalled his exit to AC Milan.
   Inzaghi was superb in the 2002-2003 season, netting 12 goals during a successful Champions League campaign that culminated in victory over Juventus.
   But injuries have limited his appearances for Milan until this season, when he barged his way back into Milan coach Carlo Ancelotti’s thoughts.

Spain skipper Raul says that despite missing three months of the season with a serious knee injury he will be in better shape for this World Cup than any previous international tournament.
   ‘This could be my last World Cup and I’m really looking forward to it,’ the Real Madrid striker told reporters on his arrival at Spain’s training camp in Madrid on Monday.
   ‘I’m going to be in better physical condition than for any other tournament.’
   Raul, 28, sustained a partial tear of the cruciate ligament and damaged the cartilage in his left knee during Real’s 3-0 defeat against Barcelona in November and did not return to action until mid-February.
   He struggled to win back his place and did not manage to add to his modest tally of five league goals, his lowest total since breaking into the first team 12 seasons ago.
   ‘I’m improving all the time and when I score the first one, others will follow.’
   Spain coach Luis Aragones has selected just two other natural strikers in the squad, with Atletico Madrid’s Fernando Torres and Valencia’s David Villa joining Raul in the 23-strong squad.
   Aragones decided to leave out Liverpool striker Fernando Morientes after a disappointing season with the Premier League side, and instead strengthen his side’s defensive resources with the inclusion of Valencia centre-back Carlos Marchena. Torres said that Morientes’s omission would not mean the strike trio would be under greater pressure to find the net.
   ‘Morientes was a regular in the team, but the coach has decided not to take him,’ he told reporters. ‘His absence won’t put more pressure on us because we already have to put up with pressure as we want to be world champions.’
   The 21-year-old Atletico striker cautioned against any premature optimism and said he hoped the team had learned from its previous disappointments at major tournaments.
   ‘There are some people who are just talking about the quarter-finals and we haven’t even won a game yet,’ he said. ‘The important thing is to start off with a win and take it step by step. ‘In Portugal (at Euro 2004) we relaxed in the last game and we paid the price. We hope that we have learned the lesson.’

German international striker Miroslav Klose has been voted German Player of the Year by his fellow professionals following a survey by Kicker magazine.
   Werder Bremen forward Klose, 27, scored 25 league goals to top the Bundesliga scoring charts and was a clear winner polling 46.8 percent of the vote from the 233 professionals questioned.
   Dutch international Rafael van der Vaart of SV Hamburg was next best with 9.9 percent after helping the club reach third place in his debut season.
   Bulgarian international forward Dimitar Berbatov of Bayer Leverkusen was third with 7.7 percent after scoring 21 league goals.
   Berbatov has already signed for English Premiership side Tottenham Hotspur in a 16 million euro (10.9 million pounds) deal.
   SV Hamburg manager Thomas Doll was voted top coach polling 33.1 percent after guiding the club into third and the qualifying round of the Champions League.

Paris Saint-Germain’s Portuguese striker Pedro Pauleta, who failed to score during Euro 2004, has promised to fire in the goals during the World Cup in Germany.
   ‘Being the top scorer at the World Cup is a dream that I can’t hide,’ he told reporters in southern Portugal at a national team training camp held ahead of the start of the tournament on June 9, sports daily Record reported.
   Pauleta is Portugal’s all-time leading scorer with 43 goals in 80 games, shattering Eusebios record of 41 goals in 64 matches. His 11 strikes in the World Cup qualifiers made him Europes top marksman.
   ‘The goal of 50 goals appeals to me and I think of it. After having achieved various goals over the years I would like to achieve one more and 50 goals is a target,’ the 33-year-old said.
   ‘People talk a lot about my performance at Euro 2004 but sometimes they forget the good things I have already achieved for the national squad,’ he added.
   Pauleta, who has sparked interest from Lyon, has yet to decide whether to see out the remaining year of his contract with Paris Saint-Germain.
   ‘Maybe a few years ago I would be anxious to resolve any possible transfer as quickly as possible but today that doesn’t worry me. I have one year left on my contract with Paris Saint-Germain and the only proposal that interests me at the moment is the national team,’ he said.
   Portugal are pooled with Mexico, Iran and Angola in World Cup Group D with their first match against debutants Angola in Cologne on June 11.

Germany’s Jens Lehmann is predicting hard times for goalkeepers at the World Cup because of the choice of ball.
   ‘It’s a ball for the outfield players and the crowd – not for the goalkeepers,’ Germany’s number one said at a news conference on Monday. When it rains it’s not going to be very comfortable for us. It gets very slippery. It also moves a lot in the air.’
   The World Cup ball is known as the Teamgeist and is made by Adidas. Lehmann compared it to the ball from rival manufacturer Nike.
   ‘The Nike ball feels more like an old fashioned leather ball,’ he said. ‘The Adidas one is more plastic.
   ‘When it comes down to it, both of them make the goalkeepers look bad.’
   Lehmann had a thoroughly disappointing Champions League final with Arsenal last week, getting sent off early in the first half and then seeing his side lose 2-1.
   He was excused Germany’s first pre-World Cup training camp in Sardinia, as had always been the plan. He hooked up with the team for their second camp in Switzerland on Sunday and said he was looking forward to getting back into competition.
   ‘Playing in the quarter-finals, semi-finals and final is fun and it’s a great motivation,’ Lehmann said. ‘You want to play more games like that with big crowds.’
   Germany will be training in Switzerland until May 30. They play the opening match of the World Cup against Costa Rica in Munich on June 9.
   The hosts have programmed a training match against Servette to be played behind closed doors on Tuesday. They play the Servette junior side on Thursday.
   Their official warm-up games come against Luxembourg in Freiburg on May 27, Japan in Leverkusen on May 30 and Colombia in Moenchengladbach on June 2.

Lyon’s Mali international Mahamadou Diarra has ‘angered’ Manchester United bosses by claiming he favours a move to Real Madrid, according to Spanish newspaper As on Monday.
   According to the Madrid daily, Diarra’s agent Frederic Guerra had agreed a transfer fee with the English Premiership giants - 30 million euros (38 million dollars) - and the duration of the contract and all that was required was the player’s signature - but Diarra broke off negotiations with United.

Sent off for diving as Italy crashed out of the 2002 World Cup; kicked out of Euro 2004 for spitting at an opponent.
   To say that Francesco Totti has not really flourished for the Azzurri in recent major championships is putting it mildly.
   From appearing to have the world at his feet after a dazzling Euro 2000, Totti’s fans could be forgiven for wondering where it all went wrong.
   Even though he enjoys superstar status in Italy, there is still a sense of unfulfilled potential about the 29-year-old Roma captain’s international career, which has seen him net just eight goals in 49 appearances.
   So this summer’s World Cup represents something of a last chance as he seeks to earn a place in the pantheon of football’s greats.
   ‘I really want to make an impact in Germany because it could be my last tournament for Italy,’ Totti said.
   ‘The last World Cup and the European championships two years ago didn’t go as I had planned, and I want to make up for it.’
   Pele raised eyebrows in January when he hailed Totti as the planet’s best footballer – better even than FIFA’s World Player of the Year Ronaldinho.
   ‘Totti is the best player in the world; he has just been a bit unlucky in the past,’ said the Brazilian legend.
   Italy coach Marcello Lippi certainly believes Totti is indispensable to the Azzurri.
   ‘There is no-one quite like Totti,’ he says.
   ‘He can play anywhere on the pitch – as a striker or as a midfielder, linking up the play and setting up chances for the other strikers.
   ‘He has the mental and physical strength that allows him to do extraordinary things.’
   Totti was tipped to lead Italy to success at Euro 2004, but he left Portugal in disgrace after spitting in the face of Denmark’s Christian Poulsen in the first game of the tournament.
   He was given a three-match ban and Italy were knocked out in the group stages.
   At the World Cup in 2002, he failed to score in six matches and was sent off for diving in Italy’s shock second-round defeat against co-hosts South Korea, which ended the Azzurri’s interest in the competition.
   Totti has spent his entire career at Roma, emerging from the youth team to eventually wear the captain’s armband.
   He scored his first Serie A goal at the age of 16 and was quickly dubbed ‘the golden boy’.
   At club level his goalscoring record is impressive, with over 120 goals in 14 seasons in Serie A, and the defining moment of his career so far was his role in helping Roma win their first Scudetto in 18 years in the 2000-2001 season.
   His international career began promisingly, with a mature first appearance for Italy against Switzerland in October 1998, when he starred in a 2-0 win.
   Euro 2000 raised his profile on the world stage, and his performances helped take Italy to the final, where they were only narrowly beaten by France thanks to David Trezeguet’s golden-goal winner.
   Since then, Totti’s talents have failed to translate from Serie A to the national side. If, for once, he can live up to his billing in Germany, Italy in turn might just end their 24-year wait for glory.

Sven-Goran Eriksson gave England’s flagging World Cup morale a boost on Monday with an upbeat report on the prospect of Wayne Rooney lining up alongside an ‘on fire’ Michael Owen in Germany.
   Reacting to positive medical reports on the progress of Rooney’s recovery from a broken metatarsal bone in his right foot, Eriksson gave his most confident prediction to date that the Manchester United forward would be ready to take part in the tournament.
   ‘I’m always positive,’ Eriksson said. ‘Maybe it is more with my heart than my head, but I am quite sure Wayne will play at some stage in the World Cup, I strongly believe that.
   ‘I know we are in regular contact with him and the doctors and we know he is working very hard, doing everything possible (to be ready). It is not a surprise, I suppose he is desperate to play in the World Cup.’
   Eriksson had an equally encouraging message for England fans about the condition of Michael Owen, who has played only one competitive match for Newcastle this year after suffering a similar injury to Rooney on December 31.
   Owen was able to train fully at England’s preparation camp on the Portuguese Algarve last week and Eriksson revealed that he had never seen the striker looking as sharp physically.
   ‘What I saw last week from Michael Owen I’m very happy with,’ he said. ‘When we trained he was absolutely on fire. I don’t think I’ve seen him in such good shape for many years.’
   Whether Owen’s sharpness in training can be translated into the more testing environment of international football will become clearer on Thursday, when the Newcastle striker will start for an England B team in a friendly against Belarus.
   Eriksson confirmed that Owen will be paired with giant Liverpool striker Peter Crouch at the start but indicated that he would be introducting 17-year-old Arsenal forward Theo Walcott at some stage of the match.
   The Swede is also planning to use Thursday’s match to have an extended look at his other two surprise selections for Germany — Spurs winger Aaron Lennon and the left-sided Middlesbrough midfielder Stewart Downing.
   Optimism about Rooney’s chances of being fit for Germany were fuelled by comments from the England team doctor, Leif Sward, who described the player’s recovery to date as ‘perfect’ — although he cautioned that only a scan which he is due to have on Thursday could confirm that.

Coach Luis Aragones says it is time for Spain to stop making excuses for past disappointments at the World Cup and produce the goods at next month’s tournament in Germany.
   ‘We’ve got to banish the excuse mentality,’ Aragones told sports daily AS on Monday. ‘I’ve never liked alibis that don’t justify anything.
   ‘We have to take go into every game convinced that we can win and if that doesn’t happen, then off we go home.’
   Spain have not got beyond the World Cup quarter-finals since 1950 and were disappointing in qualifying for Germany.
   However, Aragones believes that their emphatic 6-2 aggregate win over Slovakia in the playoffs has served as a turning point.
   ‘That game helped us change and allowed us to start dreaming about what we could achieve,’ he said. ‘After that game, the team, players and the fans rediscovered their enthusiasm.’
   The 67-year-old said he had complete faith in his players, but added that they would need to take a humble approach to the tournament if they were to achieve anything in Germany.
   ‘I have 23 good reasons to believe in this team and in Spanish football,’ he said. ‘But we have to keep our feet on the ground and take things one step at a time. That is the only way we will be able to get close to the favourites.’
   Goalkeeper Iker Casillas, one of the most experienced members of the squad despite only recently turning 25, was optimistic Spain could cast aside their reputation as perennial underachievers.
   ‘Something always seems to happen to us,’ he told sports daily Marca.
   ‘Either the team doesn’t play well or the referees’ decisions go against us or something else happens. Spain has been unlucky on many occasions, but we’ve never known how to play these big matches.
   ‘There has been a major generational change since Euro 2004 and with the young players we have and the enthusiasm they have to do well we want to do something big at this World Cup.’
   Spain, who have been drawn with Ukraine, Tunisia and Saudi Arabia in Group H, meet up in Madrid on Monday to begin their preparations for the World Cup.
   They play a warm-up match against Russia in Albacete on Saturday, followed by a week’s further training in Valencia and a friendly against African champions Egypt in Elche on June 3.
   They complete their preparations with a match against fellow World Cup qualifiers Croatia in Geneva on June 7 and open their campaign against Ukraine in Leipzig a week later.

David Beckham has revealed he cried when Manchester United boss Alex Ferguson sold him to Real Madrid. The England skipper moved to Spain in a £25 million deal almost three years ago.
   He says he now wants to finish his career at the Bernabeu – or United. But he admits he was reduced to tears when Fergie showed him the door at Old Trafford in July 2003. Beckham said, ‘It hurt a lot. Everyone knows I’m a Man United fan, Man U mad. I signed for Real Madrid and, when I got home, I cried.’
   Beckham, 31, joined United as a schoolboy and made 359 starts for the club he supported as a lad.
   He told TV documentary presenter Tim Lovejoy, ‘I expected to stay there my whole career. People were saying I was already talking to Real Madrid. I never talked to them until I got the call to say the club wanted to sell me.’
   Asked if he wanted to end his career at Madrid, he replied, ‘I think so. I want to settle down here. My family is happy here and I’m still happy playing football here.
   ‘I want to be known as a player who has played at the top level for the best teams – and they don’t come better and bigger than United and Real Madrid. There are no other clubs I’d rather play for in England than United. It’s here or Manchester United, that’s the way I feel.’
   Becks also admitted he gets ‘touchy-feely’ with girl fans in Spain – as it would be impolite not to.
   He was pictured kissing pretty Anna Blanco, 19, last June, after stopping in his car near Real’s training ground to give her his autograph.
   Becks added, ‘They are very touch-feely over here. That was one of the problems with that story. In Spain it’s rude if you don’t do two kisses.’

Defender Gary Neville says there can be no more excuses for England if the current crop of players fail to go all the way at the World Cup in Germany.
   England have not won a major trophy since the 1966 World Cup and had high hopes dashed at the 2002 finals and Euro 2004 in the last eight. Three of their last five tournament exits have been on penalties.
   However, with the likes of David Beckham, Frank Lampard, Steven Gerrard and Michael Owen in their prime, Neville has a simple message for his team-mates.
   ‘No excuses for anybody. Injuries, whatever happens to us, no excuses,’ he told reporters at their Portugal training camp.
   ‘We’ve talked about this being a tournament that England are going to do well in for six years now and — certainly since 2002 — that this group of players would be at their peak in 2006. So wherever we get this time is a measure of this team.
   ‘No bad decisions, no missed penalty, no poor performance. They’re things you have to cope with...The make or break moments in this tournament we have to make our own. And if we don’t, we’ll come home and we’ll be a nearly team. It’s as simple as that.’
   Neville also refused to milk the likely absence of striker Wayne Rooney, whose broken foot is likely to rule him out of at least the group stages in Germany.
   ‘He’s an outstanding player. Every team is going to miss a player of that quality. I’m not sitting here saying that Wayne Rooney is not going to be a loss to us. He will be but not a terminal loss to the point that we might as well not turn up at a World Cup.’
   Pointing to Brazil’s victorious campaign in 2002, the Manchester United right back said: ‘Brazil had Ronaldinho missing for the semi-final. You would say that’s a great handicap but it still didn’t stop them. You have to be good enough to cope with those things during a World Cup if you have aspirations of winning it.’
   The stakes are particularly high for Neville, who at 31 is unlikely to make the 2010 World Cup in South Africa and who missed the 2002 finals through injury.
   With 78 caps to his name, there is also the real prospect of reaching the 100-mark before bowing out, yet it is not a milestone that particularly interests him. It’s okay amassing a great number of caps but people forget about caps,’ he said. ‘They get a mention every so often in a quiz or some sort of statistic book.
   ‘I think people remember players who play in teams that win things. Everyone talks about England and everyone talks about 1966. Even coming into this tournament the ‘66 players are all wheeled out.
   ‘They’re all talking about their experiences, they’re all getting commercial deals and they’re all getting adverts and they’ll carry on doing adverts for the next four years unless we win it.
   ‘And rightly so, they should be bragging for ever more. They’ve won a World Cup... and until another England team wins a major tournament, you’re always going to have history rammed down your throats.’
   Though the objective is the final in Berlin on July 9, England’s long road starts in Group B on June 10 against Paraguay before facing Trinidad and Tobago and coach Sven-Goran Eriksson’s native Sweden.
   ‘All we have got to do is think about playing in that game on July 9. There’s no good getting to a semi-final or a quarter-final. It’s a waste of time. You’re wasting six or seven weeks. We’ve got to get to that final and we’ve got to win it.’

Frank Lampard has revealed how an asthma attack left him thinking he was going to die.
   The Chelsea and England midfielder suffered with the problem into his early teens. And he admitted any attack left him frightened and in a panic.
   Lampard said: ‘My dad suffered from asthma and so did I as a kid. I used to suffer in games, where I’d have attacks. In Sunday football, I’d just have to come off the pitch at times.
   ‘It is a bad thing to happen as a kid. It’s no exaggeration to say that when you get your first asthma attack you feel like you are dying. You can’t get your breath. The only way I can describe it is the same as when you are winded and feel you are never going to breathe again.
    ‘As a kid you panic, even when you get used to it. You still needed someone to calm you down. It’s like having cramp. Once it comes, you don’t want to over-exert yourself again as you know it will come straight back.’
   Lampard had to use a pump inhaler and feared the problem would stop him emulating his father and becoming a professional footballer. He added: ‘Fortunately, I grew out of it and haven’t been plagued with it since I was about 13 or 14. But there were reasons in my career as a kid when I thought I wouldn’t make it — and asthma was one of them.
   ‘When you had a bad game and your dad told you that you were c**p was another. I was never overly confident I would make it as a footballer just because my dad had.’

Wayne Rooney’s hopes of being fit in time to play in the World Cup finals have been raised after the England team doctor claimed the forward was making a ‘perfect recovery’ from a broken metatarsal bone in his right foot.
   England medic Leif Sward told The Sun newspaper that Rooney’s fracture was healing quickly, although exactly how quickly will not be clear until the Manchester United player undergoes a scan on Thursday.
   ‘Everything points to a perfect recovery. I have the highest hopes for Rooney and the World Cup,’ Sward was quoted as saying.
   ‘I hope I can give a perfect answer about Rooney after the next MRI examination on Thursday.
   ‘I hope everything has healed good and I can say everything points in that direction. This healing process has been very, very good.’
   Rooney, who has been spending time in an oxygen tent to try and accelerate the repair of the bone, has not kicked a ball since he suffered the injury playing against Chelsea on April 24.
   Sward added: ‘He is not allowed to do that or anything else that could make his foot worse before Thursday’s examination.
   ‘But he can put pressure on his foot now with the special protection he is wearing.
   ‘It seems like Wayne Rooney has the gift of healing quickly - but it’s not that strange. Young people have that gift, much more than older patients.’
   Even if Sward’s optimism proves well-founded, it remains unlikely that Rooney will be fit enough to play in England’s World Cup opener against Paraguay. That match is on June 10, only six weeks after Rooney suffered the fracture.

Matching their heroic achievements in 2002 is going to be a tough ask for Asian teams in Germany, with making the second round a more realistic target.
   Japan and South Korea jointly hosted the last World Cup and both teams performed magnificently in front of home fans, with South Korea shocking everyone by reaching the semi-finals and Japan making the round of 16.
   The Korean performance was the best ever by an Asian team at the World Cup. The previous honour belonged to North Korea, who reached the last eight in 1966.
   But a repeat seems unlikely in hostile territory despite Asian football making progress over the past four years, with growing number of players gaining valuable experience by plying their trade in Europe.
   While ultimate glory may be elusive, at least the region has more teams than ever in with a chance, with Australia now part of the Asian family and in their first World Cup finals in 32 years.
   As well as Japan and South Korea, Iran and Saudi Arabia are the Asian Football Confederation teams flying the flag.
   South Korean coach Dick Advocaat is a realist but believes his squad is capable of pulling off a surprise or two in their group against Togo, Switzerland and 1998 champions France.
   ‘We have a very balanced squad and a squad that is capable of surprising a lot of people in the world,’ he said of a team that contains 10 veterans of 2002.
   Manchester United midfielder Park Ji-sung, a 2002 star, is the kingpin and will link up with Premiership colleague Lee Young-pyo of Tottenham Hotspur, another 2002 veteran.
   He will anchor the defence with Choi Jin-cheul, at 35 the oldest player in the squad. In attack Advocaat was forced to revise his plans after first-choice centre-forward Lee Dong-gook was forced out through a knee injury.
   He has turned to another veteran, striker Ahn Jung-hwan of Duisburg in the Bundesliga, and a rising new star, Park Chu-young, 20, from Korean league team FC Seoul. Triple Asian champions Japan, managed by Brazilian star Zico, are grouped with Australia, Brazil and Croatia, meaning only a major upset will see both qualify for the second round.
   Japan have had trouble scoring in recent games but with a stellar contingent of European-based stars, including Bolton’s Hidetoshi Nakata and Celtic playmaker Shunsuke Nakamura, they will fancy their chances. But Australia have a vastly experienced coach in Guus Hiddink – who led South Korea to the semis in 2002 – and can boast Liverpool’s Harry Kewell and Middlesbrough striker Mark Viduka among their squad.
   The opening match between the two teams on June 12 will be a crunch encounter.
   Hiddink has no illusions about what is ahead of them.
    ‘We have a tough group. Japan have played in the last few World Cups and they have experience with European-based players so they are a tough team to beat,’ he said.
    ‘Brazil, everyone knows that will be a special game. The Croatian game has a history of itself because of a lot of connections between Australia-Croatia so that will be a very hectic clash at the end.’
   Iran’s campaign gets underway on June 11 against Mexico before they take on Portugal and Angola. Now ranked 22 in the world, Branko Ivankovic has developed them into what many consider to be the country’s best team in decades, with the likes of Ali Karimi and captain Ali Daei his linchpins.
   Their key task is to make the second round, something they failed to do in their only other appearances at the World Cup, in 1978 and 1998.
   Of all Asia’s representatives, Saudi Arabia have the toughest task. Drawn against Spain, Tunisia and Ukraine, they are led by veteran striker Sami Al Jaber and goalkeeper Mohamed Al Deayea, who both make their fourth appearance in the World Cup.
   But in two World Cup appearances since their breakthrough in 1994, when they made the second round, they have yet to win a match, taking only one point from six games.
   That poor sequence of results included a humiliating 8-0 drubbing by Germany at the 2002 finals, where they froze on the world stage.

Argentine playmaker Lionel Messi thinks the World Cup is far from won for Brazil. The 18-year-old Barcelona prospect has been talking from Buenos Aires after joining up with the Argentina squad ahead of the World Cup.
   He is widely tipped to be one of the players to watch at the tournament, but despite that pressure he feels it is best to do the talking on the pitch.
   ‘Brazil are currently the best team in the world, but in 2002 Argentina were everyone’s favourite and the team couldn’t get past the first stage,’ he commented.
   ‘So many things can happen in the World Cup. We are very calm, not talking too much.
   ‘Argentina is a team that likes to attack and play good football and in my opinion that is good. We showed that in the last few games that we played.’
   The South Americans are in Group C with tough opposition from Serbia & Montenegro, Holland and the African Cup of Nations finalists, Ivory Coast, and Messi remains grounded about the team’s chances.
   ‘I think that our first match against Ivory Coast will be very important because according to the result of that match, you grow in confidence and can work on being even more calm,’ he said.
   The talented youngster looks set to make a return to fitness for the tournament, having not played since Barcelona beat Chelsea in the UEFA Champions League quarter final because of a hamstring injury.

Germany's World Cup players will take a course in watch making to fill up a bit of spare time during their Swiss training camp.
   ‘They'll learn how to take a watch apart and put it back together again,’ German team manager Oliver Bierhoff said following the squad's arrival from Sardinia on Sunday. ‘It's something a bit different.
   ‘It must be a great feeling when you get all the bits back together and you hear it ticking.’
   Highly paid footballers often spend fortunes on watches, which have become a status symbol for some in the game. Many of the best watches, or at least the most expensive, come from Switzerland, where the German squad will stay until May 30.
   ‘We have a lot of watch freaks in the squad,’ Bierhoff said. — Reuters
   
   Parreira feeling the pressure
   Brazil boss Carlos Alberto Parreira has admitted he is feeling the pressure, as the World Cup draws ever closer.
   Parreira is expected to lead his side to glory again in Germany, as they look to defend their trophy after success in Korea and Japan four years ago.
   The experienced coach, who guided Brazil to the World Cup title in 1994, admits he still feels nervous ahead of the finals.
   ‘Despite the years and experience, I'm nervous,’ Parreira told O Estado de Sao Paulo.
   ‘I have a cold feeling in the stomach, but these things are useful for motivation.
   ‘Fear doesn't intimidate, but encourages us to overcome challenges.’
   — New Age Desk
   Essien backing Blues boys
   Michael Essien believes his Chelsea team-mates are good enough to inspire England to World Cup glory in Germany.
   The Ghana international will be a key player for his country in the summer but it is England he believes have a greater chance of glory.
   Essien has enjoyed an excellent debut campaign in The Premiership, culminating in Chelsea's title success, and is of the opinion that his team-mates John Terry, Frank Lampard and Joe Cole may yet collect more silverware.
   All three are likely to play key roles for Sven Goran Eriksson's side and Essien has backed the talented trio to prove their quality on the world stage.
   ‘These are very important players to England,'' Essien told the Sunday Mail.
   ‘JT (John Terry) is a rock. I've never seen a defender like him. He's a tough guy, scared of no one. For me, Frank is like a half-striker with his goals. Joe can win a game on his own with a little piece of magic.’
   While praising his Stamford Bridge team-mates, Essien also spared a thought for Wayne Rooney, eager to see the Manchester United man in action in Germany. ‘No one can quite tell what life for England will be like without Wayne Rooney because he is such an exceptional player,’ he added.
   ‘When he was injured against us at Stamford Bridge, it was not only JT, Frank and Joe who were upset. I saw the pain in his face and I had to feel sad for him too.’
   — New Age Desk
   Jose: Walcott debut overdue
   Jose Mourinho claims Theo Walcott would have gone to the World Cup this summer with first-team experience under his belt had he signed for Chelsea instead of Arsenal.
   Walcott chose Arsenal ahead of Chelsea when he left Southampton for £5million in January, but he has yet to play a first-team game for the Gunners. The 17-year-old was a surprise inclusion in coach Sven-Goran Eriksson's England squad for the finals in Germany.
   But Mourinho insists that had Walcott chosen Chelsea, he would be going to Germany having already been given the chance to play at the highest level in England.
   Mourinho, speaking at the launch of Sky One's Football Icon 2 programme, said: ‘At Arsenal Walcott has played zero minutes but at Chelsea he would have played against Blackburn and Newcastle.
   ‘I would have played him against those teams like I did with Lassana Diarra. That is for sure.’ — New Age Desk
   
   Dudek gets Poland explanation
   Poland boss Pawel Janas has admitted he never had any intention of taking Liverpool goalkeeper Jerzy Dudek to the World Cup.
   Dudek was a surprise omission from the 23-man squad travelling to Germany this summer despite playing only six games for Liverpool this season following last year's Champions League final shootout heroics.
   He played in his country's recent friendlies against Saudi Arabia and Lithuania and looked set to survive the final cut.
   But Janas has now revealed Dudek only played these friendly matches because his preferred keepers were unavailable and Reds boss Rafael Benitez allowed the 33-year-old to take part.
   ‘Dudek has not played at Liverpool for a year,’ Janas said.
   ‘He played in the friendlies against Saudi Arabia and Lithuania because the others could not leave their clubs. Benitez let him go because Dudek was only a reserve and there was no problem with coming to these matches.’ — New Age Desk
   
   Media embargo on Togo
   Togo players face being dropped from their World Cup team if they speak to reporters from group rivals South Korea, midfielder Junior Senaya was quoted as saying.
   ‘The head coach said he would not let us play in the games if we answer your questions. I want to play in the match and the head coach said there are no exceptions,’ Senaya told the Ilgan Sports daily while leaving the team's hotel in Germany. Togo are coached by German Otto Pfister and will play South Korea on June 13 in their opening Group G match.
   Senaya said the coach had also told Togo players not to talk to Japanese or Chinese people, apparently in case they were actually Korean media, the paper reported. Togo will make their World Cup debut at the finals beginning on June 9. France and Switzerland make up their first round group. — Reuters

Only 7 per cent of Germans expect their team to win the World Cup on home soil, according to a poll released Monday.
   The survey found that another 6 per cent expect Germany to match its run to the final four years ago and lose. Brazil beat Germany 2-0 in the 2002 final.
   Another 37 per cent believe Germany will reach the semifinals, but 31 per cent think the host nation will be eliminated earlier, according to the poll by the Allensbach institute. Nineteen per cent of those surveyed declined to give a forecast. No margin of error was provided.
   The poll of 1,076 Germans age 16 and over was carried out between April 28 and May 10, before coach Juergen Klinsmann unveiled his World Cup squad.
   Klinsmann has been promoting young players since he took over the team after it crashed out of the 2004 European Championship in the first round.
   He has picked uncapped David Odonkor for his 23-man squad, dropping striker Kevin Kuranyi, but also brought in experienced defender Jens Nowotny to shore up his shaky defense.
   Germany opens the tournament June 9, when it plays Costa Rica. It also faces Ecuador and Poland in Group A.

England 1966 World Cup winner Bobby Charlton said on Monday the country had a great chance of winning the 2006 tournament, but sounded a warning over injured striker Wayne Rooney and untried teenager Theo Walcott.
   ‘Personally I think England have a real good chance. We don’t have a surplus of strikers perhaps, but certainly in midfield and defence we seem quite sound,’ Charlton told reporters at the Laureus Sports Awards in Barcelona.
   ‘The players we’ve got are just about the right age to really do well so I wouldn’t discount England. I think whoever beats Brazil will win the World Cup,’ he said, adding that Germany’s temperate climate would boost England’s chances.
   While Charlton seemed hopeful that 20-year-old Rooney would recover in time to play some part in the tournament after breaking a bone in his right foot on April 29, the Manchester United director warned that the striker would not be allowed to play if he was not fully fit.
   ‘It would appear his treatment has gone quite well and it could well be he could play some part in the World Cup ... but to make a mistake and play Wayne Rooney before he’s fit would be absolutely disastrous. More disastrous for us, Manchester United, than for England.
   ‘We will look very, very carefully at it and he will not be allowed to play unless he’s fully fit. That is a certainty.’
   A report in Monday’s Sun newspaper quoted England team doctor Leif Sward as saying Rooney was making a ‘perfect recovery’.
   He is due to have a scan on the injured foot on Thursday as he battles to be ready for England’s first game against Paraguay on June 10.
   Charlton also expressed doubts over the inclusion of 17-year-old forward Walcott, who was picked despite having never played first team football for his club Arsenal.
   ‘I think it’s maybe a bit too much to ask of the young player,’ Charlton said.
   ‘I can only compare it to my first match for Manchester United. People warned me ‘you have no idea about the pace and tempo of it’ ... I thought I was ready, but when I played my first match I remember thinking, I’ve never been so tired in my whole life.
   ‘This young lad hasn’t even had that situation with his club. I worry not so much for England but the lad himself.’

When striker Guillermo Franco turned up for his first training session with Mexico last November, he said he had fulfilled a boyhood dream by playing international football.
   Not everyone shared his enthusiasm, however.
   Franco was born and bred in Argentina. He had no ancestral connections with Mexico, arriving in 2003 to play for Monterrey after a move from Buenos Aires club San Lorenzo.
   Less than three years later, he was selected to play for the Tricolor by coach Ricardo La Volpe, who himself was born in Argentina and was reserve goalkeeper in his country’s 1978 World Cup winning squad. Although Franco had legitimately obtained a Mexican passport without any special treatment, his selection split Mexican football down the middle.
   The 29-year-old is the second naturalised player to be picked by La Volpe, after Brazilian-born midfielder Antonio Naelson, and critics say the pair, who are both in the World Cup squad, are blocking the way for Mexican-born players.
   The most outspoken comments have come from former Real Madrid and Mexico striker Hugo Sanchez.
   ‘It’s very dangerous because we’ve already got two or three and that could became four, five or six and then we will reach a moment when the national team is no longer the national team but a team of naturalised players,’ said Sanchez.
   ‘The players are not to blame, certainly Franco or Zinha (Naelson’s nickname),’ he added. ‘It’s the people who make the decisions who are responsible.
   ‘That’s where the right measures have to be taken, for the good of the Mexican footballer and the good of the Mexican national team.’
   ‘It would be great to win a World Cup with pure Mexicans but how sad it would be if we won it with naturalised players.’
   Forward Jesus Arellano, who played for Mexico at the last two World Cups, is also against the use of naturalised players.
   ‘Speaking as a Mexican player, some of us don’t like the naturalised players in the national team, we’d rather have just Mexicans,’ he said.
   La Volpe remains defiant.
   ‘Most of the strikers who play in Mexico, I would say 80 per cent, are foreigners and if one of them is a naturalised Mexican, I don’t understand why I can’t see what he can do,’ La Volpe said.
   He also had a swipe at club coaches who criticised his selection policy. Mexico has the richest domestic league in Latin America and attracts players from all over the region, many of whom settle in the country and take out nationality.
   ‘I’d like to see all these coaches who complain about naturalised players field only Mexicans,’ he said.
   La Volpe was supported by Felipe Munoz, president of the Mexican Olympic Committee.
   ‘If the rest of the world is doing it, we have to do it as well and try and benefit ourselves. If they (naturalised players) are better and can displace a Mexican-born player, then that’s perfectly correct.’
   Spanish-born Carlos Blanco was the first naturalised player to represent Mexico when he took part in the qualifying matches for the 1954 and 1958 World Cups.
   Argentine-born Carlos Lara played in the qualifiers for the 1962 World Cup and was followed by Gabriel Caballero, another Argentine-born player, who was included in the 2002 World Cup squad. Naelson, whose presence in Germany has been threatened by a knee injury, became the first naturalised player to score for Mexico when he was on target in a 3-0 World Cup qualifying win over Trinidad & Tobago in 2004.
   Franco, who has left Monterrey to play for Spanish club Villarreal, scored on his debut against Guatemala last November and was also on target in the 1-0 friendly win over Ghana in March.
   Defiantly, the gruff coach, withstood pressure to include in his World Cup squad the Mexican-born Cuauhtemoc Blanco, who many regard as the country’s top player.
   He did, however, contemplate selecting Argentine-born Walter Gaitan and encouraged him to take up Mexican nationality.
   The resulting furore was such, however, that Gaitan changed his mind and withdrew his application for Mexican nationality at the end of January.
   ‘It’s because of the way the media interpreted it, all the hassle,’ the player said.

For all of soccer’s worldwide popularity, its biggest prize has long been the property of two continents.
   No team from outside Europe or South America has hoisted the World Cup. It has been decades since a team from CONCACAF, which comprises North and Central America and the Caribbean, even came close.
   With the United States, ranked fifth in the world by FIFA, and Mexico ranked fourth and seeded heading into the tournament in Germany, it might seem to be CONCACAF’s year to crash the party.
   Perhaps, but its chances could be better on paper than on the field. The region does have a record four teams at the World Cup after first-time qualifier Trinidad and Tobago won a playoff with Bahrain to join Mexico, the United States and Costa Rica.
   The Americans, World Cup participants since 1990, and Mexico, who lead the region with 13 appearances, hope to turn their top-10 rankings into deep runs in the tournament. In Mexico, it’s more than a hope.
   ‘Expectations are very high, and this makes things complicated,’ said FC Barcelona midfielder Rafael Marquez, who was ejected for banging his head into Cobi Jones when the United States eliminated the Mexicans in the 2002 second round. I think we will have to work very hard to deal with that mentally ... sometimes we are our own worst enemy.’
   History is not on the confederation’s side, either.
   No CONCACAF team has made the semi-finals since the United States in the inaugural World Cup in 1930. Since then, only three countries have reached the quarter-finals (or the second round of pool play, the format from 1974-82).
   And in all but one case, they were playing either at home or in a depleted tournament field.
   The lone exception was the United States’ quarter-final run four years ago, when the Americans outplayed Germany but were stonewalled by goalkeeper Oliver Kahn in a 1-0 loss.
   In 1930, participants were invited rather than going through a qualifying tournament. Only 13 teams – four from Europe, which now dominates the field – showed up in Uruguay that year.
   Cuba reached the quarter-finals in 1938, when war loomed and every South American team but Brazil boycotted because the tournament was held in Europe for a second straight time. Mexico made the quarter-finals as host in 1970 and 1986.
   Of the top two teams this year, Mexico’s ‘El Tri’ would appear to have the best shot, even without creative – and controversial – forward Cuauhtemoc Blanco, snubbed by coach Ricardo Lavolpe.
   The Mexicans got a favourable draw, playing Iran and Angola before closing group play against Portugal. The unseeded Americans could struggle in a group that includes Italy, the Czech Republic and Ghana.
   Even without Blanco, Mexico still have two proven scorers in Bolton’s Jared Borgetti and Villarreal’s Guillermo Franco, a native of Argentina who was naturalised last year.
   Borgetti led the world with 14 goals in Cup qualifying and became the first Mexican to play in the English Premier League when he signed with Bolton in November. Franco helped his Spanish team reach the Champions League semi-finals after transferring in January from Monterrey, where he scored 61 goals in five seasons.
   The United States also have experience in Europe’s top leagues. The list includes Borussia Moenchengladbach goalkeeper Kasey Keller, who has also played in England and Spain and is among the world’s best at his position. He started two games in 1998, when the Americans finished last in the 32-team field, and backed up Brad Friedel in 2002.
   ‘We have good size. We have good speed. We have good players on the ball,’ Keller said. ‘I think we’re going to match up very well against most teams that we play against. The Czechs are big and they’re strong and they have very good talented players on the ball and they’re ranked No 2 in the world for a reason. Is their ranking a bit false as well? Maybe.’
   The US roster also includes three players with World Cup goals in 2002, but a newcomer could provide the most offensive punch. Kansas City Wizards forward Eddie Johnson set a US record with goals in his first four appearances with the national team and finished qualifying with seven. But he’s been fighting injuries in the last year.
   Three-time qualifiers Costa Rica, making their second straight appearance, reached the second round in 1990 with wins over Scotland and Sweden. The Ticos lost only to eventual champions Brazil in 2002, but failed to advance because Turkey had a better goal difference.
   Like Mexico, Costa Rica have had their own roster controversies. Coach Alexandre Guimaraes left two star forwards – Lokomotiv Moscow’s Winston Parks and Alajuelense’s Rolando Fonseca – off his squad.
   Fonseca said at the time his omission was ‘not because of a lack of ability, but for other reasons.’ He did not elaborate.
   Trinidad and Tobago’s biggest name, former Manchester United forward Dwight Yorke, has passed his prime and is now playing in Australia. Still, the Soca Warriors aren’t conceding anything.
   ‘The players have to believe victory is possible,’ Trinidad coach Leo Beenhakker said. ‘Every weekend, weaker teams all over the world beat tougher ones. We’re not going to Germany to lose. Otherwise, why pack our bags.’

Germany’s World Cup injury worries eased on Monday as striker Lukas Podolski and midfielder Sebastian Kehl returned to training at their Swiss camp.
   Podolski had been suffering from a back injury, while Kehl had been out with an ankle problem.
   Central defender Christoph Metzelder and left-back Philipp Lahm are the only two players still nursing serious injuries.
   Metzelder, who has a calf muscle injury, took part in light training on Monday morning but will not be able to take full part until Wednesday at the earliest.

Older and wiser at 32, striker Savo Milosevic has appealed to soccer fans in Serbia & Montenegro to be realistic in their expectations for the World Cup finals.
   ‘We tend to be a bit euphoric although I do think people are a bit more realistic now than before the 1998 finals in France. We have to take it one match at a time,’ Milosevic told his federation’s official World Cup bulletin.
   ‘If we can progress past a group including twice world champions Argentina and the Netherlands, we can get very far.
   ‘On the other hand, we can also play well and not make it through. It’s true that we are in toughest group of all, rightly dubbed the group of death. But it is strong because we are in it too and we should fear no one while showing respect for all our rivals.’
   Milosevic, the scorer of 35 goals in 97 international appearances, is the most capped player in his team’s history.

Captain Brian Lara believes West Indies’ nerve-jangling one-run victory over India in the limited-overs cricket international on Saturday could restore his team’s self-confidence.
   It was only the fourth success in 25 matches for West Indies against teams ranked above it in the International Cricket Council ratings, since the upset victory in the 2004 Champions Trophy in England.
   In that period, Lara admitted, the team threw away many match-winning positions. ‘This is the key that is missing in our game, even in the test matches,’ Lara said.
   ‘We find ourselves performing well for a certain amount of time, and we cannot close it out. We are going to try as much as possible to bottle what happened to ensure we use it in the future.’
   ‘The good thing about West Indies - and we have seen it even in these two ODIs - is that we do get into positions to win matches,’ he added.
   ‘Unfortunately, we have either tended to relax, or thrown the opportunity away. In this match, we did not, and I think it was a true show of character from the guys, even in Thursday’s game when in the last stride India got up to win.’
   Saturday’s victory at Sabina Park evened the five-match series at 1-1. The next match is on today at St. Kitts.
   For India, the defeat broke a record sequence of 17 straight victories batting second.
   ‘We have been chasing really well in ODIs of late, but we had to lose one at some stage,’ captain Rahul Dravid said. ‘It was a target we should have chased successfully, but we ended up not chasing well because we did not bat very well.’
   ‘It does hurt to lose, but we have to accept these things. We have to pick ourselves up, and go into the next game and do better. We have done really well so far, so there is no reason to panic because we lost.’

Geoff Boycott has expressed fears for Michael Vaughan’s future with the England captain struggling to recover from recurring knee problems.
   Chairman of selectors David Graveney insists Vaughan is progressing even though no comeback date has been set.
   Ex-England batsman Boycott said in his BBC Sport column: ‘You can put as much spin on it as you want - it’s worrying.
   ‘It must be a worry because while you expect selectors to be upbeat and say he’ll be all right, time’s getting on.’
   Boycott says the history of problems Vaughan has had and the slow pace of his recovery suggests there is reason for concern.
   The Yorkshire star broke down early in England’s first warm-up match on their tour of India in February.
   That came after he was forced to go home before the one-dayers in Pakistan to undergo surgery in December.
   ‘He hasn’t completed a game since the tour of Pakistan, which is getting on for five or six months now,’ Boycott explained.
   ‘If you’re a fast bowler banging your foot down you’d expect to have a bit of knee trouble later on in life, a bit of arthritis or something.
   ‘Even as a batsman you’re twisting and turning when you’re fielding so you might get some knee trouble later in life but you would not expect it at the age of 31.’
   High-profile footballers such as Alan Shearer, Henrik Larsson and Patrik Berger have turned to Colorado surgeon Dr Richard Steadman for help with
   knee injuries and Boycott is surprised Vaughan has not done the same.
   ‘So many footballers have been to him - I’m surprised somebody as intelligent as Michael hasn’t done that,’ he said.'

Pakistan Cricket Board has denied any confrontation with the country’s leading cricketers over a pay raise issue.
   ‘This is not an issue at all. There is no truth in any of the reports because the Board has not received any demands from the players for a pay raise,’ PCB Director of Board Operations Abbas Zaidi said.
   Zaidi termed the reports as absurd, which said that players had demanded a hundred per cent increase in their wages when their contracts come up for review next month.
   ‘The funniest part in these reports is the bit that says the players want a pay raise before they go to England,’ Zaidi said.
   ‘It seems as if they are underpaid and are unable to manage without an increment before they go to England. It is really absurd,’ he said.
   He, however, conceded that the players might be expecting a raise when their contracts are reviewed next month.
   ‘Everybody expects to be rewarded at the end of the year. But to say that the players and the Board are heading for a tussle over money matters is totally wrong.’
   He said the Board would also look after fast bowler Shabbir Ahmed, who is out of international cricket till the end of this year following an International Cricket Committee ban over an illegal bowling action.
   ‘We don’t abandon the players. We are trying to assist Shabbir in his efforts to make a return as soon as possible but even if he can’t, the player would be kept on contract and would be paid like all his colleagues.’

Four school teams advanced to the final round of the banglalink tiger trophy National School Football Championship after becoming champions in their respective zones on Monday.
   The teams are Poura Maddhamik School (Narail), Bhurungamari Pilot High School (Kurigram), Lakshminarayan Cotton Mills High School (Narayanganj) and Salampur Dakhil Madrassah (Natore). Poura Maddhamik School beat Lohagara Pilot High School 4-2 at Narail Stadium with Shariful, Wahiduzza-man, Faisal and Sabuj finding the back of the net for the winners. Pabitra Kumar and Liton scored for the losing side.
   At the Kurigram Stadium, Bhurungamari Pilot High School beat Ulipur MF School 2-0 courtesy of two goals from Nazmul and Ershad. Lakshminarayan Cotton Mills High School won against Jadunath Pilot High School in the penalty shoot-out after the match had ended 1-1 in the regulation time. Abbas and Raju scored for the respective sides in the stipulated period.
   Sohel Rana scored a hat-trick as Salampur Dakhil Madrassah thrashed Bagatipara Pilot High School 4-0 at the Natore Stadium. Samrat netted the other goal.

Naraya-nganj, Tangail and Gaibandha moved into the final round of the Dhaka Bank U-19 National Youth Cricket Championship after winning their respective zonal finals on Monday.
   Narayanganj recorded a massive 125-run win over Madaripur riding on a superb century from Rony at the Faridpur Stadium.
   Batting first, Narayanganj compiled a challenging 245-8 with Rony smashing 130 off 121
   that featured nine fours and five sixes.
   In reply, Madaripur were bundled out for 120 in 35.5 overs in the face of formidable bowling of Haider, who returned with 5-26.
   Tangail also registered a huge 140-run win over Kishoreganj at Mymensingh Stadium. After racking up 253 all out batting first, Tangail restricted Kishoreganj to 113 in 38.2 overs. Maruf starred for the winning side scoring highest 78 runs.
   At Natore, Gaibandha rolled over Naogaon by four wickets after restricting them to only 131 runs.
   Rain ruined the other zonal final of the day between Rajshahi and Thakurgaon at Bogra Stadium.
   The match will be held today.

The Bangladesh men’s team began with a bang in the 37th Chess Olympiad, which started at Turin in Italy on Sunday, as they defeated Lichtenstein 4-0 in the opening match.
   Grand Master Ziaur Rahman and three International Masters Reefat Bin Sattar, Enamul Hossain and Abdullah Al Rakib all won their respective matches for the Bangladesh team.
   The women’s team, however, tasted a contrasting result as they lost to USA 3-0. IWM Rani Hamid, Zakia Sultana and Nazrana Khan made up the team.
   The men’s team was playing against Holland while the women’s team was facing New Zealand in the second round when this report was being filed.

The Jubok Phone National Football Championship will start throughout the country from July 15.
   Interested district sports associations, services and all the universities are requested to send their entries to the general secretary of Bangladesh Football Federation by May 31.
   The BFF has also invited the DSAs to host the preliminary and the final matches of the tourney during the deadline.

Gary Lineker is without doubt one of the greatest English players of all time. Prolific for all the clubs he played for, Gary is second to only Bobby Charlton in the all-time top England goalscorers list having found the net 48 times in 80 appearances.
   Born in Leicester in 1960, Gary had the honour of playing for his home-town club for seven years before joining Everton in the summer of 1985. Whilst at Filbert Street, Lineker won the Second Division championship in 1980 and made his England debut in May 1984 against Scotland at Hampden Park.
   His £800,000 switch to Howard Kendall's Toffeemen saw Lineker develop as a player on both the club and international levels.
   In just one season at Goodison Park, Lineker couldn't quite help Everton defend the championship they had won the previous year, finishing as they did second to Merseyside rivals Liverpool by two points. Everton also reached the FA Cup final where they also faced Liverpool. Lineker gave the Toffemen the lead early in the game, however the Reds stormed back and won the game 3-1, leaving Lineker and Everton's trophy cabinet empty for the season.
   Lineker's impact was so great that that season saw him voted as both the PFA and Football Writers Association Player of the Year. Barcelona had already signed Lineker's services for the following season when Bobby Robson's England flew out to Mexico for the 1986 World Cup Finals.
   The Catalans must have thought they had got a bargain as after a slow start, Lineker started banging the goals in for the ‘Three Lions’.
   A hat-trick against Poland in Monterrey saw England through to the knockout phases where further goals against Paraguay (2) and Argentina (1) saw him become the first England international to win the World Cup Golden Boot.
   Now with wordwide fame, the £2,750,000 that Barca found to bring Lineker to the Nou Camp suddenly seemed like a great bit of business.
   The hype that thus surrounded Lineker as he settled in Catalunya was enormous.
   In his first game for Barca he justified Venables' faith in him by scoring twice as his new club beat Racing 2-0. And Lineker kept on scoring - five goals in his first seven games and 21 in the league in total.
   The high point of that first season in Spain was his glorious performance in Barca's 3-2 win over arch-rivals Real Madrid - Lineker scored a hat-trick and was forever a Barca hero.
   Lineker also scored in the return match in the Bernabeu later that season as Barca completed the domestic double over los merengues.
   Under new coach Carles Rexach, Barca won the Copa del Rey in 1988 but again lost out in the league to Real.
   However, unlike the outgoing Terry Venables, the Catalan manager played Lineker in a more withdrawn, right-wing position, rather than in his favoured forward position.
   Ironically, his rehabilitation at Barcelona under Johan Cruyff's management came about despite still playing in a wide position; it was his cross from the right which provided the opening goal in the Catalans' European Cup Winners' Cup victory of 1989.
   In June 1989, Lineker returned to England to team up once again with Terry Venables, signing for Tottenham Hotspur for £1.2 million. In three seasons at White Hart Lane, Lineker scored a remarkable 67 goals in 105 league appearances.
   Lineker starred for England in his second World Cup in Italy in the summer of 1990.
   After a successful season which saw him score 24 league goals, Lineker scored four more in Italy as England reached the semi-finals for only the second time and for the first time ever abroad.
   However, under new coach Graham Taylor, Euro 92 was nothing but a disaster for Lineker as he failed to find the net in any of England's three games in Sweden and as such finished on 48 goals, one behind Charlton.
   Substituted in his last game for Alan Smith, Lineker's best chance to equal the record probably game in the pre-tournament friendly at Wembley against Brazil where he failed to convert a penalty.
   Despite his long career, was never cautioned by a referee for foul play (never once receiving either a yellow let alone a red card), a feat equalled only by Billy Wright, John Charles and Sir Stanley Matthews.
   Lineker finished his career at Nagoya Grampus Eight, where a persistent toe injury limited his appearances. Since full retirement, Lineker has forged a successful career in the media, fronting the BBC's football coverage.
   — New Age Desk
   
   Name : Gary Winston Lineker OBE
   Date of Birth : November 30, 1960
   Birthplace : Leicester, England

1986: Diego Maradona, Argentina v England
   Arguably the best goal in World Cup history, and it came just four minutes after the most controversial one when Diego Maradona punched Argentina's opener over the head of Peter Shilton. Second time around it was much better. Maradona picked up a pass close to the halfway line and dribbled his way around various sets of flailing England limbs, before dummying Shilton, plopping the ball into the net, and racing off to celebrate.
   
   1986: Diego Maradona, Argentina v Belgium
   Who said his effort against England was one in a million? As if to prove the point, Maradona did the same again in Argentina's next match, their semi-final against the Belgians. Maradona rode three tackles, this time rounding off the inevitable by juggling the ball to his left foot and shooting coolly past Belgian goalkeeper Jean-Marie Pfaff.
   — New Age Desk

The first World Cup ever to be staged outside Europe or the Americas, the 2002 finals were also the first to be shared by two nations, with South Korea and Japan earning co-hosting rights.
   The build-up was dominated by fears over security following the September 11 2001 attacks on New York and Washington, and it was a sign of the times that anti-aircraft missile batteries were deployed around the gleaming new stadia.
   In the event, the tournament passed off peacefully and the only shocks were restricted to the field of play.
   Upsets were to prove the hallmark of the tournament from the outset, when World Cup debutants Senegal beat holders France with a 1-0 win in the opening match in Seoul.
   France’s demise was one of the most striking surprises of the finals. They failed to score a goal and managed only a draw and two defeats to crash out miserably in the first round, the worst performance by any defending champion.
   But while Senegal’s giant-killing run took them all the way to the quarter-finals, the most notable minnows were hosts South Korea, who recorded wins over Portugal, Italy and Spain before they bowed out in the last four to Germany.
   A tournament characterised by upsets ended with two of the World Cup’s greatest powers—Brazil and Germany—meeting in the final.
   Ronaldo, fit again after his 1998 nightmare, scored both goals in the final as Brazil clinched a record fifth crown.
   
   STARS
   Paolo Maldini
   Italy: b. 1968
   Regarded as the finest defender in the world when at his peak, Maldini played in four World Cups with Italy.
   Naturally right-footed, Maldini nevertheless excelled on the left side of defence where he became renowned for his inspirational captaincy, elegant skills and unflappable temperament.
   It was a measure of Maldini’s consummate professionalism that he was still playing football at the highest level for AC Milan in 2006, 21 years after making his first team debut.
   He retired from international football after the 2002 World Cup with 126 caps and seven goals. It was a disappointing end for Maldini, outjumped by Ahn Jung-hwan as the South Korean scored the goal that knocked Italy out.
   Italy’s exit also meant that Maldini would finish a remarkable international career without a trophy after playing in losing finals at the World Cup and European Championship.
   
   Hong Myung-Bo
   South Korea: b. 1969
   The first South Korean to play in four consecutive World Cups, Hong earned a deserved reputation as his national team’s iron man.
   An elegant sweeper, Hong’s ice-cool temperament was to prove crucial as the Koreans held their nerve to advance into the last four of the tournament.
   Hong’s tournament highlight came in the quarter-finals, when he nervelessly struck the decisive penalty that put Spain out and the Koreans through.
   He quit international football after the finals with 135 caps to his name. He retired from all football in 2004 after a spell in the United States with the Los Angeles Galaxy.
   
   Jose Luiz Chilavert
   Paraguay: b. 1965
   Chilavert became one of the most recognisable figures in football during the 1990s, his remarkable prowess from free-kicks and penalties making him that rarest of breeds, a goalscoring goalkeeper.
   In qualifying for the 2002 tournament, Chilavert weighed in with no fewer than four goals for Paraguay, among 62 that he scored throughout his professional career. He remains the only goalleeper ever to have scored a hat-trick.
   But while his goals made Chilavert a popular figure with fans, the rotund shot-stopper had a well-documented dark side and often found himself violently at odds with authority, opponents and even team-mates.
   He was ruled out of Paraguay’s opening two matches of the 2002 finals because he was serving a three-match suspension for spitting on Brazil’s Roberto Carlos during a qualifier.
   
   LEADING SCORERS
   Ronaldo (BRA) 8
   Rivaldo (BRA) 5
   Miroslav Klose (GER) 5
   Jon Dahl Tomasson (DEN) 4
   Christian Vieri (ITA) 4
   
   TRIVIA
   n Brazil’s captain Emerson was ruled out of the competition on the eve of the tournament after damaging a shoulder while clowning around in a training session.
   n Cameroon’s players fell foul of FIFA regulations over their sleeveless shirts. The players were eventually ordered to wear vests beneath their jerseys.
   n Brazil’s win over Germany in the final equalled the record for most consecutive victories in a tournament, the champions equalling the seven-in-row by Italy between 1934 and 1938.
   n France’s first round exit was officially the worst display by a defending champion in the 72-year history of the World Cup. The holders finished with just one point from three games and failed to score a goal.
   n South Korea’s performance in reaching the semi-finals was the best performance ever by an Asian team at the World Cup. The previous best belonged to North Korea, who reached the last eight in 1966.
   n Brazil’s win handed them a record fifth title. Italy and Germany, with three wins each, are their nearest rivals.
   n Controversy surrounded the naming of the tournament. Japanese officials wanted the finals to be known as Japan-Korea 2002 but Korean officials successfully argued for the event to be known as Korea-Japan 2002.
   n The 2002 finals marked the last time that a defending champion was exempted from qualification. For the first time, holders Brazil were forced to go through qualifying for the 2006 finals.
   
   WINNING SQUAD
   Brazil
   Goalkeepers: Marcos, Dida, Rogerio Ceni
   Defenders: Cafu, Lucio, Roque Junior, Edmilson, Roberto Carlos, Belletti, Anderson Polga, Junior
   Midfielders: Vampeta, Juninho, Gilberto Silva, Kleberson, Ricardinho, Rivaldo, Ronaldinho
   Strikers: Ronaldo, Denilson, Edilson, Luizao, Kaka
   — Agence France-Presse