Print

Mail

wiki links

Soccer Shorts

■ Croatia
Light 'em up, says coach
Croatia coach Zlatko Kranjcar has no problem with his players smoking. The issue was raised after Niko Kovac verbally attacked a Croatian journalist at training for naming him as one of the team's chain-smokers in a newspaper article. "As far as I know, nobody smokes regularly, or not in my company at least," Kranjcar said. "Maybe they go out onto the balcony of their hotel room when nobody is around or something." Asked if he condoned smoking by his players, Kranjcar shrugged, adding that he did not see a problem. "Apparently it has not affected their health since they have become top athletes and play for the national team," he said.

■ England
Brown gets priorities right
He has no time for ballet or dinner, but Britain's Gordon Brown set the video for Saturday's England World Cup soccer game. The workaholic finance minister jetted into St Petersburg for a weekend meeting of Group of Eight finance ministers for barely more than 12 hours -- missing out on Friday's dinner and a trip to see Swan Lake laid on by his Russian hosts. But with World Cup fever gripping Britain, Brown was eager to rush back home to watch England's opening game against Paraguay. Forced to fly later, however, Brown ordered the game to be taped.

■ Japan
Rommel haunts Socceroos
Australia's Socceroos may have to fight off the reputed spell woven by Japan's official mascot dog when the two countries clash in their World Cup opener today. Rommel, a 10-year-old male Miniature Dachshund, romped on to the pitch in Bonn on Saturday where the Asian champions wound up their training before leaving for Kaiserslautern for the Group F match. If the dog makes a pre-game appearance at the national side's training ground, Japan cannot lose. This legend has held true in Japan's 18 internationals since their 2-2 draw against Belgium in their World Cup opener in 2002, although there have been several draws.

■ Italy
Soccer popular with pope
Pope Benedict XVI watched the World Cup opener as his compatriots Germany scored a 4-2 opening day success over Costa Rica, Italian media said. He reportedly watched extensive highlights following the match with secretary Mgr Georg Genswein after a raft of audiences kept him from watching live coverage. Italy's ANSA news agency said Benedict was not a big sports fan but followed it with a pastoral interest, while he also hails from the region of Bavaria, whose capital Munich staged the opening game. ANSA said Benedict hoped to see a tournament played in a sporting spirit without doping, cheating or any form of corruption.

■ Germany
Not everyone's a fan
You couldn't help but feel sorry for the roving French TV reporter conducting interviews in the 2,000 crowd watching Germany's opener against Costa Rica on the big screen in Hamelin town square on Friday night. "What do you think of the wonderful atmosphere here this evening," she asked a local. "Awful, I hate football," came back the terse reply. Ploughing on she said: "Isn't it great to see everyone having a good time, drinking in the sunshine?" Shaking his head her interviewee looked around him: "There's far too much drinking going on here."

This story has been viewed 1122 times.