The Word on the Street

12 Jun 2006

Pfister returns to take helm at Togo

German coach Otto Pfister is to return to coach the Togo team just three days after he walked out over a dispute concerning player's bonuses.

The 68-year-old German told sports press agency SID that he was returning to his old post and would be on the bench for Tuesday's Group G opener against 2002 World Cup semi-finalists South Korea.

"I am coming back and I will take my place on the bench for the match against South Korea," said Pfister.

Pfister's return was confirmed by the spokesman for the Togolese delegation Messan Attalou.

"He (Pfister) will be on the bench on Tuesday against South Korea and will be our coach for the whole tournament."

The African debutants other opponents are 1998 World champions France and Switzerland.

Referee admits God was on his side

Egyptian referee Essam Abdullah admitted to Australian goalkeeper Mark Schwarzer he erred in awarding Japan a controversial goal in their match on Monday.

Schwarzer appeared to be fouled by Naohiro Takahara as he leapt for a high ball from Japanese playmaker Shunsuke Nakamura in the 26th minute, allowing the ball to bounce into the net, but Abdullah let the goal stand despite furious Australian protests.

Australia came back to win 3-1.

"The referee admitted to me afterwards that he made a mistake," Schwarzer said.

"I went over to him when one of the Japanese players was injured in our 18-yard box five minutes after they scored and I said to him 'referee, what's the story?' and he just said 'sorry, I made a mistake.'"

"He said after the game to (skipper) Mark Viduka that God was on his side because the result went our way in the end and he knew that he had made a big mistake.

Domenech furious with French press

Relations between France coach Raymond Domenech and the French press reached a new low Monday when he effectively accused them of industrial espionage.

At the centre of the row was the leaking of a behind closed doors training session which suggested Domenech was planning to start Frank Ribery, the rising star of the team, for the first time against Switzerland.

Two newspapers carried the reports in their Monday editions, saying the Marseille player was set to replace David Trezeguet.

"I find this spying on a closed training session when we're preparing for a game just for a 'scoop' sad and disappointing.

"I could understand if you had spied on the opposition but that our own media does it to us and tells everyone else I find that upsetting.

Cafu faces prison over passport

Brazil captain Cafu received a nasty surprise on the eve of his side's World Cup opener against Croatia on Monday when a magistrate demanded he be jailed for nine months over acquiring a European Union passport under false pretences.

A local judicial department source told AFP it stemmed from false documents presented concerning his wife and her Italian ancestors which got the 35-year-old AC Milan star invaluable status as a naturalised Italian and therefore not counted among the non European players at a club.

The prosecutor Angelantonio Racanelli has called for Cafu's wife Regina Feliciano to receive nine months jail, the player's agent Cristoforo Colombo 15 months and AS Roma's former Argentinian striker Gustavo Bartelt nine months, as he too holds double nationality.

The present trial should be over in a week said the justice department.

Beckham family lampooned by tabloid

A German tabloid newspaper lampooned the family of England captain David Beckham on Monday, describing his sister as "Fat-ham" and his mother as having the "smile of a peasant".

Germany's top-selling Bild newspaper seemed just as interested in what was happening in the stands as the action between England and Paraguay.

Beckham's 24-year-old sister Joanne came in for especially harsh treatment in the full-page spread.

"Dear me, is she chubby. Arms, bust, bum, all very British. Joanne is the sort of girl who drinks sangria on the beach in Majorca. And then dances on a table with her top off," said the paper.

The Real Madrid star, who earns an estimated 17 million pounds (32 million dollars) a year, flew his relatives to Frankfurt in a private jet.

Bild described his mother Sandra, 50, as the "superstar's mum with the smile of a peasant".

Stunned Australians celebrate win

Jubilant Australians took to the streets of major cities early Tuesday to celebrate their team's come-from-behind 3-1 World Cup victory over Japan, media reports said.

Around 3,000 people who had gathered in Federation Square in Melbourne went wild after Australia scored three goals in the final minutes of the game.

"That was the best 10 minutes of my life," Dave McMahon told The Age newspaper.

"Only soccer does this to you," said McMahon's friend Craig Bailey. "As far as sport goes, that was the most amazing thing I've ever seen."

Crouch keen for Rooney to return

Towering striker Peter Crouch can't wait to see Wayne Rooney back in action, even though it could put his place in the England side at risk.

"It's important we have him back. The fact that the manager named him in the squad showed he was always confident he would be fit and in training he is looking fit," he was quoted as saying by the BBC Sport website.

"He's a top player and we need everyone fit if we are going to do well in the World Cup."

Coach Sven-Goran Eriksson could use Rooney in Thursday's match against Trinidad and Tobago after he impressed in training following his return from injury.

Schafer mulls Togo challenge

Former Cameroon coach Winfried Schafer has revealed he was hours away from finally making up his mind whether to take over the reins of Togo,

"I've talked it over with their officials and essentially I'd like to work with them," said Schafer.

But he earlier told SWF Radio that there would be strings attached and that "if things don't work out on Monday then that's the end of it."

"I'll do it - but only on my terms," said Schafer, who said that he had the impression that "functionaries are running around" having too much of a say in the Sparrowhawks' set-up.

"I'll only do it if there is discipline and order, not otherwise," he warned.

(Some) police get weekend break

The total number of Berlin police on duty for the World Cup dropped back from 2,500 to 2,000 on Sunday, allowing the lucky ones to enjoy the sunshine with the fans proving well-behaved in the good weather. "We've been surprised by how extraordinarily calm it is," a spokesman said. Countrywide, 260,000 police are on duty for the duration of the tournament.

Backs against the wall for Poland

Under-pressure Poland coach Pawel Janas on Monday dismissed suggestions that his team was riven by disputes as they prepared to fight for their World Cup lives against host nation Germany.

"I would have expected this sort of thing from German journalists but from Poland it surprises me," he said.

Janas, who was part of the Polish team that reached the 1982 World Cup semi-finals, insisted his team were capable of forcing at least the draw they need to stay in the competition following their 2-0 defeat to Ecuador on the opening day.

"There is always a chance. Of course we have a chance," he said.

"Naturally it is an important match because if we don't win a point we are out of the World Cup."

Swedes in lockerroom brawl

Swedish captain Olof Mellberg and team-mate Fredrik Ljungberg had a bustup after a disappointing World Cup draw against Trinidad and Tobago.

The brawl brought back memories of the 2002 World Cup in Japan, when Ljungberg angrily went for Mellberg following a hard sliding tackle during training and the players had to be separated by force.

But this time, it was no more than "a hot but short dispute", the TT news agency quoted team spokesman Thomas Saleteg as saying.

According to Swedish reports, the row began when Ljungberg expressed his unhappiness with the Swedish game after the Trinidad and Tobago match Saturday, which ended in a goalless draw.

He specifically complained about long passes coming from the Swedish defence, especially from Mellberg.

Bush telephones US team

President George W. Bush telephoned the US World Cup team on Monday to tell them to play hard and that he was eager to see them win in their opener later Monday against the Czech Republic.

White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said Bush called a little after 9 a.m. (1300 GMT) to wish the squad and coach Bruce Arena good luck and tell them "the whole country is pulling for you."

"I can't wait to see you win," Perino quoted the president as saying.

He also "urged them to play hard and to keep their heads up," the spokeswoman said.

Bush, a former chief of the Texas Rangers baseball team, admitted on a trip to Germany last month that he was not a big fan of soccer.

Cisse released from hospital

French international and Liverpool striker Djibril Cisse was released from hospital Monday following last week's operation on his broken right leg, revealed hospital officials.

The forward, whose fibula and shinbone were fractured in a tackle in last Wednesday's France-China World Cup friendly, was taken to a local airport to be flown to Liverpool.

Cisse's injury, which is expected to take at least five months to heal, torpedoed Liverpool's plans to sell the 24-year-old to a French league club.

Both Marseille and Lyon expressed interest in signing the 24-year-old, who also broke a leg playing against Blackburn in October 2004.

French coach Raymond Domenech called up Lyon forward Sidney Govou as the replacement for France's first World Cup match against Switzerland in Group G in Stuttgart on Tuesday.

I won't celebrate against England

Should World Cup minnows Trinidad and Tobago pull off another upset against England on Thursday, expect the Caribbean islands to party like never before.

Just don't expect Chris Birchall to join in the celebrations though. The Stafford-born midfielder is the first white player to represent Trinidad and Tobago for 60 years.

"If I score against England, I won't celebrate," said Birchall.

"I respect England - it's the country where I'm from. On the off chance I score against them, I won't disrespect England by celebrating."

North Korean television airs games

State television in Stalinist North Korea on Monday began broadcasting World Cup matches supplied free of charge by South Korea, officials said.

The North's Central Television Station aired Saturday's first-round match between England and Paraguay from 1:00 pm Monday, the Korea Broadcasting Commission in Seoul said.

"We began relaying the World Cup broadcast to North Korea via satellite today after testing it on Sunday," a KBC official told AFP.

He said the South was offering the North complete coverage of the football tournament in Germany, including opening and closing ceremonies.

The commission refused to confirm reports that South Korea agreed to pay some 150,000 dollars to FIFA for the broadcast rights in North Korea.

Organisers investigate empty seats

German organisers admit they are confused as to why there were close to 6,000 empty seats at the Netherlands-Serbia and Montenegro World Cup match in Leipzig on Sunday, as they expected a full house.

A crowd of 37,216 attended the Group C match - won 1-0 by the Netherlands - short of the 43,000 capacity at Leipzig's World Cup stadium.

"The game was in fact sold out with 43,000 fans. We will look into the mistake," said Gerd Graus, a spokesman for the organising committee.

"We investigate who the free spaces belonged to. The tickets were not handed back to us, otherwise we would have put them up for public sale."

Before the tournament German organisers said they expected all of the 64 matches at the finals to have capacity crowds.

Safety fears as Frankfurt roof shuts

World Cup organisers will close the Frankfurt Stadium roof for Tuesday's Group G clash between South Korea and Togo as temperatures burst through the 30-degree barrier.

FIFA insist that the move is aimed at improving the quality of television pictures, but with no air conditioning inside the stadium there are question marks over the health of the players as well as the 48,000 fans expected to attend.

"We have taken the decision and the experts assure us that in closing the roof, the conditions will be fresher for the players," said FIFA spokesman Markus Siegler.