Planet World Cup

Too much bottleCommiserations to the Japanese man who lives in an apartment near Kobe's Wing Stadium and who was kept awake half the night by celebrating Brazilian fans after their win over Belgium.

We thought, though, that his decision to lob empty beer bottles at them, from his 12th floor flat, while screaming "shut up", was a little excessive. Fortunately, he didn't hit anyone, but he has been charged with "wilful destruction of property" after damaging a parked car.

View from Spain

"We weren't lucky. It's the Irish who have a flower in their arses - they got a penalty in the 89th minute, we had to play extra-time with nine and a half players, and the referee was unreal."

- Spanish manager Jose Antonio Camacho on Sunday's game

"What the referee did makes you want to kill him, he crushed us. And as for the linesman - he's got a spring-loaded arm."

- Camacho hinting that he was unhappy with the officiating in the game

"Spain tried to shave their sideburns with a scythe. Any other team would have crucified us. It's lucky Ireland aren't much of a side."

- Juanma Trueba, writing in Spanish newspaper AS

"Staunton and Breen are seriously deficient in ability."

- Julio Maldondo, in the same paper

"God is Spanish".

- The headline in Spanish daily Marca

View from Jack

"It's bloody frustrating. Once we equalised, Ireland should definitely have won the game. There are no excuses."

"The penalties were just dreadful. I don't feel for the players who missed them at all. They are professional players and that's their job."

- Jack Charlton, in the Daily Mirror

Stricken ship

That Nike ad on board that container ship, featuring Eric Cantona as Master of Ceremonies? Well, after Italy were knocked out of the World Cup yesterday the "jinx count" of the ad, the full version of which features 24 of the world's leading players, has now hit 13. Four of the baker's dozen didn't even make it to the World Cup - Van Nistelrooy, Davids (both Holland), Saviola (left out of Argentina's squad) and Rosicky (Czech Republic) - and seven more went out in the first round: Henry, Vieira, Wiltord and Thuram (France), Figo (Portugal) and Crespo and Lopez (Argentina). You can now add Italy's Cannavaro and Totti to the "gutted" list. Ljungberg (Sweden) and Nakata (Japan) are also out of the competition, although their two teams did at least as well as expected, leaving just nine of the 24 still alive - four Brazilians, two Spaniards, two Englishmen and one South Korean.

World Cup speak

"The United States loves heroes and underdogs, hates foreigners who trash the USA - it is really fun watching these underdogs, these heroes, beat those bastards."

- As spotted by Football 365 on the ESPN website. Lovely

"No regrets, none at all. My only regret is that we went out on penalties. That's my only regret. But no, no regrets."

- Mick McCarthy

"Roger was just not up to it, it was too much for him."

- Patrick Vieira puts the boot in to France coach Roger Lemerre

"The team from Jurassic age. Oleg Romantsev proved once again that his caveman image and outdated ideas just don't stand up in the international arena."

- Russian newspaper Sport-Express after the team's World Cup elimination

"Cha Bum-Kun claimed that he has never seen such a poor performance by a German team and I can only reply that he must have had too much aspirin during his time at Bayer Leverkusen."

- Rudi Völler's response to the South Korean's criticism after the Paraguay tie. (Bum-Kun once played for Leverkusen, who are owned by makers of aspirin)

Tribute of the week

"Iker isn't human. The day he came to earth, light shone down upon his house like it did at the gate of Bethlehem when Jesus Christ arrived in the world. He's immune to pain, mistakes and bad luck. He's like a comic-book hero, an angel fallen from the sky. When the penalty shoot-out was about to start and Iker was smiling I said to myself 'Iker, you are the messiah, the chosen one. You know we're through . . . and you're going to take us to the final. Does anyone doubt it?"

- Tomas Roncero, of Spanish newspaper AS, loses the run of himself in his tribute to goalkeeper Iker Casillas

Player v Manager

"He's got no respect for what I've given to this national team.

"He said to me 'if you aren't satisfied pack your bags and get going'.

"(As a player) he and the ball never spoke the same language and that's why he put the emphasis on physical shape in his career."

"I had to leave the hotel like a dog. Nobody escorted me away from the national team. Everything was disorganised."

- Slovenia's Zlatko Zahovic on manager Srecko Katanec. Uncanny, eh?