All in the game

A world cup miscellany

"There is a traitor among us . . . there is no little mouse in the dressingroom, this comes from someone who is on the team and wants to hurt the team."– Patrice Evra on the mole, as opposed to the mouse, who leaked Nicolas Anelka's chat with the manager to the press.

Time and time again: Guess who sports Big Bang Maradona watches on both wrists?

TIME, AS you know, is money, especially if you have a limited edition Big Bang Diego Maradona Hublot watch on both wrists – as Diego Maradona humbly does (one set on South Africa time, the other on Argentina). Only 250 of them were made by the Swiss company, the World Cup “Official Timekeeper”, and one of them will cost you around €13,000 – if you haggle, though, you might get them down to €12,995.

Maradona’s number 10 and signature appear on the watch’s face, with a silhouette of the little fella etched on the back, which is coated with sapphire crystal. Sadly, an alligator died in the making of the strap.

A special feature is the watch’s 45-minute counter, which the bumph explains “is a period of half time in a football match - each match consists of two half-times”. O-kay.

The Big Bang is, of course, a bargain compared to the 201-carat Chopard which will set you back roughly €20 million. Its face, is, apparently, “devoured by a rainbow-like array of fine jewels” and “is guaranteed to drop jaws”.

Which will probably be Pele’s reaction if his old buddy wins the World Cup. Watch this space.

Mauvais sang: Anelka tells coach where to, ahem, go

HOW’S YOUR French? If it’s dodgy then here’s a translation of L’Equipe’s front page from Saturday:

Nicolas Anelka to Raymond Domenech: “Mr Domenech, while I have absolute respect for you (indeed you are like a father to me) and I have nothing but admiration for everything you have achieved during your illustrious career, I must, very humbly, suggest that you take a running jump – and bring your mother with you.”

Big draw: 17m US fans tune in for match with England

ACCORDING TO Time magazine ESPN invested more money in their World Cup marketing campaign in the United States than “for any other single event in the network’s history”. It was thus with some glee they announced USA v Slovenia was “the most-watched soccer game among households in the history of ESPN networks”.

An audience of 3.9 million made it their third-most-watched game of all time in terms of viewers, behind the 2006 Germany v Italy semi-final (5.85 million) and the 2006 quarter-final between the USA and Germany (5.34 million). San Diego was the city where most ESPN subscribers tuned in – early risers they are too, the game started at 7am local time.

ABC and Spanish-language network Univisionalso reported significant increases in their World Cup audiences, 60 per cent up (combined) on 2006. The game between Mexico and France gave Univision its largest World Cup viewing figures ever (5.8 million).

In all, 17 million watched the USA’s game against England, a bigger audience than the average 16.4 million viewers who watched the first six games of the NBA finals. And these figures don’t include viewers in pubs, clubs and other public venues.

So, is football about to be crowned sporting king in the USA? Hold yer horses, say some unconvinced experts. Once the USA and Mexico are knocked out it’ll be business as usual, with viewers switching off in their droves. We’ll see.

WORLD CUP MASCOTS NO 3: SPAIN 1982

AFTER DOING his bit for vitamin C at the 1982 World Cup finals this chirpy little orange (“Naranjito”) went on to have his own television show (Futbol en Accion), which he co-hosted with a lemon.

Like you do.

17:The number of Italian shots on New Zealand's goal yesterday. They had nine on target. New Zealand managed three efforts. One hit the target.

A team of could-have-beens

THE Germans (until Sunday, at least) were pining for Michael Ballack, Ingerlund captain Rio Ferdinand fell foul of injury, as did Portugal’s Nani. Apparently. There were rumours of a dummy-spitting spat.

It got us thinking, who were the best that didn’t qualify, and this is what we came up with. Granted, it’s an attacking line-up, with no real steel in midfield. And there’re a few egos. But we’re pretty sure it could show a few out there a thing or two.

– Carl O'Malley

SHAY GIVEN

Rep of Ireland

Man City

CRISTIÁN ZAPATA

Colombia

Udinese

RICHARD DUNNE

Rep of Ireland

Aston Villa

TOMÁŠ UJFALUŠI

Czech Rep

Atletico Madrid

KIM KÄLLSTRÖM

Sweden

Lyon

LUKA MODRIC

Croatia

Tottenham

MOHAMED ZIDAN

Egypt

Borussia Dortmund

STEVAN JOVETIC

Montenegro

Fiorentina

EMMANUEL ADEBAYOR

Togo, Man City

ANDREI ARSHAVIN

Russia

Arsenal

ZLATAN IBRAHIMOVIC

Sweden, Barcelona