World Cup 2002: Countdown

Mary Hannigan continues her World Cup countdown

Neighbourhood watch: Group E

Cameroon: They're still celebrating Cameroon's African Nations Cup triumph down Yaounde way, with 15 members of the squad turning up for a state reception last weekend where President Paul Biya presented them with medals and cash as a 'thank you' for their success.
Squad newcomers, like Eric Djemba Djemba and Bill Tchato, were decorated as 'Knights of Valour' while established stars, such as Patrick Mboma and Rigobert Song, were made 'Commanders of Valour'. As a defiant pre-June-1st riposte perhaps Mary McAleese would contemplate decorating Roy Keane as 'Commander-in-chief of Fearlessness'? Jacques Songo'o, meanwhile, has endeared himself to Mick's Green Army by identifying the Republic of Ireland as Group E's most dangerous team. The 37-year-old goalkeeper, understudy to Alioum Boukar, says Ireland pose a bigger threat than Germany and "are the most difficult team for us" because "they play like England, very strong in the air". Do they not know that Tony Cascarino has retired?
Germany: 1860 Munich forward Martin Max is refusing to get his hopes up after past disappointments (despite being top scorer in Germany he failed to make the Euro 2000 squad) but he's being tipped for an international call-up for April 17th's friendly against Argentina in Stuttgart. With
14 goals in 23 matches this season Max is one of the few German strikers in form, but at 33 he's hardly one for the future - he might, though, be one for Korea-Japan.
With Bayern Munich's Alexander Zickler ruled out of the World Cup through injury and Oliver Bierhoff having a miserable time of it at Monaco German coach Rudi Voeller is still on the look-out for a striker or two in goal-scoring form. Bayern's Carsten Jancker should be back soon from injury but before his set-back he had failed to score in 16 Bundesliga games - memories of the time he attempted to catch the eye of former German coach Berti Vogts: "Every time he came to see me I was playing like a sleeping tablet."
Saudi Arabia: Manager Nasser Al-Johar is unimpressed with FIFA's announcement that each World Cup participant will have to submit a 23-player preliminary squad by April 24th. "Any manager will find it hard to assess the real capabilities of 23 players one month ahead of the finals," he complained, "what if six or seven players got injured in this spell of time?" Al-Johar's concern centres around the fact that defending Saudi league champions Al-Ittihad and Al-Ahly, who, between them, provide the national squad with 13 players, will still be in action until late April, while Al-Hilal and Al-Nasr, for whom most of the rest of the squad plays, are likely to be involved in league play-offs until the middle of the month.
Squadwatch: The Republic of Ireland
Roy Keane (Manchester United, right): You spent the week on Jupiter? Well, while you were away the sight of Keane being carried off during United's Champions League game against Deportivo led to a half-hour of national mourning, before news came through that he'd "only" pulled his hamstring. Grim news for Alex Ferguson, not so bad for Mick McCarthy.
Stephen Carr (Spurs): World Cup hopes over - battled gamely to overcome that knee injury, but finally surrendered last week after aggravating the injury on his return to training.
Mark Kennedy (Wolves): Bin those rumours about Kennedy's season being over - Wolves manager Dave Jones expects the winger to be back in training next week after recovering from a torn groin muscle. "He has had intensive treatment and is scheduled to return to training with us on Monday," said Jones.
Richard Sadlier (Millwall): He's already written off his World Cup hopes but Sadlier, who needs a hip operation, is playing on for Millwall with the aid of an injection. "He will carry on until the pain becomes unbearable," said his manager Mark McGhee, "he will take it as long as he can because he wants to contribute". We're no doctors. . . but is this wise?
Romario: The drink link
All along we assumed Brazilian coach Luiz Felipe Scolari was reluctant to revive Romario's (below) international career for age and "temperament" reasons - little did we know that the Amazonian fruit Guarana was actually behind his refusal to select the goalpoacher supreme in his recent squads.
The facts? Brazil's national team is sponsored by Ambev, the manufacturers of a fizzy drink made from Guarana; Romario has a contract with Coca Cola, arch-rivals of Ambev and makers of their very own version of a fizzy drink made from Guarana.
"It's one of the biggest untruths I have ever heard," said Scolari, in an attempt to pour cold water on this fantastic conspiracy theory, currently doing the rounds in Brazil where there is a mighty clamour for the 36-year-old striker, in fine form for Vasco da Gama, to be recalled.
"I pick the team on a technical and tactical basis," insisted Scolari, "anyone who says that the sponsors decide whether a player is picked is lying," he added, with a straight face. Perhaps he'd forgotten about Ronaldo's appearance in the 1998 World Cup final.
Chants: Good v evil
Considering the story appeared on the first day of April we assumed that the revelation that South Korean religious groups had launched a campaign to stop supporters of their own national team and Belgium from calling themselves "The Red Devils" was a tall tale of the foolish kind.
The Reuters report claimed that several hundred followers of the National Gospel Movement had marched through the centre of Seoul carrying banners declaring "Devils are the enemies of Christians" and "Red Devils Bring Shame to Korea".
Either both sets of Red Devils fell for it, or the story was genuine. "We've had the name for about 70 years and until now no one has complained," said a Belgian federation spokesman (on April 2nd), "I think we'll be sticking to it."
"We will never respond to these calls," vowed South Korean Red Devils Shim Dong-Hin. Meanwhile, Park Ki-Ho, a member of the "World Cup Mission 2002", promised that his group would continue sending a rival "cheer squad" called "The White Angels" to every South Korean match in an attempt to drown out the chanting of the "evil" Red Devils at the opposite end of the stadium.
It could be the rowdiest fixture we see this summer.