SPORTS> Tournament News
World Cup brief
(AP)
Updated: 2006-06-04 10:49
THE POWER OF PRAYER: Two-time World Cup champion Argentina may never win another World Cup because of a broken promise.

In 1986, to prepare for the high altitude in Mexico City, the national team trained for several weeks in Tilcara, a small town in the Andes near the border with Bolivia. The team and coach Carlos Bilardo also went to pray in front of the Virgen of Copacabana, asking for strength to win the World Cup.

Bilardo vowed that if the country won the World Cup, the team would return to the town to give thanks.

Argentina did win, defeating West Germany 3-2 in the final. But it seems the team never returned to keep its promise, leading residents of Tilcara to say by breaking its promise the country would never win the World Cup again.

Julio Humberto Grondona, president of the Argentine Football Association, and other team officials went recently to Tilcara — just in case Bilardo hadn't.

However, Bilardo claims he did return to Tilcara, apparently on a private visit that went unnoticed.

"They are all lies, lies," Bilardo said recently. "When I make a promise, I keep it."

Bilardo said the only promise he had yet to fulfill was returning to give thanks at the foot of another religious shrine near Buenos Aires.

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BE PREPARED: The Seuerwehr Fire Brigade and the Volunteer Fire Service in Wuerzburg staged a decontamination drill Saturday in the event of a biological or chemical attack during the World Cup.

The Seuerwehr brigade will be deployed to cover the stadium in Nuremberg during the tournament, but similar teams will be at all 12 World Cup venues.

The Wuerzburg team will be in charge of decontaminating people injured and exposed to biological and chemical agents in the event of such an attack.

"Before the injured are medically treated and carried off to the hospitals, they will have to be decontaminated, meaning that the toxic material has to be washed off the contaminated part of the body," said Franz Josef Hench, head of the fire brigade.

Terrorism remains a worry during the tournament, which begins Friday and ends with the final in Berlin's Olympic Stadium on July 9.

Also, AWACS early warning planes from NATO will be patrolling Germany's skies, and soldiers will be standing by with equipment that can detect radiation or chemical weapons.

German police and security officials have said they have not had any threats of terrorism, but that hasn't stopped precautions such as drills to evacuate crowds at World Cup stadiums.

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MISS WORLD CUP: Edwige-Grace Madze Badakou of Togo is the new Miss World Cup.

The 24-year-old finance graduate beat out 31 other women, one from each of the 32 countries that have teams playing at the World Cup.

Badakou, a former Miss Togo, beat Maria Garrido Baez of Spain and Katty Lopez of Ecuador at the last stage. The judges were celebrities and sports personalities.

At the World Cup, Badakou will take part in various events associated with the tournament and will appear at some matches. She said she hopes to use her status to promote peace, environmental awareness and the artists of her country.

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PREDICTION: You don't need a college degree to know that Brazil is favored to win the World Cup.

Still, researchers at the University of Warwick in England have been analyzing soccer games to predict which team will lift the trophy in Germany.

Brazil, obviously, was the top pick with a 13 percent chance to win its sixth World Cup title.

In the group stage, the Ukraine-Tunisia match was the toughest one to call for the computers. England-Trinidad and Tobago was the easiest, giving the English an 83 percent chance to win.

The forecasts were made by analyzing about 4,500 international games, including prior tournaments, qualifiers, and friendlies. The system gave more weight to recent games.

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TIME SHIFT: One of the reasons the United States arrived in Germany 10 days before its World Cup opener against the Czech Republic on June 12 was to get adjusted to the time shift, which is six hours from the U.S. East Coast and nine hours from the West Coast.

"A lot of the guys are still getting over the little bit of a time change, and our sleeping patterns are a little off." U.S. forward Brian McBride said.

Defender Gregg Berhalter, who lives in Germany, was in Florida last week when he was added to the U.S. roster.

"Most of us have been through this before," he said. "It's no big deal. It might be a couple nights with a little less sleep, but I felt fine last night."