U.S. and World Cup Capsules: Cup a 1-month ad in U.S. for 'beautiful game'
CHICAGO — From California to the Carolinas, from soccer aficionados to those who can just about pick David Beckham out in a tabloid photo, the World Cup is generating some serious buzz in the United States.
Americans have bought more tickets than people from any country besides host South Africa — despite the lengthy and expensive trip. ESPN and ABC are planning the kind of broadcast bonanza normally reserved for a Super Bowl. Players are edging supermodels off magazine covers.
Soccer isn't in the same league as the NFL, NBA or Major League Baseball, not yet. But its time is coming. Slowly, but surely. It's an evolution, not a revolution, and people who run the sport in the United States are ready for that, with the 2010 World Cup another milestone along the way.
"It's definitely moving in the right direction for, I think, multiple reasons," former U.S. goalkeeper Kasey Keller said. "We've made some great strides ... and I'm really excited to see what's going to happen in the next 20 to 30 years. That's where the gauge really starts to be measured."
For the better part of the last four decades, soccer fans have been insisting it's only a matter of time before the entire country falls for the game the way the rest of the world has. To which the skeptics and critics have always responded, "When?"
Grade schoolers have been playing soccer by the millions, and that hasn't turned the United States into a soccer nation. There are D-list celebrities who get more attention than Major League Soccer stars. The Americans have played in the last five World Cups after going 40 years between appearances, and the best they've done is the quarterfinals.
But writing off soccer isn't that easy, not when the sport has a complicated landscape.
Fans of the U.S. national team aren't necessarily MLS fans. Some second- and third-generation Americans remain passionate supporters of Mexico, Poland or wherever their families came from. Those who will get up early each weekend for games in the various European leagues or shell out $100 for a Lionel Messi jersey might be indifferent to anything the game has to offer stateside.
Only when you take them all together is soccer's growing reach — and its massive potential — clear.
"We've still got a long way to go to have the following, the enthusiasm, the relevance that you might have in England or Germany or Brazil," U.S. Soccer president Sunil Gulati said. "We're in progress but we're not there yet. Having it woven into society, that's a long-term challenge."
In other words, Americans aren't going to wake up the day after the July 11 final to find soccer has supplanted the NFL.
But the game's growth over the last 20 years has put U.S. Soccer, MLS, broadcasters and corporate sponsors in their best position yet to capitalize on the enthusiasm from the monthlong tournament.
"Given the promotion that's taken place, given the visibility, does it enter the American psyche?" Gulati said. "We're going to have watercooler talk this summer, no doubt about that. The question is how much does it go beyond that?"
The Walt Disney Co. networks are betting heavily it goes far, putting together a World Cup staff even bigger than that of Britain's BBC. "SportsCenter" will be broadcast live from Johannesburg, and 250 hours of original programming — that's more than 10 days of TV — are being produced.
Most games will also be available on the Internet and ESPN Mobile.
All this follows ESPN's increased coverage of the European Championships, English Premier League and Spain's La Liga. Fox has gotten into the act, too, with its Fox Soccer Channel taking over as primary U.S. broadcaster of the Champions League this season.
Soccer is on the "cusp," Fox Sports chairman David Hill said, predicting the sport will be bigger than the NHL in 10 years.
"The TV stations wouldn't be showing it if people weren't watching it," Keller said. "They have to make money. They're not doing it for charity or because they're soccer fans. They're doing it because there's a market for it, and that's a big indicator of where the game is going."
Back home, MLS is thriving in its 15th season. There are currently 16 teams, with clubs beginning play in Portland, Ore., and Vancouver, British Columbia, in 2011, and Montreal in 2012. Ten teams play in soccer-specific stadiums that accentuate the skill and beauty of the game, with Kansas City scheduled to open an 11th next year.
Seattle draws a whopping 36,144 fans for home games, and three other teams are averaging 19,000 or better. Toronto has sold out every home game since it began play in 2007.
The quality in MLS isn't anywhere close to Europe's top leagues, but the gap is narrowing. And, everyone is quick to point out, the league is still in its infancy.
"We're only 15 years old. Professional soccer in Europe is 100 years old," MLS commissioner Don Garber said. "We have generations of growth in front of us, and we're empowered by the fact we know that we're new and young and we have our best days ahead of us."
Besides, a second-tier league is better than no league at all.
Players have to play to develop, and it's hardly a surprise that the United States' rise in international stature coincides with the creation of MLS. A college scholarship was the best most players could do 30 years ago. Now guys are parlaying MLS experience into spots on the U.S. team and big-money jobs in Europe.
"I was fortunate enough to be there back in the '70s, and we had some fantastic young players. I just felt they didn't get the exposure and time. There was nowhere for them to go," said Tottenham manager Harry Redknapp, who was a player-manager with Seattle in the waning days of the North American Soccer League.
"With competition, it's only a matter of time before more and more fantastic American players come through," Redknapp said. "They produce just so many people there, so many athletes, and there's no reason they can't produce soccer players if they get the experience and the right coaching."
Indeed, the United States had 4.3 million registered players in 2008, according to U.S. Soccer, more than any other country besides Germany. About 94 percent of that number was kids, the first generation to grow up surrounded by soccer.
"It's very different than when we grew up and soccer was completely inaccessible. There was no league, no TV," agent Richard Motzkin said. "There's more access to information and education, and that will translate to more kids getting to understand the sport, loving the sport and wanting to play the sport at higher levels."
To ensure it gets the most out of that vast talent pool, U.S. Soccer recently appointed longtime U.S. captain Claudio Reyna as youth technical director, and charged him with creating a curriculum for coaches of kids 6 to 12.
The United States can have a professional league and the best training facilities in the world. But if the basics aren't being taught properly, the Americans will continue to lag behind the Brazils, Spains and Englands.
"The coaching part of the equation is the most important part, really," Reyna said. "How are our players being taught the game and how that can be improved is the most important piece of how we can improve and start showing the potential of our country."
But perhaps the biggest things going in soccer's fight for rock-star relevance have nothing to do with the beautiful game.
Technology has made the world smaller, and it will only continue to shrink. Thanks to the Internet and satellite television, games in London are as accessible as games in Los Angeles. Spring break trips, study-abroad programs and business travel give Americans an up-close look at the game at its best and the colorful spectacle that surrounds it.
Changes in U.S. demographics tilt in soccer's favor, too. All those kids who are playing in the park or strolling college campuses in Barcelona and Brazil jerseys will be adults soon enough, with disposable incomes and a powerful voice in what's cool.
The sport is wildly popular with Hispanics, who will make up 28 percent of the population by 2050, according to Census Bureau estimates. Mexico sold out its three-match exhibition tour earlier this month, and the pregame parties in New York, Chicago and Houston rivaled those outside any NFL stadium.
"I feel very, very empowered by the fact that the fastest growing demographic in the country lives and dies with soccer, and the generation of tomorrow has grown up with soccer as a big part of their lives," Garber said. "Those two market segments — the youth and Hispanics — are going to be increasingly important to society in general over the next generation."
It's why MLS has been so aggressive in bringing the Mexican national team and big-name foreign clubs such as Chelsea, Manchester United and Chivas to the United States.
It's also why U.S. Soccer is pulling out all the stops to win the right to host the World Cup in 2018 or, more likely, 2022. The federation even got former President Bill Clinton, still a favorite overseas, to sign on as honorary chairman of the bid committee.
"The potential upside for a World Cup in the U.S. is virtually unlimited," Gulati said. "The big game-changer ... would be what happens after, when America is fully tuned in the way England and Brazil are."
That time, he and others are certain, is coming.
"We still have most of our growth to do," Garber said, "and most of our opportunities are still in front of us."
The Bradley bunch: 3 sports-obsessed brothers
PRINCETON, N.J. — When the Bradley bunch gathers — brothers Bob, Scott and Jeff — the wives are on their own.
"They can talk about movies and other things and they can let us go off into our own little room or whatever and talk sports all we want," Scott Bradley said. "They can socialize and have some fun talking about other things."
Now with the World Cup approaching, the Bradleys have become among the most prominent American sports families. And when the guys are together, it’s a pretty safe bet soccer is the subject.
Bob, the oldest of the three brothers, is head coach of the U.S. soccer team and getting ready to lead his players to South Africa. They’ve been training at Princeton, where he coached the Tigers from 1984-95.
Scott, the one in the middle, just finished his 13th season as coach of Princeton’s baseball team after a nine-year career in the major leagues. Jeff, the youngest, is a senior writer for ESPN The Magazine who covers lots of baseball and soccer, and will be reporting on all things not U.S. in South Africa.
And don’t overlook Bob’s son, Michael, a fiery 22-year-old midfielder on the U.S. World Cup team and a regular starter for Borussia Moenchengladbach in the Bundesliga.
They are a cross-sport version of baseball’s Molinas and hockey’s Sutters, a family that seems destined to have a TV series created about it. Listening to their stories, it all began with their parents, Gerald and Mary.
"My dad was a two-sport athlete in college at Upsala College in East Orange, New Jersey," Jeff Bradley recalls. "He’s in their athletic hall of fame. He played football, was a two-way end, and he played baseball."
The brothers say their dad played minor league baseball for a brief period and became a youth coach in their town. Mary also was athletic. But in that age, there wasn’t much of an opportunity.
"My mom would have been an amazing athlete had she grown up in an era where women were encouraged to play sports," Jeff went on. "She was the typical baton twirler in the band. But if you talk to my uncle, he said that she was quite a good baseball player in the backyard. And then about the age of 42 I think she took up tennis when tennis got to be big in the ‘70s, and I can tell you that she’s got a room full of crystal from all the tennis and the platform tennis championships she’s won in the last 36 years."
Scott is the best known of the brothers. A top high school quarterback and basketball player, he was selected by the Yankees in the third round of the 1981 amateur draft and played for New York, the Chicago White Sox, Seattle and Cincinnati from 1984-92, primarily as a catcher.
Gerald played an important role in Scott’s career.
"He not only watched him, he was probably his best hitting instructor all though his major league career," Jeff said.
"There wasn’t really satellite dishes or anything. We flew out to Seattle one time when he was in a slump so that my dad could watch him hit and, sure enough, after watching him take like one round of batting practice, he called him over made a suggestion. That night Scott had his only two-home run game as a big leaguer."
Location played a big role in the Bradley brothers’ love of sport. The family made a short move when the boys were young, and the new house was right across the street from school — and its large playing field.
Football, baseball, basketball — if there was a sport, the Bradleys were playing it. They even got into ice hockey at one point.
After playing pee wee football, Bob started to gravitate toward soccer when he went to West Essex High School in North Caldwell, N.J., where he was a 1976 graduate. Scott followed two years later and then Jeff in 1982. Bob was the only one of the trio to play four years of varsity baseball and was a teammate of Scott’s for two seasons. He credits the soccer coach, Ralph Dougan, and an assistant, Tony Benevento, with cultivating his interest in the sport that became his career.
Back then, soccer wasn’t widely seen on U.S. television. Once he got the soccer bug, Bob went to New York City to see World Cup games on closed circuit at Madison Square Garden. Back home, he’d watch top players on a Super 8 projector.
"I had found a way to get highlight films from the German league and from the 1970 World Cup," he said. "This was when you got your first glimpse at guys like Pele and Franz Beckenbauer and Gerd Mueller. This is where it was in those days."
Bob went to Princeton and led the Tigers in scoring as a senior in 1979. Back then, there wasn’t much of an opportunity for American players to become pros.
"I can vividly remember his last game when they lost," Scott said. "I’m like, ‘Holy smokes, what do we do? What does he do now?"’
Bob found a way. After graduation, he entered a Procter & Gamble training program, then jumped at the chance to become Ohio University’s soccer coach in 1981.
"We shared a room our whole lives and I can just remember him telling me how miserable it was," Scott said. "A job that a lot of people would really, really like to have, with a great corporation, a great company, a great sort of plan with what you’re doing — and miserable.
"And at that point, I can remember he started looking, and when he first went and had the opportunity to go to Ohio University, to take part in their sports administration program, I knew at that point that we would end up all in sports."
Bob became Bruce Arena’s assistant at Virginia in 1983, beginning the most important association of his professional life. Then he coached Princeton for a dozen seasons. His son Michael was around all the time.
"I have a lot of memories of being out on the fields here, watching practice, chasing after balls, sticking around at the end for a little 2 v. 2 or 3 v. 3 game," Michael recalled after training this week.
Bob moved on to became Arena’s assistant at D.C. United (1996-97) and the 1996 U.S. Olympic team. Head coaching jobs followed with the Chicago Fire (1998-02), New York/New Jersey MetroStars (2003-05) and Chivas USA (2006) before he succeeded Arena as coach of the U.S. national team in December 2006 when Juergen Klinsmann withdrew from consideration.
Michael Bradley, who played for his father with the MetroStars, worked out with the national team as an extra player ahead of the 2006 World Cup, making his international debut that May 26 against Venezuela. He has an intense side to him, last summer earning a red card for a lunging tackle against Spain that caused him to miss the Confederations Cup final against Brazil.
"He’s a much better player than I ever was," Bob Bradley said. "Sometimes at very young ages you see things and you say — my wife still, we have a little thing, if something happens, she’ll just go like: ‘Your boy. Your girl."’
Michael has no intention of changing.
"I am who I am as a player, and part of that is being aggressive and bringing an edge to the center of the field," he said. "The second that goes away, then I’m giving something away on the field."
A father-son dynamic at the World Cup is not unique. Cesare Maldini was coach of Italy at the 1998 tournament in France, where Paolo Maldini was the captain. Bob and Michael are careful not to act like a father and a son around the team.
"It’s the credibility within the group of how we do things," Bob Bradley said. "He understands as well as anybody how you earn respect in the group and that part of it. So when we’re at work, there’s nothing more than that. That comes first."
All the brothers watch their nieces and nephews play sports, in addition to their own children. Bob Bradley and wife Lindsay also have two daughters, while Scott has three children and Jeff two.
Gerald Bradley, according to Scott and Jeff, manages to find Michael’s games from Germany on various websites. While following Scott’s career was easy — the family used to attend his games in New York and Baltimore — soccer has been an acquired taste.
"The very famous story of my dad is this," Bob Bradley said. "In New Jersey high school soccer at that time, you played four quarters. That has been changed. And because when we were little, we also had a chance to play hockey, and hockey has three periods.
"The very first game I played in as a freshman on the high school team, I came home and I said, ‘That was a good win.’ He said, ‘What do you mean, win? You tied.’ And I said, ‘No, we scored a goal at the end.’ So he left after the third quarter because he thought it was like hockey," Bob Bradley said. "Now, he’s watched a lot of soccer so he can actually tell me a lot about what’s going on. He learned fast."
-- Ronald Blum
U.S. captain Carlos Bocanegra had hernia surgery
PRINCETON, N.J. — U.S. coach Bob Bradley revealed Saturday that captain Carlos Bocanegra underwent hernia surgery before reporting to World Cup training camp.
Bocanegra, a defender for Rennes, was kicked on the left knee on March 28 in a match against Le Mans. Because of stomach pains, he didn't play after the May 2 game against Sochaux.
He had sports hernia surgery on May 5, with Dr. Ulrike Muschaweck operating in Munich, team spokesman Michael Kammarman said following Bradley's announcement.
All 30 players on the preliminary roster were in full training for the first time Saturday, three days before an exhibition game against the Czech Republic in East Hartford, Conn. Bradley said all players were available for the match, the last before he hopes to trim his roster to the FIFA limit of 23.
Several players had been in limited training when practice began Monday, including Bocanegra and defenders Jay DeMerit (abdominal strain) and defender Chad Marshall and forward Eddie Johnson (hamstring strains).
Midfielder DaMarcus Beasley has been practicing with a sprained thumb and appeared bothered by his right shoulder Saturday.
"There's different timetables," Bradley said. "There's situations that need to be sorted out by next week so you can get to a 23-man roster. In other cases there's a guy like Carlos Bocanegra. He had this hernia surgery. As he comes into this camp we understand the right timeframe of moving him along, so that he's making progress every week and is ready to go."
Although much of this week's emphasis was on conditioning, goalkeeper Tim Howard felt having a full team on the field has its advantages.
"It's just important that everyone is here, we see everyone's face and we're pushing each other and everyone's working hard," he said. "It's a camaraderie thing, it's a team-building exercise that's done subconsciously. When you see everyone out there, and there's less and less injured guys, it makes for a good atmosphere."
Howard spoke with an ice pack on his right thigh due to a slight quadriceps injury that bothered him in the late stages of Everton's season. But he insisted that he is 100 percent.
"It's been the last two months of the season with my thigh," he said. "It's a precaution now so I make sure I don't break down again before World Cup."
Howard said he has been impressed by the forwards in camp. With Charlie Davies sidelined by severe injuries sustained in a car crash last October, the U.S. is searching for a forward to start alongside Jozy Altidore.
Brian Ching, Edson Buddle, Herculez Gomez, Johnson and Robbie Findley all are in camp with Altidore. Bradley said he will have to see the forwards play in games before making any decisions.
Still, he said "it's always a possibility" some moves could be made before Tuesday's game.
"You bring 30 guys in, there's still a lot of work early on in terms of getting fitness and pushing tempo," Bradley said. "I think the camp as a whole has done well. It certainly leaves us with some tough decisions as we work through the next week."
After playing the Czechs, the U.S. faces Turkey at Philadelphia on May 29, then leaves for South Africa the next day. Once there, the Americans play Australia in a final warmup on June 5. The U.S. opener is one week later against England.
Wambach scores twice to lift U.S. over Germany
CLEVELAND, Ohio — Abby Wambach scored two goals and assisted on another to guide the United States to a 4-0 victory over Germany in an international friendly Saturday.
Heather O'Reilly and Kristine Lilly also scored for the U.S., ranked No. 1 according to the FIFA rankings and winners of the past two Olympic gold medals. Second-ranked Germany is the two-time defending World Cup champions.
"This is great, this is perfect and look at the pitch too, I can even play here," U.S. coach Pia Sundhage said. "This is all fantastic."
Wambach scored a goal off of a penalty kick in the 29th minute and O'Reilly netted her goal in the 35th minute.
"Cleveland brought a great crowd," said Wambach, who is third on the U.S. all-time international goals scored list with 107, trailing Mia Hamm (158) and Lilly (130). "I'm really happy we scored four goals against a great team."
Lilly's goal came in the 62nd minute off of an assist from Wambach.
"This was a great win for us," Lilly said. "I was happy (when I scored). It felt really good. That was a great ball by Abby."
Lilly is the oldest U.S. player to score a goal at the age of 38.
"Kristine and I have a great relationship," Wambach said. "She is a legend for this team. She's 38 years old and she scores a goal against Germany. Come on, that's amazing."
Midfielder Lori Lindsey assisted on Wambach's second goal in the 63rd minute.
"We had some brilliant goals," U.S. goalkeeper Hope Solo said. "We're coming back to Cleveland. This was amazing. I am so happy they came to support us."
Solo earned her 49th career shutout with assistance from starting defenders Heather Mitts, Amy LePeilbet, Stephanie Cox and Rachel Buehler and midfielder Shannon Boxx.
Solo displayed her athleticism by making six saves, which impressed Wambach.
"I am really proud of our team," Wambach said. "There were probably three shots they should have scored on, but (Hope) kept them out."
The U.S. held an advantage in shots on goal (12-6), corner kicks (6-3) and frustrated a German offense that includes Birgit Prinz and Kerstin Garefrekes and Inka Grings.
The lopsided score also allowed Sundhage to make lineup changes. Defenders Ali Krieger and Kate Markgraf, forward Alex Morgan and midfielders Megan Rapinoe and Yael Averbuch each logged minutes in reserve roles.
Playing multiple players should help the U.S. as it continues to prep for the 2011 World Cup in Germany.
Szalachowski's 2 goals lead Legia Warsaw past Fire
BRIDGEVIEW, Ill. — Sebastian Szalachowski scored twice to lead Legia Warsaw to a 3-0 win over the Chicago Fire on Saturday, taking third place in the inaugural Chicago Sister Cities International Cup. Maciej Iwanski also scored for Legia Warsaw.
The Fire had opportunities to score in the 74th and 75th minutes. First, Collins John sent a shot that bouced off Legia goalkeeper Kostyantyn Makhonovski's hands. Seconds later, his free kick from just outside tthe box went just over the top right corner of the goal. Red Star Belgrade and Paris Saint-Germain played in the championship match immediately following the consolation game.
World Cup
World Cup arrives amid global match-fixing probes
GENEVA — The World Cup marks the climax of a season in which match fixing has spread more widely through soccer than ever.
Clubs and officials in at least 12 European countries — four of whose national teams will line up in South Africa — are currently under scrutiny in the continent's biggest soccer corruption investigation, being led by police in Germany.
Michel Platini, the president of Europe's soccer authority, UEFA, even told lawmakers in Brussels last month that the sport is in "mortal danger."
In an unexpected and embarrassing distraction before the June 11 kickoff, FIFA is investigating accusations that danger lies within the soccer family. Its ethics committee is examining claims by a senior English official that Russia, which did not qualify for the World Cup, could help heavily favored Spain bribe World Cup referees in exchange for support for its own bid to host the 2018 finals. The official, chairman of the English soccer federation David Triesman, resigned his post after his private conversation was revealed in a newspaper sting.
FIFA wants that probe completed before the first ball is kicked, so no taint of high-level corruption lingers on the sport's most-watched event.
To keep outside criminal elements at bay, FIFA has created a spinoff company called Early Warning System aimed at monitoring wagering on games. EWS was not in place for the 2006 tournament in Germany.
FIFA also is setting up a hot line for players and referees to report sinister offers.
Yet underlying FIFA's approach is the reasoning that match fixing is most likely to happen where players and officials are little scrutinized and poorly paid — such as eastern Europe — and organized crime has access to teams. The reasoning: Only those with little to lose will risk being banished from the game for a payoff that is typically just a few thousand dollars.
FIFA president Sepp Blatter believes the economics of the World Cup, a tournament which has prize money and attention lavished on well-paid players and officials, is safe from the match-fixers.
"We are really today ... alarmed if something should happen," Blatter has said. "But I think personally, to try to get into the World Cup, I think people will not do it."
Still, corruption previously has cast a shadow on soccer's showcase event, which will generate around $3.4 billion for FIFA.
A match fixing and betting scandal in host Germany marred preparations for the 2006 World Cup. Referee Robert Hoyzer was jailed, and members of the Croatian crime syndicate behind that scam have been arrested in a current German probe.
Italy won the World Cup four years ago just as a scandal was unfolding at home that attracted worldwide scorn. Senior federation and club officials were banned from holding office after it was revealed they arranged for referees favorable to certain teams to get key domestic matches.
In the fallout, referee Massimo de Santis was removed from World Cup duty weeks before kickoff.
Blatter said then he feared referees were a tempting target for fixers, and wanted to raise their salaries and professional standards. The 30 referees and 60 assistants on World Cup duty will be closely guarded at their hotel near Pretoria.
The latest UEFA probe has led to lifetime bans for referees from Bosnia and Ukraine for conspiring with criminals to fix matches in betting scams. Both refs were rated highly enough to take charge of World Cup qualifiers.
China, meanwhile, has revisited a bribery and match-fixing scandal that first plagued its national league several years ago. A recent sweep of arrests caught soccer federation head Nan Yong and retired referee Lu Jun, China's "golden whistle" who officiated two matches at the 2002 World Cup, including the United States' 3-1 loss to Poland.
Four years ago, Blatter was criticized for not addressing potential threats to FIFA's flagship event, perhaps even disregarding the danger so as not to attract unwelcome attention.
Since then, he has spurred the EWS' creation, which uses information gathered from nearly 450 legal gambling operators whose business is worth $20 billion annually.
If EWS raises a red flag, even in the hour before kickoff when most wagers are placed, FIFA can "inform the teams, postpone the match or exchange the referee," the governing body said in an e-mail.
Last December, Blatter announced in Cape Town two days before the World Cup finals draw that FIFA had joined global police agency Interpol to set up a task force to coordinate the fight against illegal gambling in soccer. Details of the task force are still being worked out.
The initiative does not impress Canadian author Declan Hill, a fierce critic of FIFA, whose book "The Fix: Soccer and Organized Crime," sought to explain how organized crime infiltrates soccer, and how Asian syndicates aimed to fix matches at the last World Cup.
"Bringing in Interpol to do any investigation is like bringing in the United Nations," Hill said. "They get tied up in politics and jurisdictional problems."
Hill warned in 2008 that southeast Asian gangsters would increasingly turn to Europe, with its reputation for fair play, because matches in their own countries were so discredited by corruption scandals.
He is skeptical that all 853 World Cup qualifiers were free of fixing, despite EWS declaring it found nothing suspicious.
"They can't check the Asian market and that's where the fixing is," Hill said.
In Ghana, a powerhouse in age-group soccer that has reached its second straight World Cup, officials have seen the would-be fixers in action.
"Those people exist anywhere and that's why you have scandals all over," Ghana federation spokesman Randy Abbey said. "We are mindful of that and so we are always on our guard to ensure that we do not let anything untoward happen as far as our team is concerned."
Abbey investigated allegations in 2007 that a Ghana coach introduced national under-23 teams players to three fixers before a match against Iran. Ghana lost 4-2, ensuring the fixers won bets on a winning margin of at least two goals.
"I acted by firing that coach in Iran before we even got to Ghana. We acted promptly," Abbey said.
FIFA said this World Cup will be the first tournament with a corruption hot line.
Whatever steps organizers take to stamp out corruption, FIFA and UEFA can be sure match-fixers will play a cat-and-mouse game to try to stay a step ahead.
In so-called "spot-fixing," pieces of a match can be broken down and gambled on without necessarily affecting the result, allowing a match winner to be in on a fix. A corrupt referee, for instance, can arrange to award a certain number of penalties or yellow cards.
UEFA, at the urging of Platini, found plenty of trouble when it went looking for it. The governing body says it now invests "several million euros" each year in its own investigation unit, and a betting fraud detection system that monitors 29,000 matches each season.
Within months of strengthening that unit last year, UEFA and a police fraud team from Bochum, Germany, found evidence of the biggest nest of corruption the sport has seen.
The fix appears to have been in on domestic league matches in World Cup entrants Germany, Greece, Slovenia and Switzerland, plus Austria, Belgium, Bosnia, Croatia, Hungary and Turkey.
UEFA also identified suspicious matches in its Champions League and Europa League competitions involving teams from Albania, Hungary, Latvia and Slovenia in qualifying rounds.
"In Europe you have the bribery, in Asia you have the betting and in Berlin you have the cashing in," said Joerz Ziercke, president of Germany's equivalent of the FBI.
The full scale of the apparent fixes is still unfolding.
-- Graham Dunbar
SAfrica promises the planet a safe World Cup
JOHANNESBURG — Saddled with high crime, fear of terrorism and skeptics around the globe, South Africa promises it's ready to keep the peace through an exciting World Cup.
The country's security forces are backing up the pledge with an impressive show of hardware and muscle, and an even flashier display of rhetoric. But whether it'll be enough to calm tourists' fears and maintain order is a major question as the opening game approaches on June 11.
"Ours is a daunting task," police minister Nathi Mthethwa said recently. "But if we work together we shall succeed. Failure is not even part of our vocabulary."
Maybe, but the concern is real. And the capture in Iraq of Saudi citizen Abdullah Azam Saleh al-Qahtani, who told The Associated Press he was plotting an attack against the Dutch and Danish teams at the monthlong tournament, emphasized that South Africa's security forces will be severely tested.
"Even the smallest, most insignificant target will work for terrorists because the world's attention is on South Africa," terrorism expert Anneli Botha at the Institute for Security Studies in Pretoria said. "And al-Qaida know they have to stay relevant."
The country's top police officer, national commissioner Bheki Cele, said preparations had been given the "thumbs up" by international security agencies.
The security force includes 44,000 officers from the national South African Police Service (SAPS) who will be dedicated solely to the World Cup. An extra 10,000 personnel from metropolitan forces will boost the total force to 54,000.
"We won't be ready today and we won't be ready tomorrow, because we were ready yesterday," Cele said at a police show of force, where some of the $90 million worth of new security equipment was paraded. The hardware included water cannons, helicopters, speed boats, jet skis, new high-performance police cars and heavy-duty emergency rescue vehicles.
"I can't begin to explain to you how detailed our plans are," South African police spokesman Colonel Vishnu Naidoo said in an interview. "We have quite simply made provisions for any eventuality."
Countrywide police operations will be controlled from a single room, the National Joint Operation Center in Pretoria, just north of Johannesburg.
Naidoo, one of few officials authorized to speak on World Cup security plans, said officers would be "clearly visible" at air and sea ports, rail and bus stations, on roads between major cities and popular tourist destinations, and at the 10 World Cup stadiums, as well as team hotels and training camps.
Naidoo said match venues will be protected by concentric security perimeters that will get progressively tighter. There will be a traffic-free zone between 200 and 500 meters from each stadium and venues will be "locked down" at least 24 hours before match kickoff, according to Naidoo, with only essential staff allowed access.
Vehicles coming in will be heavily screened by explosives and forensic experts.
Security perimeters, with their heightened police presence, will extend out about half a mile in inner-city venues such as Johannesburg's Ellis Park. They will go further for venues such as Rustenburg's Royal Bafokeng Stadium, in the less built-up North West province, which will host the United States-England game on June 12.
The tournament's local organizing committee is responsible for security inside stadiums with help from police, with the aim to create a festive and family mood for all spectators, though everyone will be closely watched.
Local organizing committee security manager Mlungisi Ncame said fans will be taken through a baggage search, a visual ticket check and then an electronic scanner where their ticket will be verified and their identity checked against the ticket.
Ncame said individual fans could be tracked as all venue seats are linked electronically to the stadium's main control room, the Venue Operational Center.
"What we want to do is know who is sitting at any particular seat," Ncame said.
The South African Air Force will protect a 15-mile space directly over stadiums. Unauthorized aircraft would be issued warnings before being "forced down" by air force fighter jets, according to SAPS' Naidoo, who didn't say what "forced down" entailed.
South Africa won't be alone, either, with international police body Interpol set to test its Major Events Support Team at the World Cup, the first time it has been mobilized.
Interpol secretary general Ronald Noble has said his organization will make the largest deployment of officers in its history and would be providing "key operational support on the ground."
Foreign experts are expected to help secure high-profile teams from the United States, England, Germany and France and provide specific knowledge as to the threats those nations may face.
South African police have said the U.S.-England match is a high threat game, but the AP has learned it's not the only game being closely watched. A police official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he's not authorized to speak publicly on such matters, said eight of the 64 World Cup games had been rated as a high threat.
That makes for a big job for security, and it gets bigger when you consider that — along with stadiums, hotels and team training centers — police have 61 public viewing areas, including the 10 official host city fan fests, to watch over. That doesn't include countless local bars and restaurants where fans are likely to gather.
And to top it all off, 43 heads of state could visit, possibly including U.S. President Barack Obama.
Botha, the security expert, said she was concerned that a key counterterrorism tactic of setting up a public tip-off line had been missed by South Africa. "It's impossible for police to be everywhere," Botha said, pointing out that ordinary citizens are a crucial source of information — as proved by the recent failed car bombing in New York City's Times Square.
"Building a sense of community responsibility should have been done here years ago," Botha said. "This is my concern."
Naidoo said police will be up to it. They'll be strategically positioned on roads across South Africa and there will be constant patrols of the nation's highways and transport links. South Africa expects many fans to use new rail and bus systems to travel to matches, and Naidoo said emphasis would be placed on these.
Police patrols will be in cars, pickup trucks, on motorcycles and even on horseback. Mounted police are often used at soccer games in Europe for ease of passage through crowds. There also will be a special VIP security squad.
"We have prepared ourselves from the pettiest of criminal acts to the largest of crimes, terrorism included," police minister Mthethwa said. "Our agencies are not sleeping, they are working. We are on the ball."
-- Gerald Imray
Diarra to miss World Cup due to stomach ailment
TIGNES, France — French midfielder Lassana Diarra will miss the World Cup because of a stomach injury.
The Real Madrid midfielder missed his third straight day of training with France’s national team Saturday.
"Of course it’s a blow when you lose a player. It’s even harder because it wasn’t a choice, it’s destiny," coach Raymond Domenech said. "It’s tough for him because I know how much effort he had put into this World Cup. He was one of the driving forces of this team in terms of the way he played and his attitude."
Team spokesman Francois Manardo said Diarra first felt intestinal pains when the squad went up to the foot of La Grande Motte glacier on Wednesday, sleeping in a restaurant at around 9,800 feet altitude in a team-bonding exercise, and Diarra has not been able to shake off the pains.
Manardo said Diarra needed to rest for "an indefinite period" of time.
Diarra has played 27 times for France since making his debut just over three years ago.
France coach Raymond Domenech has not yet selected a replacement for Diarra, a regular in the qualifiers. Final 23-man World Cup rosters are due to FIFA by June 1
Two years ago, Domenech selected Patrick Vieira for his European Championship roster even though the midfielder had not fully recovered from a thigh injury.
This time, Domenech will take only fully fit players to South Africa. He hopes defender William Gallas recovers from a calf injury sidelined him for the final weeks of Arsenal’s season in England.
Gallas trained for nearly two hours late Saturday and looked comfortable, moving easily, jumping for headers and not showing any ill effects as he took part in jogging, stretching and passing drills.
Arsenal defender Bacary Sagna had ice put on his left ankle near the end of training, but it appeared to be a precautionary measure.
Domenech paired Diarra alongside Jeremy Toulalan in a highly defensive system throughout the qualifiers, and his absence may force the coach to change his approach at the World Cup. France is grouped with Uruguay, Mexico and host South Africa.
In Saturday training, Domenech seemed already to be exploring his options without Diarra.
The players had a practice match in a loose 4-3-3 system with only one holding midfielder — Toulalan — in front of the defense and behind two central midfielders, Bordeaux’s Yoann Gourcuff and Arsenal’s Abou Diaby.
-- Jerome Pugmire
76,000 people attend Soccer City’s first game
JOHANNESBURG — About 76,000 people attended the first game at Soweto's Soccer City on Saturday, causing traffic gridlock and a 30-minute delayed kickoff at the new $300 million venue that will host the opening game and final at the World Cup.
Johannesburg's Bidvest Wits beat Durban's Amazulu 3-0 in South Africa's Nedbank Cup club final on the lush green field in the famous township on the southern outskirts of Johannesburg.
More than 100,000 football and rugby supporters were in Soweto on Saturday as it also hosted its first major rugby game, a Super 14 semifinal between South Africa's Bulls and New Zealand's Canterbury Crusaders at nearby Orlando Stadium.
Before kickoff at Soccer City, South Africa President Jacob Zuma cut a ribbon to officially open Africa's biggest stadium and FIFA secretary general Jerome Valcke and World Cup local organizing committee chief executive Danny Jordaan joined him on the pitch to shake hands with both teams.
A giant shirt was unveiled, made up of the colors of all 32 participating nations at the World Cup, which kicks off at the 94,000-seater Soccer City on June 11.
Officials did not make all the stadium's seats available for Soccer City's first test, but the showpiece stadium will see a capacity crowd for the World Cup opener between host South Africa and Mexico in under three weeks' time.
Many of the fans at the Nedbank final wore the yellow shirts of South Africa's national team, Bafana Bafana, and blew their plastic vuvuzela trumpets throughout the game.
South Africa will play its first game at Soccer City on Thursday, when it faces Colombia in a friendly.
-- Gerald Imray
