USA Today reports the list of American television reporters:

• Its top team for games —Dave O'Brien and three-time World Cup player Marcelo Balboa — will be in Germany and call all U.S. games. Two other TV pairs —JP Dellacamera/John Harkes and Rob Stone/Robin Fraser — will also be on site.

• Two announcing teams —Glenn Davis/Shep Messing and Adrian Healey/Tommy Smyth — will call games off monitors at ESPN's Connecticut headquarters.

• ESPN studio analysts will include Eric Wynalda, Alexi Lalas and the only woman in Cup coverage —Julie Foudy.

I'd swap out Dellacamera for Derek Rae but at least we're spared JP partnered with Tommy Smyth.

Becks in good form in win over Hungary,

but Gerrard starts the Greg Louganis Quadrennial Diving Championships. Alas, the only solace left to England fans - complaining about South American and Mediterranean diving - evaporates as Steven cheats in a friendly.

Morning news rake

Ballack is scratched, wisely, from the Japan friendly. Klose flies back to Bremen for "very private reasons" but is expected to play on Tuesday.

Embrace (Bryan Adams's in Journey costumes) play England's official WC song. Yes, it is maudlin trash.

Owen cleared for the Hungary match tonight. Complications to Rooney's fractured foot mean the children of the England team will see their fathers shortly after the 1st round.

Hand signals b/w referees and linesmen

From AP:

A player tumbles to the ground in the penalty area and the referee, his view of the play blocked by a crowd of players, looks quickly at the linesman. If he raises his flag to his chest briefly, then it's a penalty. If the linesman places his hand on his breast pocket -- where yellow and red cards are kept -- then he's recommending a yellow or red card.

Here is the rest of the article.

WC Guides

The Guardian city-by-city guide. What you'd expect, funny with good insight.

The NY Times guide, light on x's and o's, heavy on atmosphere. For what it's worth.

Twellman Angst Post #1

The US beat Venezuela 2-0 last night. Ching scored what the papers are calling a stunner. Will try to find the video of the goals after the w/e. If Venezuela had more soccer players than baseball players perhaps I'd be excited. As it stands I'm still upset Arena left out Taylor. It's foolish to omit your domestic league's highest scorer over the past few years, especially when Ching hasn't played as well.

For now I'm happy Brian scored and happy for the win but for I remain doubtful.

How to guarantee the ball slips through your legs against Japan

Dida has asked the press and fans not to blame the Brazilian keeper for any gaffes. Nervous already, pal?

Eidur will look great in lily white.

I love him. His diving, ninja goal against Barca in March 05 was one of my favorites of the year. Fast and scrappy-a good combination. But he didn't get many minutes in 05/06. With Sheva en route to the Bridge and Jose insisting Drogba is staying there just isn't room. And football.is reports the big guns of MU, RM and Barca are after him.

What are the chances Jol convinces him to stay in London?

Bad news for Eidur

Shevchenko clears the way for Chelsea switch

'Now we'll start dealing with Chelsea, and it won't be easy'

Staff and agencies
Friday May 26, 2006

Shevchenko: quitting the San Siro ... as long as the price is right. Photograph: Sergei Supinsky/AFP/Getty.

AC Milan have accepted Andriy Shevchenko's transfer request but have warned Chelsea they must break the bank to land the Ukraine striker.

Shevchenko appeared alongside the Italian club's vice-president Adriano Galliani at their offices in Via Turati in downtown Milan at a press conference to announce his decision this afternoon.

"I am leaving for family reasons - I want to thank the club for everything it's given to me," said Shevchenko. "There's no problems regarding my relationship with anyone in the club or any financial problems."

Click here for more.

Were the girls that ugly?

Chile players sent home after women discovered in rooms

SANTIAGO, Chile, May 26 (Reuters) - Two key members of Chile's national soccer squad have been sent home from a European tour after women were discovered in their hotel rooms, an official said on Friday.

The official said midfielder Mark Gonzalez and striker Reinaldo Navia had been ordered to fly home from Ireland after Chile beat the home team 1-0 on Wednesday.

Click here to read the entire article.

Ballack's ankle

GENEVA, May 25 (Reuters) - Germany captain Michael Ballack was forced out of a practice match on Thursday after suffering an ankle injury.

"It's a light sprain in the left foot and no one is nervous about it," a spokesman for the German Football Association said.

Ballack, who will lead out the hosts in the opening match of the World Cup on June 9, suffered the injury early in a practice match against Servette Geneva's under-18 team.

Germany play Luxembourg in a friendly in Freiburg on Saturday. It was not immediately clear whether Ballack would be able to play.

The hosts take on Japan and Colombia before playing the first match of the World Cup against Costa Rica in Munich on June 9.

Ronny hitting the crossbar

The Nike Ronaldinho ad.

Life is live.

Maradona warming up before a game (UEFA Cup semis, Bayern v. Napoli, 1989?) in Germany.

-OPUS - LIVE IS LIFE
(Na na na-na-na)
(Na na na-na-na) all together now
(Na na na-na-na)
(Na na na-na-na)

Live (na na na-na-na)
Live is life (na na na-na-na)
Let us all talk about life (na na na-na-na)
Live (na na na-na-na)

When we all get the power, we all give the best
Every minute of an hour, don't think about the rest
And you all get the power, you all get the best
And everyone gives everything, and every song everybody sings

When we all give the power, we all give the best
Every minute of an hour, don't think about the rest
And you all get the power, you all get the best
And everyone gives everything, and every song everybody sings

And you call when it's over, you call it should last
Every minute of the future is a memory of the past
'Cause we all gave the power, we all gave the best
And everyone gave everything, and every song everybody sang
Live is life

McBride v. Mexico, Chonju, 17 June 2002

Drawsheet in excel

Parry's genius drawsheet has been updated. If you use IE as your browser you can even access national anthems with lyrics. Well worth a look.

Welcome and Reyna's Hamstring

We've set up this space to chronicle the World Cup. We'll post from 4 different countries on 3 continents. In the meantime, enjoy the good news of Claudio Reyna's MRI.