Neighbourhood watch: Group E: CAMEROON: Coach Winfried Schafer insisted that his team should not be judged on their uninspiring scoreless draw with Austria in Vienna on Wednesday night, saying that "if we have everybody on board again and we show more concentration throughout the whole match, we can go far in the World Cup." Compiled by Mary Hannigan
True, Cameroon were without striker Patrick Mboma and defender Raymond Kalla, while 18-year-old goalkeeper Carlos Kameni replaced Jacques Songo'o at half-time and Manchester City defender Lucien Mettomo was given a rare full 90 minutes, but Schafer was still sufficiently frustrated by the display to earn himself a warning from the fourth official after delivering a fruity 'touchline outburst'. Still, the draw extended Cameroon's unbeaten run to 11 games.
GERMANY: Rudi Voller was none too impressed with the 54,000 crowd in Stuttgart on Wednesday night when they booed his players off the pitch after the 1-0 defeat by Argentina. "These fans must have been spoiled by our recent performances," he said, adding (in a Keegan-esque fashion) that "after our recent wins, this result is something like a welcome setback".
One other minor consideration for the Stuttgart crowd: Voller was without 11 World Cup 'definites', including goalkeeper Oliver Kahn (stomach virus), Christian Ziege (foot), Marco Bode (ankle), not to mention Oliver Neuville, Mehmet Scholl, Gerald Asamoah, Marko Rehmer, Sebastian Deisler, Joerg Heinrich and Christian Woerns, to name but a few.
Negatives? Midfielder Michael Ballack was marked out of the game, Jorg Bohme (who came in for Bernd Schneider on the left of midfield) failed to impress and right-back Thomas Linke had a 'mare up against Pablo Aimar. Positives? Werder Bremen's Torsten Frings did well on the right of midfield and according to German tabloid Das Bild, in their summing up of forward Oliver Bierhoff's performance: "we saw worse already".
SAUDI ARABIA: With the Saudi club play-offs nearing their conclusion the national team was not in action midweek, giving coach Nasser Al-Johar the chance to travel to Stuttgart to run his eye over the German 'B' team's performance against Argentina.
Meanwhile, Saudi club Al Hilal has issued the politest 'hands off' warning in the history of association football, following an $8 million offer from Dutch club Roda JC for international midfielder Nawaf Al-Temyat. "Roda have tabled an $8 million offer to secure the services of Al-Temyat, who, it should be fairly stated, represents quite an inspirational and committed figure within the squad that could not be filled in the appropriate way, regardless of the fee presented by Roda JC," they said . In other words: hump off.
Squadwatch: McCarthy's men
Mark Kennedy (Wolves): Suffered a relapse in his attempts to recover from a pulled groin muscle and Wolves now don't expect him to be fit until the division one promotion play-offs, should that be their fate if they fail to win automatic promotion this weekend.
Alan Kelly (Blackburn): Came through a full 90 minutes for Blackburn's reserves against Bradford City earlier this week and has declared himself fit after being out since mid-February with a knee injury.
Lee Carsley (Everton): Hopeful of a first team return against Southampton today after a run-out with the Everton reserves against Manchester United on Thursday night.
Jason McAteer (Sunderland): Will have a late fitness test on the groin problem that put him out of Wednesday's game against the US before the match away to West Ham today.
Niall Quinn (Sunderland): Like McAteer is a doubt for today's game at West Ham after suffering a neck injury against Liverpool last Saturday.
Staunton: Just like watching...
Hearty thanks to 'The Weakest Link' fan Gerry for alerting us to..: Anne Robinson: "Steve Staunton is the most capped footballer for which country?" Contestant: "Brazil."
Sassenach tales: The Auld Enemy
"It's not an anti-English campaign in any shape or form," insisted the commercial manager of brewers Tennent's (the marvellously named Rob Bruce), after the company unveiled its three billboard adverts that will be on view the length and breadth of Scotland during the World Cup - (1) Och Aye Kanu (Nwankwo Kanu, Nigeria), (2) C'mon The Tartan Argie (Claudio Caniggia, Rangers and Argentina) and (3) Support Sven's Team (Sweden). Yes, as you've deduced, all three featured nations (whose flags form the background to each billboard) are England's World Cup group opponents.
Quotes: Early fears
"Hopeless. The closer it gets, the worse it gets." "What shame...they moved like flies in tar."
- From Polish newspapers, Gazeta Wyborcza and Przeglad Sportowy, after Poland lost 2-1 at home to Romania in Wednesday's
World Cup warm-up.
"I wonder why he absolutely had to remove his wisdom-teeth last Sunday. I hope he doesn't wait until a few days before the World Cup to have the other two removed."
-Belgian coach Robert Waseige after Emile Mpenza withdrew from Wednesday's
squad after failing to recover from having
two wisdom teeth removed.
