Rooney trained with substitutes by himself
Rio de janeiro: The Football Association has reacted to speculation about striker Wayne Rooney’s place in the England team by explaining that he trained with back-up players at his own request. Playing in an unfavoured left-sided role, Rooney produced a subdued display as England lost 2-1 to Italy in their opening World Cup game in Manaus on Saturday. He trained alongside the substitutes from that match at England’s Rio de Janeiro training base yesterday, prompting reports in the British media that he may be dropped for his side’s second Group D game against Uruguay on Thursday. But in a statement on Twitter, the FA said that the Manchester United striker was merely eager to maintain peak fitness between matches. “Contrary to reports, @WayneRooney requested additional training and worked with a wider group of players on Monday,” it said.
Capello bans twitter for russian players
Cuiaba: Coach Fabio Capello known for his disciplinarian attitude has imposed a social media black out on his Russian squad at the World Cup. That means no Facebook, Twitter, Instagram nor any of the other forms of online communication until they leave Brazil. The Italian, explaining his reasons for the draconian measure on Monday, said: “Players can’t use social media here. They must abstain for one month, then when they get home they can go crazy.” Warming to his theme he continued: “Tweets sometimes can be a nuisance, if they’re not written in an intelligent fashion — so in order to prevent that nuisance I’d prefer to ask my players not to use social media.” Capello was speaking in Cuiaba on the eve of Russia’s opening Group H game against South Korea.
This world cup is a success
Rio de Janeiro: Rio de Janeiro’s state’s top tourism official on Monday declared the first five days of the month-long World Cup a success, saying that those who predicted a debacle have thus far been proven wrong. Carlos Magnavita told a news conference that Rio residents gave a “demonstration of civility” during the first game in the city, Sunday’s much-anticipated face-off between Argentina and Bosnia. last year’s Confederations Cup, a World Cup dry-run, was marred by massive, nationwide protests over perceived misuse of public funds, and many observers had predicted demonstrators would take advantage of the spotlight of the World Cup to air their grievances before an international audience. But so far, World Cup matches have attracted only a scattering of demonstrators -- who have consistently been wildly outnumbered by security forces -- and haven’t led to any disruption of matches. “I think that the pessimists who were betting on a failure on our part need to revise” their positions, Magnavita said. Brazil’s Minister of Tourism, Vinicius lages, said the ministry’s assessment of the beginning of the tournament was overwhelmingly positive. “From the point of view of what was expected in terms of public transit, lodgings in the host cities, the ease of getting to the matches, from the point of view of the interactions between fans and of Brazilians’ hospitality, what we’re hearing is that it’s been very positive,” he said. “The expectation that I have is that we are able in the coming days and weeks to keep up the same level of service that we’ve had, with our services functioning satisfactorily, and tending in a calm, tranquil manner the Brazilians who are traveling throughout the country, as well as the foreigners.” He said 600,000 tourists from 186 countries were expected to be in Brazil for the tournament, in addition to some 3 million domestic tourists, adding that it appeared everyone was enjoying themselves. “We haven’t had any problems so far,” lages said. “Nothing serious.” Many of Brazil’s World Cup projects, including stadiums and public transit upgrades and airport renovations, were plagued by delays, budget over-runs or were simply scrapped. Both the international media and world football’s governing body, World Cup organizer FIFA, criticized Brazilian officials for their handling of the tournament preparations.
This world cup is a success
Sau Paolo: One of the World Cup’s most exciting games had the most empty seats in the first round of the tournament in Brazil. More than 3,500 seats were empty when the Netherlands routed defending champion Spain 5-1 in the northeastern city of Salvador on Friday, according to FIFA’s match reports and its numbers on stadium capacities. Although it wasn’t the worst crowd — 48,173 attended the match at the Arena Fonte Nova — it was the game with the most unused seats. Crowds have been good so far, but there were many matches with empty seats across the 12 host cities. Nearly all matches were sold out ahead of the tournament, and FIFA said “the empty seats corresponded to either no-shows or people who did not collect their tickets.” Among the matches with visible empty seats was the high-profile encounter between England and Italy in the jungle city of Manaus, when 39,800 were in hand. More than 503,000 people have attended the initial 10 matches of the first World Cup in Brazil since 1950. Another match with a high number of unused seats was Ivory Coast-Japan in Recife, when 2,316 chairs were empty, according to the most recent numbers on FIFA.Com. The Uruguay-Costa Rica match in Fortaleza had 1,669 empty seats, while the Colombia-Greece game in Belo Horizonte had 1,085 unused chairs. The other matches played by Sunday were mostly full, according to the numbers available from FIFA. The biggest crowd was at the Argentina-Bosnia match, when 74,738 fans were at the Maracana Stadium in Rio de Janeiro. FIFA said 39,216 people saw the Mexico-Cameroon match in Natal, the smallest attendance by Sunday. More than 62,100 people attended the World Cup opener between Brazil and Croatia.
Sturridge wouldn’t replicate suarez
Rio de Janeiro: England striker Daniel Sturridge is prepared to do “anything” to beat Uruguay, but would stop short of blocking a shot with his hand like liverpool team-mate luis Suarez. Suarez achieved global notoriety at the last World Cup in South Africa when his goal-line handball denied Ghana a quarter-final victory and helped Uruguay through to the last four. Four years on, the 27-year-old is battling to overcome a knee injury in time to face England in a pivotal World Cup Group D clash in Sao Paulo, in which defeat for either side could spell elimination. Sturridge says that following his team-mate’s example only goes so far. “I’m going to do anything in my power to win this game,” he told reporters at England’s Urca training base in Rio de Janeiro on Monday. “I’m prepared to do anything, and I’m talking anything. I’m being serious. It’s do or die. “I’m not saying I’m going to dive or do anything that’s not within the laws of the game, but I will do anything — like my team-mates — to win this game. “I will stay on my feet. I will never dive on purpose. I’m not going to handball a goal shot, because it’s not in my nature.”