World Cup

At Picanha Grill, a Northeast Philadelphia restaurant serving South American barbecue alongside wide-screen World Cup futbol , Brazilian immigrant Vania Schock nervously nibbled the fingernails she had painted lime green to honor her native country's team. "Go! Go!" she exhorted in Portuguese, as if the players could hear her as they overran North Korea Tuesday in the South Africa soccer spectacle. "They are playing in the middle. They need to work the sides!" In Norristown two days after Brazil's 2-1 victory, Mexican-born bartender Damien Guerrero, 35, passed a Dos Equis beer to a customer at Restaurante la Michoacana.

If Philadelphia is an "international city," why do I have to look through the snow on Channel 35 in order to watch the World Cup soccer games? In international terms, the World Cup is second only to the Olympics in importance. Why are we not given the chance to see it well? I can only hope that four years from now Philadelphia will have joined the world community and we can all see prime-time local television coverage of this tremendously exciting sports event. If the militia members in the streets of Beirut can watch during spontaneous game-time cease-fires, surely we should be able to get some coverage here where the obstacles are not nearly so formidable.

Argentina vs. Germany   What: Quarterfinal game When: Today, 10 a.m. Where: Green Point Stadium, Cape Town TV: 6ABC, Univision For kicks: You have to love it: A World Cup game where there will be no kissing afterward. Players from these teams fought in the tunnel under the stands after Germany's shootout win in a quarterfinal 4 years ago sent Argentina out. Germany's Bastien Schweinsteiger: "When you look at their body language and gesticulations, the way they try to influence the referees, they have no respect.

Japan vs. Paraguay   What: Second-round game When: Today, 10 a.m. Where: Loftus Versfeld Stadium, Pretoria TV: ESPN For kicks: Japan was impressive in eliminating Denmark, 3-1, in last game of Group E, also beat Cameroon . . . Like South Korea, Japan has advanced out of World Cup first round for first time other than 2002, when the countries were joint hosts . . . Midfielder Keisuke Honda (CSKA Moscow) would make first-round All-Star team . . . Paraguay won GroupF, where Italy finished last, without one player standing out, scoring only three goals in three games . . . Roque Santa Cruz (Manchester City)

ABC and ESPN will broadcast their fourth straight World Cup next year and will televise all 64 games in high definition. The networks will not decide until after the draw on Dec. 9 how to split the games among ABC, ESPN and ESPN2, they said yesterday. All games of the tournament, which will be played in Germany from June 9 to July 9, will be broadcast live. For the 2002 World Cup, in Japan and South Korea, 58 games were televised live, with the final on ABC, 16 on ESPN and the rest on ESPN2.

The event that stops the world arrives in the United States today, almost quietly, in the middle of a heat wave. After Diana Ross sings and President Clinton makes a speech, after Philadelphia's Daryl Hall introduces the official World Cup '94 jingle, titleholder Germany and overjoyed-to-be-here Bolivia will kick off a month of World Cup soccer by slogging around sweaty Soldier Field under the midday sun. Most World Cup games will be held...

Three months ago, Jorge Solari was coaching a soccer team named Newell's Old Boys in Rosario, Argentina, with a temperamental star named Diego Maradona. Yesterday, Solari arrived at the Atlantic City International Airport, the coach of Saudi Arabia, a team with four guys named Mohammed but no Diegos. If you wanted an event to mark the opening of the 1994 World Cup, it happened yesterday afternoon when the Saudi team arrived, the first of the 23 nations that will join the host United States in the 24-team field.

Two French-made, portable land-to-air missiles will be deployed outside South Korean stadiums during World Cup games to prevent possible terrorist attacks. Military jets will patrol the skies over the stadiums during the tournament, air force spokesman 1st Lt. Kim Ki-ho said yesterday. The air force will make sure jet noise does not affect matches, he said. The security plans are the latest in a series of measures being planned by South Korea officials to safeguard their portion of the tournament, to be played from May 31 to June 30. Five French special police-force members arrived in Seoul yesterday for five days of joint training with their South Korean counterparts.

By this time next year, we'll be reminiscing about that great 1994 World Cup, the one played in the United States with 52 sellout crowds in nine stadiums, all of which will be used as home fields for that soon-to-be great American professional soccer league. Not really. But by this time next year, Argentina will have won its third World Cup out of the last six played and the U.S. Soccer Federation will be looking for leadership after all of the World Cup honchos, including the non-English- speaking head coach of the national team, jump ship.

When he was pinned down at his headquarters in Ramallah, Palestinian leader Yasir Arafat had a question: Was Romario going to the World Cup for Brazil? In Ireland, Prime Minister Bertie Ahern said he was under "enormous" pressure to broker a truce between Ireland's coach and its deposed captain, after the captain was sent packing for cursing out the coach. Ireland is also the country where a petition bearing thousands of signatures was offered, calling for the country to move its clock up by nine hours to accommodate World Cup games from halfway around the world.

Sly Fox helped pioneer the craft-beer can revolution. Now, it's ripping the top off the genre altogether - literally. Gently yank the tab on its new "360 Lid" and nearly the entire end of the can is lifted off for wide-open sipping. Smell the hops! Take a big, refreshing gulp. No more small-hole, aroma-deprived glugging. Developed by Northeast Philly's Crown Holdings (and first seen at the World Cup), the 360 made its North American debut this spring with Pikeland Pils cans exclusively available at Citizens Bank Park.

The United States was clinging to a scoreless tie at Azteca Stadium, just seconds away from earning a rare point in Mexico, when Angel Reyna's shot darted perilously close to the goal for El Tri. Veteran keeper Brad Guzan lunged, smothering the ball with his body. Guzan, making his first start since 2010, swatted away shot after shot, young defenders Omar Gonzalez and Matt Besler showed the poise of veterans, and the Americans hung on for a 0-0 draw Tuesday night, earning only their second point ever in a World Cup qualifier at the tough Mexico City venue.

The Union announced Monday they have cut ties with midfielder Freddy Adu, reaching a contract termination by mutual consent, while acquiring veteran Brazilian international Jose Kleberson on loan from Esporte Clube Bahia. Adu subsequently signed with Bahia. Kleberson, 33, was a key player on Brazil's winning team in the 2002 World Cup, and has also played for Manchester United in the English Premier League and Turkish power Besiktas. Adu, 23, came to the Union in August 2011 under former coach Peter Nowak, and made 35 appearances for the club, scoring seven goals with two assists.

THE ELECTION of Jorge Mario Bergoglio as Pope of the Roman Catholic Church was the biggest victory in Argentina since Diego Maradona helped bring home the World Cup in 1986. Probably the most famous play, oddly enough, was the "Hand of God" goal in which Maradona was not penalized for an obvious handball that ended up a goal against England in the quarterfinals. While Maradona is the most famous Argentinian athlete, there are others. * Angel Cabrera is a two-time golf major champion, including his victory in a three-way playoff over Chad Campbell and Kenny Perry.

Jerry Bengston took advantage of a defensive mix-up to score the go-ahead goal in the 79th minute, and host Honduras rallied to beat the United States, 2-1, in San Pedro Sula on Wednesday afternoon in the opener of the final 10-game qualifying round for next year's World Cup. Clint Dempsey put the United States ahead in the 36th minute with his 31st goal in 92 appearances. But the Americans, using a new-look defense that featured Omar Gonzalez replacing captain Carlos Bocanegra at center back and the German-born Timmy Chandler making his competitive debut for the United States, gave up the lead when Juan Carlos Garcia tied the score on a 40th-minute bicycle kick.

SCHLADMING, Austria - Lindsey Vonn will miss the rest of the ski season after tearing knee ligaments and breaking a bone in her leg in a high-speed crash Tuesday at the world championships. The U.S. team expects her to return for the next World Cup season and the 2014 Sochi Olympics. Vonn lost balance on her right leg while landing a jump in the super-G. She flipped in the air, landed on her back, and smashed through a gate. The four-time overall World Cup winner and 2010 Olympic downhill champion received medical treatment on the slope for 12 minutes before being taken by helicopter to a hospital in Schladming.

Cyclist Lance Armstrong , stripped of his seven Tour de France titles and given a lifetime ban, will make a limited confession to doping in an interview with Oprah Winfrey , according to a person with knowledge who spoke to the Associated Press. The 41-year-old Armstrong, who has long denied doping, will also reportedly offer an apology during the interview, scheduled to be taped Monday at his home in Austin, Texas, and televised Thursday. While not directly saying he would confess or apologize, Armstrong texted the AP on Saturday, saying: "I told [Winfrey]

It is the most popular sport in the world, so it only makes sense that soccer would be infected with the universal virus that exists and thrives everywhere. Intolerance based on race, religion, sexual orientation, secular origin and other factors was the world's game long before humans decided to kick a ball into a net. So I'm not sure what more FIFA, the governing body of soccer, can do to eliminate the acts of hate that routinely occur in matches throughout the world. FIFA already has taken a strict stance against discrimination - not with merely colorful slogans saying "End Racism.

Deep in a bunker below the Greenbrier resort in White Sulphur Springs, W.Va., two strategists in white uniforms huddle in a war room, fine-tuning a battle plan. Their mission would no doubt puzzle the Eisenhower-era officials who built this once-secret hideaway as a fallout shelter for Congress at the height of the Cold War. The bunker has seen a variety of less dramatic uses, but perhaps none more intriguing than the project it currently houses: victory over the top chefs of Europe.

RYAN LOCHTE won two more races at the short-course world championships in Istanbul on Sunday, finishing the event with six golds and one silver. The result matched his medal total from the last championships, in Dubai in 2010. Lochte won the 100-meter individual medley, a day after he broke the world record in the event. The five-time Olympic champion finished in 51.21 seconds, ahead of Kenneth To of Australia and George Bovell III of Trinidad and Tobago. To started well and led at the halfway mark.