Football: The Global Game: The World Cup Around the World

"I wonder what the results would have been like if the Jamaican team that actually qualified for the World Cup had actually played in the World Cup. I think for one that it would have been a more cohesive team since they had been playing together for so long. The introduction of all those new English-based players certainly seemed to have backfired." Jamaican fan called "Rockers" comments on his country's exit from the tournament on an Internet chat site.

"We should bow at his feet once more. Gabriel Batistuta is a spectacular goal scorer - he is obsessed with goals. And Ortega is capable of everything." "Ole", Argentine sports paper, after three goals from Batistuta and two from Ortega bring a 5-0 win over Jamaica.

"Everything worked: goalkeeper Ivica Kralj, the defence, midfield and the two strikers. But our forte was our midfield, which held all the strings. Goran Djorovic and Sinisa Mihajlovic played phenomenally. We played modern football, while Germany's was a little outdated, with a libero. If the Germans don't make some changes in their midfield, they will not fare very well. Bierhoff and Klinsmann appear to lack ready solutions - all they do is wait for a break and score after a free-kick or a corner. I am sure in the coming games other teams will prepare for this and neutralise them with relative ease. And we must not rest on our laurels and think we can beat the Americans easily." Former Yugoslavia and Arsenal midfielder Vladimir Petrovic after 2-2 draw against Germany.

"This is what's most damning about the US team's loss to Iran last night in what has become an embarrassing, disgraceful World Cup failure: The Americans played a terrific, aggressive game... and they still lost. That tells our soccer-playing nation that everyone involved with the US national team vastly overestimated the talent America brought to

this World Cup. The US remains where it has for been as long as World Cups have been staged: Well behind the rest of the world. For the US side to truly believe it was second-round worthy in this tournament of dominant soccer-playing countries showed an audacity that perhaps only we confident Americans can justify." "New York Post".