A scan confirmed that Michael Owen will not be able to play the rest of the World Cup. The English striker suffered an injury in the anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee in the second minute of England’s match against Sweden in Cologne.

“As soon as it happened I knew I was in trouble. It was a major disappointment to pick up the injury so early in the game”, the player explained. “Obviously it's a massive blow to suffer the injury – and to be out of the World Cup.”

Doctor Enrico Castellacci announced that Gennaro Gattuso would miss one or two games of the FIFA World Cup due to a thigh injury. The midfielder will need 15 days to recover from the muscle strain and be able to play again.

“I'm disappointed, missing two games is a lot for me. I'm not superstitious but I think someone has put a curse on me”, said Gattuso. “But I'm going to the World Cup even if I have to tie myself with a rope to the team bus.”

England’s head coach, Sven-Goran Eriksson, claims that Michael Owen will find his game when the World Cup starts. Erikson said he is not worried about the player and the preparation matches he played were very important for Owen.

“When it comes to the World Cup the music is different for Michael Owen. It has always been like that,” explained the coach. “He doesn't go into hard tackles at the moment, and I agree with him about that, but he will when it's the World Cup.”

Brazil won in style with an 8-0 romp over a Lucerne team at the St. Jakob Stadium and in front of 30,000 people. Ronaldo and Adriano burnt the net twice each and Lucio, Juninho Pernambucano, Robinho and Kaka scored the other four goals.

Parreira played most of the match with the magic quartet: Ronaldo, Ronaldinho, Kaka and Adriano. Ronaldo, who hasn’t played since April 8 due to an injury, played for 67 minutes and seemed to be completely recovered.

Marcello Lippi had become the center of critics by a part of the press and was not confirmed for the World Cup, because he is friends with the director of Juventus, Luciano Moggi and also the administrator Antonio Giraudo, who have been involved in the corruption scandal the Calcio is living.

The 58-year-old Lippi, got to the team on June 25th, 2004 instead of Giovanni Trapattoni, who was in charge of the team when they got eliminated on the first round of the Euro cup 2004 in Portugal.

To the rhythm of mariachis, Mexican food and a decoration typical of this great nation, Mexicans and Dominicans joined together in a very special night at the casino’s restaurant: Lola.

The commercial manager of Cirsa for the Dominican Republic, Miguelina Garcia, explained that the Majestic Casino always celebrates the special holidays of the country and of other countries as well. She mentioned the carnival celebrated in February and the Brazilian night celebrated in April.

The team has some players who starred the Argentina U-20 team that won last year, including Lionel Messi. There are also some experienced players as well such as Sorin, Riquelme, Saviola and Heinze.

Some unexpected absentees included Walter Samuel (Inter) and Javier Zanetti (Inter). Argentina is in Group C and their first match will be June 10th.

The Santiago Bernabeu Stadium was crowded with fans. They were there not only to see their team play, but also to say goodbye to the “exemplary son” Zinedine Zidane, one of the few players that has never been booed by fans.

Zidane’s family were there too. Thousands of shirts with his photo could be seen both outside and inside the Stadium. When the Real Madrid walked onto the field, the 78,000 people in the Stadium showed T-shirt-shaped white cards with number 5, Zidane’s T-shirt number, on them.

Next Monday, Carlos Alberto Parreira will reveal the list of players to take part in the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany. Today, he told the Jornal do Brasil newspaper that he still has to define some names, apparently three, of the 23 that will be part of Brazil’s team during the tournament.

“There are some medical and physical problems, so the list doesn’t depend on me exclusively. I started thinking about the list three years ago when I first coached the team, but I still have my doubts about some players.”

Lionel Messi assured last Saturday that he will only go back to play when he is totally recovered from the muscular injury, but in the last days it has suffered a relapse and he is going to Argentina to have it treated. He is traveling to his home country in company of Juanjo Brau, who is a team assistant.

“I’m going to Argentina with Juanjo and I’ll come back when I’m recovered”, explained Messi, who added that this time he is not planning to anticipate his appearance.