World cup tidbits

Birthday 'treat'

Frank Lampard is bracing for his 36th birthday on Friday after the England midfielder witnessed a "gift" given to one of the team's staff members.

"It was one of the masseurs' 50th birthday today, so we tied him up and volleyed a few balls at him, as us mature boys do. It's light-hearted," Lampard said on Tuesday.

"That's how it is. You have to have that. We're away a long time, so you have to have your moments."

Beating traffic

The US team decided not to compete with Brazil on Tuesday - least of all in the traffic jam caused by the Selecao's game against Mexico.

A day after beating Ghana 2-1 at Natal in their opener, the Americans scheduled an afternoon training session four miles from the Sao Paulo hotel where the team is staying.

But traffic ground to a halt as people left work early to go home or get to restaurants and bars to watch Brazil's match, which started at 4 pm local time.

With the drive taking as long as two hours, the US squad decided to push back its departure by nearly an hour. But with the help of a police escort, the team bus made it to its destination in about 30 minutes.

Pele Stuck

If there is one thing even Pele cannot beat, it is the traffic that plagued many of the country's cities as Brazilians rushed home from a half day of work to watch their team play Mexico on Tuesday.

"It's fun - for the first time in my life I had to watch the first half in a car!" Pele told Globo TV in Brazil's biggest city of Sao Paulo, famous for its mind-numbing traffic jams.

Pele said having to be confined to a car for so long made watching the scoreless draw even worse.

"It was an incredible pain," he said. "I thought, 'Oh, my God, how did I get stuck in this traffic? ' We just had to sit there!"

Messi's army

They traveled for 50 hours by bus from Lionel Messi's hometown, Rosario, hoping to catch a glimpse of the Argentina star.

On Tuesday, an army of 120 teenage boys from the Renato Cesarini soccer academy clustered around the entrance of the team's base in Belo Horizonte, all wearing Argentina's blue and white shirt.

After some negotiations with security guards and team officials at the gate, it was agreed that 10 of them would be allowed in to watch Argentina practice.

The teenagers expressed no doubts about Messi's Argentine allegiance as they jealously watched journalists pass through security.

"People think that because he went abroad he doesn't play with passion for the national team," said Ezequiel Luna, a 17-year-old defender. "But he keeps it well inside. He wears the Argentina shirt with pride."

TUNE IN

Friday, Beijing time

Group C

00:00 Colombia vs Cote d'Ivoire

CCTV-1, CCTV-5

06:00 Japan vs Greece

CCTV-5

Group D

03:00 Uruguay vs England

CCTV-1, CCTV-5

(China Daily 06/19/2014 page24)