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Thursday June 14, 2018

AFTER raising the World Cup four years ago, Germany hopes to lift the trophy July 15 and become the fi rst repeat champion in more than a half-century.

The soccer world gathers at 12 stadiums in 11 cities across the European portion of Russia starting today for a 32-day, 64-match championship. Much has changed since Die Mannschaft humiliated the host Selecao 7-1 in the 2014 semifi nals, then left Rio de Janeiro’s Maracana Stadium with a 1-0 extra-time win over Argentina on Mario Goetze’s 113th-minute goal.

The United States will be missing from soccer’s showcase after seven straight appearances. Four-time champion Italy will be watching from home for the fi rst time since 1958, its streak of 14 consecutive appearances ended by a playoff loss to Sweden. The Netherlands, which lost the 2010 fi nal to Spain, missed out after slumping to third in its qualify-ing group. And Chile failed to qualify after consecutive Copa America titles.

Iceland and Panama are World Cup debutantes, Peru is back for the fi rst time since 1982, and Egypt ends an absence dating to 1990.

Germany and Brazil are the pretournament favorites, and France is fancied behind them with a young roster. England will try to end more than fi ve decades of hurt since winning its only major title on home soil in

1966. Mexico will try to advance past the second round for the fi rst time since 1986, but El Tri opens against Germany and its likely second-round opponent is Brazil.

There also has been a genera-tional change within FIFA. Many of its leaders have moved from penthouses to prisons following indictments by the U.S. Depart-ment of Justice that detailed kickbacks to be as much a part of soccer as free kicks.

FIFA’s Congress voted yes-terday on the host of the 2026 tournament, and a joint bid by the U.S., Mexico and Canada won their joint bid.

This is the fi rst World Cup to be hosted in three countries and the fi rst since 2002 to be held in multiple nations.

The joint bid won 134 out of the total 203 votes.

“Hosting the 2026 World Cup is a rare and important moment to demonstrate that we are all truly united through sport,” U.S. soccer federation president Carlos Cordeiro said after the win.

VAR will be the acronym of the moment: video assistant referees in soccer-speak, instant replay for most viewers at home.

And as soon as the fi nal whistle of the tournament is blown at Moscow’s Luzhniki Stadium, attention will shift to the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, moved to Nov. 21 through Dec. 18 because of the summer desert

REAL Madrid has chosen Julen Lopetegui to be its next manager, with the current head coach of the Spanish national side set to move to the Bernabeu after the World Cup.

Lopetegui, who has signed a three-year-deal at Real, has a long association with the club, though he made a single profes-sional appearance as a player. The 51-year-old will now face the challenge of refreshing a side that has won the Champions League three times in a row and boasts some of the biggest talents — as well as egos — in world soccer.

“Real Madrid announces that Julen Lopetegui will be the coach of the fi rst team during the next three seasons,” the club said in a statement Tuesday. “Julen Lopetegui will join the club after Spain’s participation in the World Cup, after two years leading the national team.”

With the World Cup two days away, the news of Lopetegui’s appointment came somewhat out of the blue and the timing will be questioned in Spain. From Madrid’s point of view, however, it is likely to be seen as a sensible move after the sudden departure of Zinedine Zidane last month. Lopetegui’s association with Real goes back 30 years to when he was a youth team goalkeeper. He also worked for the club as a

Germany looks to become repeat Cup champ

heat and compressed to 28 days because it is in the middle of the European club season. Gianni Infantino, who succeeded the disgraced Sepp Blatter as FIFA

president in 2016, has discussed increasing the World Cup fi eld from 32 to 48 in 2022, four years ahead of schedule.

(SD-Agencies)

Messi and RonaldoLionel Messi and Cristiano

Ronaldo have split the last 10 FIFA Player of the Year awards, and this is likely their last chance to win a World Cup.

Breakout starsBrazil’s Neymar, England’s

Harry Kane, Egypt’s Mohamed Salah, France’s Antoine Griez-mann and Belgium’s Kevin De Bruyne are stars who could lift themselves into Player of the Year contention with stellar World Cups.

Back to backItaly in 1934 and 1938, and

Brazil in 1958 and 1962 are the only teams to win consecutive World Cups. Germany was 10-0 in qualifying, the only European team with a perfect record, and outscored opponents 43-4.

Play it againFollowing the fi rst use of goal-

line technology at a World Cup in 2014, FIFA has expanded off-the-fi eld decision-making. A video assistant ref can notify the referee by headset of the need to reverse a decision if there is a “clear error” involv-ing goals and their buildups, penalty kicks, straight red cards, and mistaken identity for red and yellow cards.

(SD-Agencies)

Storylines likely to dominate play

in Russia

Lopetegui to join Madrid as head coach

scout and as coach of the club’s B team, Castilla.

Perhaps just as importantly, the Spaniard was available. It had been widely understood that the president of Real Madrid, Flo-rentino Perez, had made Totten-ham’s Mauricio Pocchetino his fi rst-choice candidate to replace Zidane. But the Argentinian had signed a contract extension at White Hart Lane the week before the Frenchman’s departure and attempts to negotiate with Spurs’ notoriously intractable chairman and chief executive, Daniel Levy, got nowhere.

Jurgen Klopp and Antonio Conte were also considered but proved too expensive. Lop-etegui, meanwhile, extended his terms with the national side only recently but the compensa-tion clause in his contract was

an insubstantial 2 million euros (US$2.35 million), which Real has paid.

Having taken over from Vicente del Bosque as national coach in 2016, following a dis-appointing European Champion-ships, when they were knocked out by Italy in the round of 16, Spain has gone unbeaten in 20 matches. Lopetegui has revital-ized their style and rejuvenated an ageing team. He will be expected to do the same at his new club where as many as fi ve fi rst-team players are no longer wanted by the club.

Lopetegui has a spine of Real Madrid players in his team, with a total of six in the World Cup squad, and has built a particu-larly strong relationship with the club and national captain, Sergio Ramos. (SD-Agencies)

FIFA’s head of fi nance said yesterday he “anticipates strong revenues” leading to the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.

Thomas Peyer tells member federations that income from broadcasting rights will add up to 53 percent of FIFA’s budgeted income of US$6.56 billion over the next four years. Around 70 percent is already contracted.

The extra income lets FIFA promise US$1.5 million annual grants to each of its 211 member federations. That’s a 20 percent increase.

FIFA’s budget, which is typi-cally conservative and eventually exceeded, calls for a US$100 mil-lion overall profi t through 2022. That should help lift FIFA’s cash reserves close to US$2 billion.

FIFA President Gianni Infantino said under his watch, soccer’s governing body has transformed from “clinically dead as an organization” to being “alive and well.” Infantino told member federations that FIFA is now “full of joy and passion with a vision for its future.”

(SD-Agencies)

FIFA expects ‘strong revenues’

TIGER WOODS returned to the U.S. Open for the fi rst time in three years and hardly anyone noticed.

Then again, it was late Sunday afternoon. Shinnecock Hills was practically empty. Such a quiet moment was rare for Woods in his celebrated return following four back surgeries. A year that began with intrigue soon gave way to hysteria over anticipa-tion of his fi rst victory in nearly fi ve years.

That time has not arrived as Woods heads into the second major of the year.

“Golf is always frustrating,” Woods said Tuesday. “There’s always something that isn’t

Tiger Woods returns to US Open

quite right, and that’s where we as players have to make adjust-ments.”

It has been 10 years since Woods won his last U.S. Open. All it takes for him to temper any frustrations is to look back at last year, when he didn’t know if he would even play another U.S. Open. (SD-Agencies)

Julen Lopetegui (L) and his players during a Spain training session in Krasnodar, Russia, on Tuesday. SD-Agencies

German national team soccer player Thomas Muller (L) and his teammates arrive in Moscow on Tuesday. SD-Agencies

Tiger Woods