No rough stuff for Neymar?
Costa Rica coach Oscar
Ramirez is planning on deploying two players to mark
Neymar on Friday, but has assured the Brazil forward they won’t rough him up.
Neymar is aiming to add to his 55 international goals for Brazil, but is tentatively feeling his way back to fitness after breaking a toe on his right foot four months ago. He limped out of a practice session earlier in the week, after appearing to hurt his right ankle, but is back training and expected to play against Costa Rica at St. Petersburg stadium.
Asked how he plans to stop Neymar, Ramirez says: “Maybe we will mark him with two men, we will see.” He quickly added: “But of course we don’t want to see any unfair attacks on him.”
WHITE NIGHTS
Brazil captain Thiago Silva says his team’s attempts to combat the “white nights” in St. Petersburg ultimately proved counter-productive.
The sun hardly sets in Russia’s northernmost big city. In fact, it only starts to get dark around 10:30 p.m. and — after an inky-blue twilight — becomes light again soon after 3 a.m.
Brazil arrived on Wednesday, and Silva acknowledged he tried to take compensatory measures.
“Yesterday we stayed up a little late, having some physiotherapy,” Silva said on Thursday through a translator. “At 1:30 in the morning it was getting a little late.”
Staying up too late was causing other issues.
“(We were told) to turn off (our cellphones, so that we could sleep,”
Silva said, smiling. “If you are talking to friends back home in Brazil this will give you sleeping problems.”
UZOHO UNFLAPPABLE
Nigeria’s 19-year-old goalkeeper Francis Uzoho is showing no signs of stage fright.
Ahead of his team’s crucial match against Iceland in Volgograd on Friday, Uzoho said the way he copes with the pressure at the World Cup is not to think about Nigeria’s goalkeeping pedigree. The likes of Vincent
Enyeama and Peter Rufai, Nigeria’s goalkeeper during the two World Cups the “Super Eagles” reached in the 1990s, are revered in their home country.
Uzoho says “I don’t let the history get to me.”
Nigeria coach Gernot
Rohr says the young keeper is “cool-headed” and improving all the time.
Uzoho was not meant to be Nigeria’s goalkeeper at this World Cup but was promoted after Carl Ikeme was diagnosed with leukemia and needed treatment.
FAN BANNED FOR SEXIST VID
An Argentina fan has been banned from attending World Cup matches after posting a sexist video in which he encouraged a Russian woman to say offensive things in Spanish.
The video shows the fan asking the young woman who didn’t understand Spanish to repeat provocative phrases.
Argentine government security official Guillermo
Madero, who is in Russia, told The Associated Press the fan “won’t be able to enter stadiums at the tournament and he won’t be able to watch World Cup matches.”
Madero had filed a formal request with Argentine authorities, which then gave the fan’s name to Russian security forces. The fan’s identification card, which supporters are required to show to enter stadiums in Russia, was then taken away from him.