BERLIN: Horacio Elizondo will be the referee when host Germany plays Costa Rica in the opening match of the 2006 World Cup.

The Argentine was picked to officiate Friday's match in Munich by the FIFA Referees Committee.

The other 15 referees to work during the first set of games in the first round were also selected, FIFA said on Saturday.

Elizondo, a FIFA referee since 1994, officiated his first international match in 1996 but is at the World Cup finals for the first time.

``I'm of course very proud and I have a great feeling in me mentally because we gave so much for this game in the preparation phase,'' Elizondo said. ``The opening match is just a dream.

``I never thought that I could be the referee for the opening match...this is the most important football game I'll ever referee in my life so far. Millions or even billions of people will see me and I will try to do my best.''

The power of prayer

Two-time World Cup champion Argentina may never win another World Cup because of a broken promise.

In 1986, to prepare for the high-altitude in Mexico City, the national team trained for several weeks in Tilcara, a small town in the Andes near the border with Bolivia. The team and coach Carlos Bilardo also went to pray in front of the Virgen of Copacabana, asking for strength to win the World Cup. Bilardo promised that if the country won the World Cup, the team would return to the town to give thanks.

Argentina did win, defeating West Germany 3-2 in the final. But it seems that the team never returned to keep its promise, leading residents of Tilcara to say by breaking its promise the country would never win the World Cup again.

Julio Humberto Grondona, president of the Argentine Football Association, and other team officials went recently to Tilcara — just in case Bilardo hadn't.

However, Bilardo claims he did return to Tilcara, apparently on a private visit that went unnoticed.

Be prepared

The Seuerwehr Fire Brigade and the Volunteer Fire Service staged a decontamination drill in Wuerzburg on Saturday in the event of a biological or chemical attack during the World Cup.

The Seuerwehr brigade will be deployed to cover the stadium in Nuremberg during the tournament, but similar teams will be at all 12 World Cup venues.

The Wuerzburg team will be in charge of decontaminating people injured and exposed to biological and chemical agents in the event of such an attack.

Miss World Cup

Edwige-Grace Madze Badakou of Togo is the new Miss World Cup.

The 24-year-old finance graduate beat 31 other women, one from each of the 32 countries that have teams playing at the World Cup.

Badakou, a former Miss Togo, beat Maria Garrido Baez of Spain and Katty Lopez of Ecuador at the last stage. The judges were celebrities and sports personalities.

The science of prediction

You don't need a college degree to know that Brazil is favoured to win the World Cup.

Still, researchers at the University of Warwick in England have been analysing football games to predict which team will lift the trophy in Germany.

Brazil, obviously, was the top pick with a 13 percent chance to win its sixth World Cup title.

In the group stage, the Ukraine-Tunisia match was the toughest one to call for the computers. England-Trinidad and Tobago was the easiest, giving the English an 83 percent chance to win.

The forecasts were made by analysing about 4,500 international games. — AP

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