World Cup football countdown: 14 days to go

Pele on his Dream team

UBALDO FILLOL (Chile): Inspirational goalie whose agility and safe hands were decisive in helping Argentina win in 1978.

CARLOS ALBERTO (Brazil): His pace meant that he could be an extra attacker, yet still fulfil his defensive duties.

ELIAS FIGUEROA (Chile): Chile’s greatest ever player and most poised defender in South American soccer history.

D PASSARELLA (Arg): Hardest tackling central defenders in the history of the game; possessed great power to surge forward and turn defence into attack.

NILTON SANTOS (Brazil): Equallyrespected by mates and opponents; contributed to tactics and team selection

DIDI: One of the last great "midfield brains" of his era in the late 1950s and early 1960s. First player to show the world how Brazilians can "bend" a free kick.

ALFREDO DI STEFANO (Arg): Commander of the Real Madrid side; a tireless worker as a centre-back one minute and scoring goals as centre-forward the next.

RIVELINO (Brazil): A creative force and hard worker who attracted the ball like a magnet wherever he wandered on the pitch

GARRINCHA (Brazil): Carefree. "The little bird" whose twisted legs helped him turn defenders inside out.

DIEGO MARADONA (Arg): Played as if the ball were tied to his shoe laces; a touch of genius in every part of him body.

PELE ON PELE: No Comment.

Sir Bobby on his Dream team

LEV YASHIN (Rus): A brave goalkeeper with great positional sense.

FRANZ BECKENBAUER (Ger): Always confident and when he moved forward he caused havoc,attacking defences with great pace

BOBBY MOORE (Eng): A wonderful tackler and a true leader of the game, a fine captain and a great influence.

PAOLO MALDINI (Ita): Very fast and strong with distribution skills

FRANCO BARESI (Ita): Another great player; quick and with a gift of reading plays almost before they developed. Also an inspirational leader.

JOHANN CRUYFF (Neth): Excellent at changing direction which allowed him to create space and time. His close ball control was spell-binding

MICHEL PLATINI (Fra): What a playmaker. He could thread the ball through the eye of a needle as well as finish.

EUSEBIO: Had great control at high pace with an extremely powerful shot

FERENC PUSKAS: Had the best left foot I (Sir Bobby) have ever seen. He was a phenomenal goalscorer, especialy when one-on-one with the goalie.

MARCO VAN BASTEN: sensational scorer and fine leader on the pitch, strong on the ball with tremendous awareness.

SIR BOBBY ON SIRBOBBY: No Comment.

Inside Italian camp in coverciano

Unsure Del Piero is No. 10

Cesare Maldini is giving Alessandro Del Piero the No. 10 shirt which Roberto Baggio wore at USA’94 at this year’s World Cup finals — the Italian coach’s latest act of faith in the Juventus striker. Maldini was busy assigning shirt numbers and his decision was a clear signal as he waits for Del Piero. The 23-year-old ace suffered a thigh injury in last week’s European Cup final and is not due at the training camp until tomorrow, Enrico Chiesa has been called up as a possile replacement. Skipper Paolo Maldini takes over the No. 3 shirt worn by 1994 captain Franco Baresi, the only other exception to the rule where numbers are allocated in alphabetical order, by department. The fact that Italy see Del Piero as their answer to Brazil’s Ronaldo, Germany’s Oliver Bierhoff, Argentina’s Gabriel Batistuta or England’s Alan Shearer will not be lost on Baggio.

Batistuta again

Buenos Aires: Gabriel Batistutascored his fifth international goal in three games as Argentina finished their World Cup preparations with a 2-0 win over fellow finalists South Africa. Batistuta broke the deadlock in the 50th minute and Ariel Ortega added a second with the last kick of the game. But Argentina had to lift their performance after being kept back in the first 45 minutes by an attacking South African team. Goalkeeper German Burgos was forced into two brilliant saves to deny Phil Masinga and John Moshoeu as South Africa’s pressure left Argentina’s defence looking tattered.

Inside Croatian camp in Porec

Boksic injuredCroatia’s World Cup preparations suffered a serious blow when key striker Alen Boksic dropped out because of knee injury. Boksic faces surgery on his right meniscus and will not recover in time for the finals, said the team doctor Boris Nemec. He blamed Boksic’s Italian club Lazio for intentionally misleading the player into thinking his injury was not as serious as it was. Boksic’s place will be taken byeither Goran Vlavic, who has made only limited appearances for Valencia this season, or Igor Cvitanovic, who moved from Croatia Zagreb to Real Sociedad in mid-season and needed three months to secure a first team place.

Boksic’s scored some important goals in the World Cup qualifiers, including the equaliser in a 1-1 draw in Kiev against Ukraine that secured a 3-1 aggregate victory in the play-offs and a place in the finals. Coach Miroslav Blazevic said he was not planning to call another player to replace Boksic in the 25-man squad preparing in Porec on the Adriatic coast. The 22 will be announced on June 22.