Flushed with failure
Holland's hope of a World Cup final was not the only thing to go down the pan. Many of the 11 million Dutch who watched Tuesday evening's semi-final defeat by Brazil waited until breaks in the game to go use the loo, causing a huge strain on the water system. "In the pauses and between the overtime sessions and the penalty shoot-out, toilets got massive use," said the consultants brought in to deal with the problem. The simultaneous flushing of millions of toilets taxed the Dutch water system to its capacity."

One-nil, one-nil, ...
The cliche used to be `One-nil to the Arsenal' -- until Arsene Wenger came along.But it's still the most `popular' scoreline in World Cup history. Croatia's second round victory over Romania was the 100th World Cup match to end 1-0, a ratio of 17.3 percent.

The next most common result is 2-1, which has occurred 81 Times for 14.6 percent, while there have been 56 matches ending 2-0, a ratio of 9.7 percent. This year, 13 out of 61 matches up until Tuesday night had finished 1-0 -- a ratio of 21 percent.

Lothar's in trouble again
Lothar Matthaus is in hot water again. The German midfielder has blamed former Foreign minister Hans-Dietrich Genscher for getting Germany dumped out of the World Cup by Croatia in the quarter-finals.

Matthaus, whose legendary rows with coaches and fellow team-mates have dogged his career, tells the latest edition of Stern magazine that had Genscher not pushed the European Union to recognise Croatia in 1992, the side would never have qualified for France '98.

Genscher defended himself stoutly in the columns of the daily Frankfurter AllgemeineZeitung, saying: "You cannot link the two events. If Yugoslavia still existed in the same form as in the past, the Croatian players would be part of that team and Germany could have been eliminated at an even earlier stage of the tournament."

Mirror, mirror on the wall
Former Scotland goalkeeper Bob Wilson, now a TV presenter, received an unusual request on World Cup duty before Tuesday's Brazil-Holland semi-final. Ronaldo's girlfriend Suzana Werner asked to use his TV make-up mirror. "She just came up to our truck in the television compound and asked if she could borrow the mirror I use to make sure I don't dazzle in the TV lights," said Wilson. "I didn't realise who she was," he added.

Not quite gone, not forgotten
Joao Havelange may have passed the sceptre (should that read poisoned chalice) of power on to Sepp Blatter, but Havelange remains the outgoing President of FIFA. The Brazilian will return to centre stage after adopting a low profile in the wake of Blatter's election amonth ago to present the World Cup on Sunday at the Stade de France -- he hopes to Brazil.

Ginola joins mines fight
Former French star and Spurs winger David Ginola has joined the crusade against landmines championed by the late Princess Diana. Ginola, 31, volunteered to join the fight as a Red Cross spokesman to get minesbanned worldwide. Veteran anti-landmine campaigner Chris Moon, who spearheaded the campaign at the Winter Olympics in Nagano last February and who lost a leg clearing mines, said: "It's good news. He's a role model for a lot of young people."

Don't wait up
FIFA face a poser to keep television schedulers and advertisers happy at the 2002 World Cup in Japan and South Korea. With Europe six hours behind Asia and the United States between 13 and 16 hours behind, kick off times will have to be arranged very carefully to ensure that anybody is awake to tune in. Fortunately for FIFA -- but unfortunately for marketing officials, hardly anyone has been watching in the UnitedStates anyway.

Pyrotechnic party

The World Cup closing ceremony on Sunday at the Stade de France will take the form of a pyrotechnic bonanza to celebrate 33 days of competition and 64 matches. The ceremony has been carefully prepared by Yves Pepin. The show will be a short one this time just eight-and-a-half minutes -- and will comprise four mini sections. The Parade of Musicians starts it all off, then comes the Race of the Happy, a Firework display and a `grand finale.'