America wakes up to World Cup fever

Times Square won't be packed with soccer fans watching movie theater-sized screens. Americans won't be shouldering each other out of the way for a better view of TVs in shop windows.\nThe World Cup might be the Super Bowl, Final Four and Olympics rolled into one for just about everyone else. To the U.S. sporting public, it's ho-hum.\nSo when the United States, coming off a run to the quarterfinals four years ago, faces the Czech Republic on Monday (noon EDT), life won't come to a standstill in the 50 states.\nThat doesn't mean the game should be ignored. Hardly, with the Czechs ranked second in the world by FIFA and the Americans standing fifth.\n"Today the world of soccer, or football, is shrinking," U.S. coach Bruce Arena said. "You have players from all these countries in this tournament that play for big clubs that are much more experienced, and they bring those experiences to their national team."\nThat includes a slew of Americans, particularly stars Landon Donovan, Kasey Keller and DaMarcus Beasley. The core of the U.S. team has been together for most of this decade and has become a formidable foe.\n"It's a good, complex squad with no weak point. They play fast soccer. We've seen what they're capable of," Czech midfielder Tomas Rosicky said.\nIn the 2002 World Cup, the Americans upset Portugal in their opener, catapulting them toward the second round. Now, with Italy and Ghana also in their group, the Americans can't afford to slip in their opener.\nThen again, neither can the Czechs, who have been plagued by a series of injuries, including Rosicky's thigh problem.\n"In this tournament, the first step is one of the most important," he said. "If we win, we'll be just one step, or victory, from advancing."\nMonday's other two games feature Italy vs. Ghana at Hanover, and Australia vs. Japan at Kaiserslautern.\nThings got juicy heading toward the Australia-Japan match when Guus Hiddink, the Aussies' Dutch coach, complained about accusations his team plays dirty.\n"I'm getting very angry when people are suggesting that," Hiddink said. "We have a good team. They like to fight. Every team must fight in my opinion."\nA Japanese Football Association official criticized Australia's physical style in a newspaper report. Hiddink said such talk reflected "irresponsible behavior toward our team and the sport in general."\n"And I think that's not fair," Hiddink said. "You should play fair at the beginning."\nThe Socceroos, in their first World Cup since 1974, have a reputation for hard tackles, which was reinforced in a 1-1 draw in a warmup game with the Netherlands.\n"We're very competitive people," captain Mark Viduka said. "We like to win and we will never pull out of a tackle. But it doesn't mean that we go out to hurt people. I think it's a lot of hype made up so people can write articles."\nJapan, making its third straight World Cup appearance, hopes its experience will provide a boost.\n"We have a lot players here who were around four years ago and that should help," said defender Tsuneyasu Miyamoto, who was team captain when Japan co-hosted the event with South Korea and made the second round. "But this is a completely different atmosphere from last time."\nGhana has no such reference points as it makes its World Cup debut. The Africans have recent warmup victories against Jamaica and South Korea _ but neither of those opponents compare with three-time World Cup champion Italy.\nCaptain Stephen Appiah said he relished the thought of playing against former Juventus teammates and Italy coach Marcelo Lippi.\n"I played in Italy for eight years, so this is a special game for me," he said.\n"This means so much for Ghana and its population of 20 million ... We didn't just come to participate but to make surprises."\nSuccess against Italy would be a stunner, although the Italians could be distracted by a soccer scandal involving gambling and match-fixing back home. They've vowed not to let that happen.\n"Our duty at this World Cup and for Italian soccer in general is very important," Alessandro Del Piero said. "But it's not fair to expect this team to resolve all the problems"