MILAN : A REAL Super Bowl

Play begins Thursday in a month-long professional soccer extravaganza that will draw 2.6 million fans and 20 billion television viewers in virtually every country on earth--the 1990 World Cup.

All-star teams representing 24 nations will play 52 games in 12 Italian cities in what most of the world’s population--the United States excluded--consider the globe’s foremost sporting event. It all comes to a climax with the July 8 final in Rome’s Olympic Stadium.

The U.S., playing in its first World Cup in 40 years, faces a tough Czechoslovak side in its first match, on Sunday in Florence. But host Italy, West Germany, Holland, Brazil and defending champion Argentina are considered the teams to watch.