OK, Soccer Buffs, No Story Left Uncovered at This Cup

The Italians are waiting rather worriedly for the other shoe to drop.

Also the shirt, the trousers, the underwear . . .

It seems that an intrepid/foolhardy photographer managed to sneak into the Italian locker room at the team’s training camp at Coverciano (soon to be renamed Undercoverciano, no doubt) near Florence earlier this month and was snapping pictures of the players in the buff before being spotted.

Midfielder Angelo Di Livio and team captain and defender Paolo Maldini raised the alarm and gave chase, but it’s difficult to run nude with any dignity, and the paparazzi escaped in the resulting confusion, according to the newspaper Tuttosport.

Any day now the Azzuri, as the team is nicknamed, will probably be featured in all its glory in one of Italy’s tabloid magazines.

MORE THAN ONE WAY TO THE BALL

As a kid growing up in Tehran, Esfandiar Baharmast played soccer, just like most Iranian youngsters. And like them all, he dreamed of taking part in the World Cup.

But he didn’t think it would be this way.

He hoped it would be as a player, but injury curtailed his career, so he picked up a whistle instead, just to stay involved in the sport.

On Saturday, Esse Baharmast, who now calls Aurora, Colo., home, will be the man in the middle, the referee, when Spain and Nigeria, the Group D favorites, square off in Nantes.

Baharmast, the only American referee involved in the World Cup, learned of his appointment on Feb. 2 while officiating in the Gold Cup in Los Angeles.

“I was stuck in a hotel with no access to the Internet,” he told U.S. Soccer magazine. “So my wife, Afshan, was on line all morning waiting for the list [of World Cup referees and linesmen]. We talked all morning until it was finally posted and she saw my name was on it.

“It was one of the greatest feelings of my life.”