Paraguay Plan Is Food for Thought

Paraguay’s World Cup team has a strategy that could have spared Kobe Bryant and the Lakers a good deal of intestinal pain this week in Sacramento:

Whenever in doubt, bring your own food with you.

Paraguay team officials had supplies of meat, tea, maize and cassava shipped to Asia to keep its players properly fed during the tournament. Paraguay will play Spain, South Africa and Slovenia in first-round matches in South Korea.

Oscar Harrison, president of Paraguay’s soccer federation, said arrangements were made to ship Australian meat and yerba mate, a Paraguayan tea-like drink, to Korea “so that the players feel at ease, with a hot mate in hand. Also, our two cooks will have a load of maize and cassava so that they can give the players typical Paraguayan dishes.”

Harrison said the team wanted to take local meat, but Paraguay’s beef industry is not completely free of foot-and-mouth disease.

Apparently, dog is not an option at the Paraguayan World Cup training table.

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England received a mixed bag of news Tuesday: Midfielder Kieron Dyer was officially added to the team’s 23-man roster, which was announced after an England’s unimpressive 1-1 tie with South Korea in Seogwipo.

Dyer, who plays for the English club Newcastle, had been considered doubtful after sustaining a knee injury during Newcastle’s last regular-season match against Southampton earlier this month, threatening to further weaken an England midfield already depleted by injuries to captain David Beckham and Steven Gerrard. England is hopeful Dyer and Beckham will be ready by the first week in June, but Gerrard has already been ruled out of the tournament.

Michael Owen scored in the 25th minute for England, which had control of the match until Coach Sven-Goran Eriksson made seven halftime substitutions. Park Ji-Sung equalized for South Korea in the 52nd minute.

Eriksson chose four players from English Premier League champion Arsenal--goalkeeper David Seaman and defenders Sol Campbell, Ashley Cole and Martin Keown. Beckham was one of four Manchester United players on the roster, joined by defender Wes Brown and midfielders Paul Scholes and Nicky Butt.

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Mexico formally submitted its 23-man roster for the World Cup and as expected, defender Claudio Suarez was not included.

Although Coach Javier Aguirre had announced a tentative roster weeks ago, Suarez, sidelined since April 11 because of a broken leg, had held out hope that he might be a late addition to the official roster. Suarez, having made a world-record 170 appearances for Mexico, has been a longtime anchor of the team’s backline, but Aguirre was not convinced Suarez would be at full strength by June.

Suarez was replaced on the roster by Francisco Gabriel de Anda, a defender for the Mexican club team Pachuca.

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Midfielder Roy Keane threatened to quit the Ireland team after a run-in with a fellow player and team assistant coach.

Keane later backed off from his threat. Ireland Coach Mick McCarthy had already talked to Colin Healy and told him he was being called up to replace Keane.

Keane was reportedly angered because Ireland’s three goalkeepers--Shay Given, Dean Kiely and Alan Kelly--did not participate in five-a-side practice, which led to an argument with goalkeeper coach Packie Bonner and Kelly.