The 1-1 draw between Sweden and Brazil deserved a better setting; preferably one with some air.Downtown Detroit itself lives up to its billing as “the American Beirut”. Despite earlier protests to my editor, I am glad to be booked into a hotel in its twin city of Windsor across the border in Canada. Glad, that is, until I have to alight from my taxi and show myself at immigration, where they do not appear to have heard of the World Cup and seem to work on the principle that everyone is either a terrorist or a narcotics dealer.The next morning I go through it all again, twice over, to visit the Motown Museum. There, complete with original nicotine stains from the all-night recording sessions, you can see the studios where the Four Tops, Supremes, Stevie Wonder and the rest created a soundtrack for the Sixties. On the way back it is as if the Civil Rights movement never happened; my cab driver, who has definitely not heard of the World Cup, rants about how the blacks have ruined the neighbourhood.30 JUNE DALLAS I awake to the news that Maradona has done a Willie Johnston. Conveniently, I’m heading for Dallas, where the Argentinians are to play their final group game against Bulgaria that night.

In the departure lounge, I meet my one and only American soccer fan, a middle-aged female supporter of the Chico Rooks, no less. With evangelical zeal, she presses a fixture card on me and elicits a promise that I will mention them in one of my reports.Down in Texas, Maradona is holed up in a hotel. In another, a press conference so packed and uncomfortable that it resembles something from a Heronimous Bosch painting listens as the grim-faced jury from Fifa – doctors, lawyers, bureaucrats plus a chap from Brechin City – pronounce him guilty.Joao Havelange, the world game’s Brazilian overlord, explains how personally saddened he is. Maradona, when he finally surfaces after his shell-shocked team-mates lose without him, hints at a plot.. by the Brazilians. This is, after all, the city where JFK was slain; the place that practically invented the conspiracy theory.2 JULY Tucking into black-eyed beans and alligator at a Cajun restaurant (well, it was my birthday), I hear on the TV that Colombia’s Andres Escobar has himself been shot dead I catch the words “gambling cartel” and swallow hard. Enjoyable as the Sweden-Saudi game is the following day, the murder has cast a greater shadow over what was becoming a carnival competition until Maradona’s banishment.9 JULY Only one game to go for me now – No 46 out of 52 and my 12th – but what a game! The flash floods that hit Dallas give way to white heat, and after a lukewarm first half Brazil and the Netherlands trade five goals in the Cotton Bowl.

The last, an exocet o f a free-kick by Branco, ensures a South American presence in the otherwise all-European semi-finals and keeps alive the hope of a classic final.I’ll be watching it at home. In my taxi out to Dallas/Fort Worth airport the next day, after stopping to have the obligatory photo taken on the grassy knoll from where one of Kennedy’s assassins fired, the driver is pleased to learn I’m English “That’s where my ancestors are from,” he informs me. Really? “Yes sir, from a little town called Scotland.”As we wait for the plane, someone says Bulgaria have beaten Germany. After nearly a month of bets and drugs and rock ‘n’ roll, to paraphrase Ian Dury, there is life in the tournament yet. What a pity that in the final analysis, Brazil couldn’t glitter like Gary and Messrs Baggio and Baresi were no more accurate from 12 yards than Diana Ross..

Wigan’s Va’aiga Tuigamala and Jason Robinson visited a specialist yesterday after they were injured during the champions’ thrilling Boxing Day victory against St Helens. Tuigamala, who scored two tries in the 32-25 win at Knowsley Road that maintained Wigan’s three-point lead in the Stones Bitter Championship, left the field on a stretcher at the end of the game with a knee injury and taken to hospital. Subsequent X-raysrevealed no broken bones, but the centre has suspected ligament damage.
Wigan had earlier seen Robinson carried off with an ankle problem in the 53rd minute. The Great Britain winger, who has just recovered from knee trouble, suffered a recurrence of the ankle injury which he first picked up during the Test series against Australia this autumn.Wigan’s Test second row forward Denis Betts, who heads for Australia at the end of the season, was another casualty from the triumph at St Helens – he also hurt his ankle.Graeme West, the Wigan coach, said: “We will just have to wait and see with the injuries. We should know more tomorrow.”A former Wigan player is also troubled by injury. Andy Gregory, Salford’s scrum-half, suffered a recurrence of knee trouble during their home defeat by Oldham on Boxing Day, and seems certain to miss the New Year’s Day game at Bradford.Widnes have signed the 25-year-old Australian centre, Sean Alvarez, to complete their overseas quota. Alvarez, whose parents are Spanish, has signed an 18-month contract after impressing in reserve trials.

He almost joined Salford earlier this season butthey had no room on their quota.. Rob Hallett, with just 40 seconds remaining, kept his feet and his sense of direction and purpose as all around him slipped and slithered to jab between the posts and give the Cheam President’s XI a 1-0 victory over the Cheam club in the annual R L Hollands Memorial match at Peaches Close yesterday. The goal came after good right-wing approach work by East Grinstead’s Danny Byfield. Earlier, there had been misses at both ends as the players struggled to familiarise themselves with the natural-grass surface, which was well sodden by the continuous overnight rain.
With the President’s side controlling the midfield, it was not surprising that they should create the larger share of the opportunities, mostly following their 11 penalty corners, but they were never to seriously challenge the club’s goalkeeper, Mark Frost.Nevertheless, the day’s best chances, before the winning goal, fell to Cheam. Matt Miles, the President’s goalkeeper, did well to save a deflection from his own full-back, David Justesen, who was making a welcome return to the game after a knee operationin the summer, from a shot by Gary Douglas that was going wide.