Sport - Football

It'll be 'crane's voice' everywhere

YOKOHAMA May 25. Kazuhiro Noda already is a winner at the World Cup, a man sought after for television and newspaper interviews. His company captured the order to provide all the referees' whistles.

``I made mine as if they were instruments, like a harmonica. You can't compete with that,'' the 71-year-old Noda says.

Noda's company Kakuseisha — which means `crane's voice' — was set up by his father to make harmonicas. Amid the scarcities in the early years after Japan's World War II defeat, it used old beer tins as material.

Noda changed the business to making whistles after his father's death in 1960.

While Japan's national team didn't reach the World Cup's final stage until 1998, Noda's whistles were in use at the 1982 and 1986 World Cups.

They were accepted overseas while Japanese stores still were insisting on products from Italy or Germany, a situation that has changed.

But Noda doesn't plan to attend any World Cup matches to hear his products on the world stage again.

``I don't have time for games,'' he says.

Removing temptation

A Japanese reporter asked Argentine coach Marcelo Bielsa how his team was coping at a training camp without any shops or bars nearby.

After a rare grin, the normally stern Bielsa said it was no coincidence, and that there was no cause for concern.

``It would be impossible to reproduce what we have here,'' he said. ``There aren't shops or bars, but there are other things of a human nature in their place. The culture is different, and these substitutions are certainly for the better.''

The Argentines are living in the secluded and tree-lined J-Village complex in Nahara, a lush region near Japan's eastern coastline. The base is frequently used by Japan's national team.

At their disposal are an indoor swimming pool, saunas, a soccer museum with 3D screens and multiple training pitches.

Just right, says Bielsa.

Inspiring Italians

Breathless and gasping for a view of the Italian soccer team, dozens of local Japanese youths have taken to crowding around the team's northeastern Japan training camp.

Some fans are not attracted only by the squad's remarkable soccer skills, it seems.

Yukari Nishikawa, a 23-year-old homemaker, waved a little fan decorated with a soft-focus photo of striker Filippo ``Pippo'' Inzaghi marked with the Italian words: ``Ti amo Pippo'' — ``I love you Pippo.''

``I'm a fan of Inzaghi because he's a really beautiful boy, he has a beautiful face,'' she said. ``He's also very personable. Other players run from the fans.''

As it happened, Pippo didn't fulfil her dreams that day: The team bus drove by the crowd and into the training stadium without stopping.

Nishikawa screamed, waved her fan, and looked up hopefully. But through the tinted windows, Pippo was barely visible.

Mixed reception

People of the tiny Japanese village of Nakatsue waited anxiously through a five-day delay and turned out at 3 a.m. when Cameroon's World Cup team finally arrived at its training site.

The reception hasn't been so warm for Belgium's team in the southern city of Kumamoto.

The problem: Belgium is one of Japan's rivals in Group H in first-round competition.

Megumu Takeshita, a 14-year-old junior high school student, carried a placard with Belgian flag colours at a reception to welcome the team, but declared: ``When Belgium plays Japan, I will cheer for Japan.''

Soccer flights

Korean Air is planning special daily flights to save teams and tourists time and money as they travel between World Cup co-hosts Japan and South Korea.

The flights will use Gimpo Airport in Seoul and Haneda Airport in Tokyo, each about an hour closer to downtown than the main international airports of Incheon in South Korea and Narita in Japan. The fare of 480,000 won ($380) is about 15 percent lower than the Incheon-Narita rate of 564,200 won ($447), the airline says.

Each day between May 30 and June 30, Korean Air plans to fly a plane with 157 economy-class seats to Haneda at 7 p.m. and back to Gimpo at 10 a.m. the next morning. — AP

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