World Cup '98 kicks off in France this summer. Get ready for a month of goals, glory and terrific football

By BILL SAPORITO

OURNAMENT The forwards don't look like they could kick a ball into the ocean from the beach. The midfield might as well be knitting for all the work they're doing. The star striker has been caught in a bar with a bimbo again. The defense is a sieve. The players refuse to talk to their coach or endorse the official World Cup song. There are questions in government cabinet meetings, the press has moved the antics of the team from the back pages to the. Does this sound familiar, Brazilians? Are they talking about you, Germany? Is that your coach, Iran? Or your striker, England? Or could it be the Dutch team or the Argentines; Cameroon, Nigeria, Yugoslavia or South Africa? It's the World Cup. Everyone's a football fan, everyone knows more about the game than Pele and everyone has an opinion, the most popular one being that the coach is an idiot--until, of course, he lands the trophy.

The tournament kicks off when Brazil takes on its first designated sacrifice, Scotland, at the gleaming new Stade de France on Wednesday. This is the biggest World Cup ever, which will add to the volume of global hysteria. This year France will host 32 teams, up from 24 at U.S.A. '94. Alas, there are a million fewer tickets this year than last time. And with France conveniently situated at the communications hub of a football-crazy Continent, the French organizers have had an earful about ticket availability, or lack of it. They are hoping that the complaints will be drowned out by the cheering once the football starts.

The Europeans and the South Americans are still the favorites to reach the final rounds of the tournament, but participation is increasingly multicultural. South Africa, Japan and Jamaica have qualified for the finals for the first time. The Yugoslavs were too busy with their civil war to qualify for U.S.A. '94, but they, along with the now separate Croatia, are ready to show their footballing independence. And the addition of a post-revolutionary Iran will add an interesting political wrinkle. They're determined to defeat their old enemy the U.S.A. in the first round. Says Iranian striker Khodadad Azizi, whose goal against Australia got Iran into the finals: "The U.S.A. mistreated our country. In the war they supported our enemies Iraq. That's why a victory against the U.S.A. will be a special victory." The Americans, for their part, are intent on stopping Germany, their first opponent. Call it arrogance, or a sign that the Americans aren't a doormat any more. They even beat the unbeatable Brazilians recently.

Ah, yes the Brazilians--Cafu, Dunga, Romario, Ronaldo, Aldair, Leonardo, Denilson, Edmundo--players with enormous price tags, some strange genetic affinity for a football and canary-yellow shirts. They've lost a couple of matches over the last year, but their individual skills are such that they're still the out-and-out favorites to take the World Cup trophy home (again). Consider that Denilson, the world's most expensive player, is likely to sit most of the games out on the bench. It's like keeping a Ferrari in the garage in case the Lamborghini needs an oil change.

Should the Brazilians stumble, there are always the Argentines and the Germans and the Italians too. Each carries a heavy weight of national expectation, a responsibility that comes with having won more than one World Cup. This year, however, there are signs that the Europeans might just have the edge over the South Americans. Consider the ascension of satellite television that has put Spanish games in English living rooms, the Bosman ruling that turned a trickle of expatriate footballers into a river. The European leagues are now the strongest in the world. Think of the foreign legions at clubs like Arsenal, Juventus, Inter Milan and Barcelona. Contingents of South Americans, Scandinavians, East Europeans and Africans play all over Europe. The idea that football played in Rio is completely different from the game played in Frankfurt is changing. Football may be among Brazil's most successful exports, but the system behind its success is weakening. There is chaos in the South American leagues and the Europeans by contrast are channeling satellite money into football, creating a leisure industry. Clubs like Manchester United have led the charge onto the London Stock Exchange.

The addition of some inexperienced teams and a new rule change could make this competition a feast for strikers. And they are in fine form. The Dutchman Dennis Bergkamp lights up the British Premiership. In Italy's Serie A the Argentine, Gabriel Batistuta and the German Oliver Bierhoff liberally hit the back of the net, while a resurgent Roberto Baggio has just tallied the highest number of goals he's ever scored in a single season. Ronaldo didn't have a bad season at Inter Milan either, and the Juventus' striking pair of Alessandro Del Piero and Filippo Inzaghi has brought renewed hope to Italy, not to mention championship hardware to Juventus. Christian Vieri rained goals in Spain. In Argentina, Chile's marksman Marcelo Salas shot himself into a bidding war, with Lazio beating other European clubs to sign the River Plate man. This group of frontrunners, plus potential outbursts from the likes of Spain's Raul, Iran's Khodadad Azizi, Japan's Hidetoshi Nakata, France's David Trezeguet, South Africa's Phil Masinga and Saudi Arabia's Sami al-Jaber augur for some fat scorelines.

And they'll have some help, courtesy of a decision by FIFA, the world football federation, to impose a new rule against tackling from behind. This summer, for the first time, such an infraction will be punished by a red card which means the player must leave the field. "It's definitely in the striker's favor," notes Scotland's center back Colin Hendry. "And we're going to be the yardstick, so we've been consciously playing as if the rule is in effect," he adds, looking forward to the opening match when he'll be the only thing between Ronaldo and the Scottish goalkeeper. Ultimately, the problem with the rule will be its implementation. What, for instance, does "from behind" really mean? Is it 180 degrees or 170? U.S. playmaker Claudio Reyna is worried: "One decision is going to change a game, or even an entire World Cup." In the U.S., where the rule is being enforced this season, red cards have been flying. But goal production is up and forwards feel less threatened by the hackers. In France, the pressure will be on the refs in the first few games to enforce the new rule even if it means that three or four players get sent off.

On the positive side, all this means that the opportunities for upsets should improve. And there are some underdogs with bite. At U.S.A. '94, Saudi Arabia demonstrated its brand of swift, attacking football, knocking off Morocco in one of the more entertaining games, and stunning Belgium 1-0 with a scintillating goal from Saeed al-Owairan. This year the Saudis are coached by Carlos Alberto Parreira, who led Brazil to victory in '94. Anything can happen.

The frantic desire of nations, particularly emerging ones, to make their mark in football has turned coaching into a permanent part-time job. This win-or-take-a-walk mentality isn't a friend of consistent tactics. The peripatetic Serbian Bora Milutinovic is now coaching his fourth national team. The Mexicans fired him, for the second time right after qualifying, and have since gone nowhere; he's also coached the U.S. and Costa Rica into the finals. Now he's in charge of Nigeria, and the Golden Eagles are hoping to realize their much-vaunted potential. Morocco has Henri Michel, who has also coached the French and Cameroonians, while Tunisia boss Henryk Kasperczak spent much of his playing and coaching career in France. After sacking their Brazilian coach Valdeir Vieira, Iran's hard-liners pushed for a religious Iranian to run the team. The response was something on the order of, "Allah is Great, but what does he know about midfield play?" Croat Tomislav Ivic got the job, but the players quickly soured on him, losing in a 7-1 debacle against the Italian club Roma. New coach Jalal Talebi was hurriedly appointed in the middle of May.

Driving through Morocco or Tunisia and the rest of Africa it's noticeable that every town and village has a levelled rectangle of dirt marked with goal posts at each end. The game is not so much grass roots as bare earth. In Asia, the businessmen have tried to generate a popular sport from the top down. Japan's "J" League, operating since 1993, is benefiting from aging, bought-in foreign stars, and while there is a lot of talk about the future of the game and the excitement about hosting the next World Cup in 2002 jointly with South Korea, the fact remains that no Japanese player currently has a contract with a European club. Flame-haired rock-star midfielder Hidetoshi Nakata, Player of the Year in the Asian Football Confederation, plans to change that. He rails against the tendency of physically weaker Asian teams to play defensively against more powerful adversaries. "Rather than rigidly defending and thinking about a draw, I'd like to keep attacking, trying to snatch a goal. In that way you will see what the exact difference is between Japanese and world-class players."

South Africa, too, is making noises about crashing the European party. Bafana Bafana, as the team is called, is coached by Philippe Troussier, a Frenchman known as the White Witch Doctor who has battled both the media and the team over his allegedly harsh training regimen. But a good showing against Argentina recently had skipper Lucas Radebe saying: "Watch out for us in France, because we are going to surprise a few teams." Then there are the Scandinavians--the Danes led by the Laudrup brothers, Brian and Michael, and their Viking goalkeeper, the formidable Peter Schmeichel. Norway, as will oft be repeated, goes with the Flos--brothers Jostein, Tore Andre, and cousin Havar--and a passel of England-based players. Upsets are always possible. Denmark won the European Championships in 1992.

This summer there will be an obvious difference between teams and talented individuals. How well the latter integrate into the former is the test of champions. With the wizards of 'Ov--Stoitchkov, Kostadinov, Balakov, Ivanov, Lechkov--the Bulgarians produced a fourth-place finish that included a rousing 2-1 defeat of Germany at U.S.A. '94. But this year the team has been beset by internal disputes, and it's hard to see them becoming reconciled enough to get that far again.

Needless to say, the greatest team players of all, the Germans, are as confident as ever. "We know how to beat Brazil," claims the man who took Germany to World Cup wins as a player and a coach, "the Kaiser," Franz Beckenbauer, after watching Germany lose 2-1 to the champions earlier this year. "A German can concentrate," he said. "And pressure on him provokes performance, not paralysis. A German knows no self-doubt."

Among the Northern European nations, football is war. Beating Germany, the masters of the penalty shoot-out, is almost as good as winning the whole competition for England and the Netherlands. This year the Dutch appear to be the stronger team of the two. Bergkamp is untouchable up front, while winger Marc Overmars is uncatchable. A midfield that includes Edgar Davids--newly returned to the side after a long squabble with coach Guus Hiddink--as well as Clarence Seedorf, Aron Winter and Ronald de Boer should be more than enough to advance the Orange a round or two despite a tough opening match against their other arch rival Belgium. The English, in contrast, have not looked strong since their brave 0-0 draw with Italy in Rome earned them qualification last year. Alan Shearer, their star striker, has had a miserable, injury-ridden season at Newcastle. Paul Gascoigne, their mercurial midfielder, is still not match fit and perhaps too much has been left to the potential brilliance of 18-year-old Michael Owen.

Some of the betting could be going Spain's way. Fernando Morientes will lead the charge up front, while a full contingent of defenders from Spanish title holders Barcelona anchor the defense. In goal, perennially, is Zubi--Andoni Zubizarreta. Spain, a grand and noble footballing nation, has never managed to win a World Cup, but this year the smart money might actually be just that.

It's the unpredictability of a football match which lies at the heart of the World Cup competition. A goalkeeper's instinctive save, a bad tackle, a head wind, the heat, a perfect pass, a defensive blunder, a crossbar in the way or any second of play can change the course of a match. It only takes a moment to score a goal. In such moments underdogs can become giant killers, the favorites can lose their edge of confidence and a match which looked like a walkover on paper becomes a battle of wills. The winners will lift the trophy on the bright grass of Stade de France on July 12. The losing finalists will sit slumped and exhausted around them. But it will be the spectacular moments, the last-minute goals and the diving saves we will remember. And those moments can belong to anyone--winner, loser, or spectator.