Borgetti misses practice

GOETTINGEN: Mexico forward Jared Borgetti missed his second straight training session on Tuesday, as the national team waited to see whether he would be available for its second World Cup game. Co-leaders with Portugal in Group D, Mexico plays Angola on Friday in Hanover. Borgetti, Mexico’s leading career scorer with 38 international goals, pulled up while going after a loose ball early in the second half of El Tri’s 3-1 win over Angola on Sunday. The 33-year-old Bolton striker, the first Mexican to play in England’s top league, left the game favouring his left thigh.

Rooney unlikely

BADEN-BADEN: Wayne Rooney is unlikely to play in England’s World Cup match with Trinidad and Tobago, reports said on Tuesday, following speculation he was set to make a dramatic comeback. British newspapers have reported that Rooney was expected to make a shock appearance from the substitutes bench in Thursday’s Group B game in Nuremberg. But reports on Tuesday said Rooney’s return was unlikely as medical experts who said his foot injury had healed will not fly to Germany to re-assess the player’s condition until Friday. However, sources within the England camp have said the coaching staff have asked Rooney to ease up.

US disappointed

WASHINGTON: Americans on Tuesday were disappointed with their World Cup opening loss against the Czech republic and were glumly gauging their slim prospects of advancing to the second round of the torunament. “Everything went terribly wrong,” said The Washington Post. “US Held in Czech,” read a punny headline in The Washington Times. The “nightmare” of a match, said the daily. “A humiliating defeat,” said The New York Times. “The United States hoped to possess an edge in speed, fitness and health. But it was the supposedly aging and hobbled Czechs who proved to be the more spry, imaginative and determined team, even with four starters over age 30,” the Times added.