BRAZILIAN BAURU
BOATENG BOYS MEET AGAIN
Brotherly love will be forgotten on Saturday when Germany's Jerome Boateng faces his sibling once more at a World Cup with Ghana's Kevin-Prince Boateng predicting a 'fight to the death'.
The half brothers were both born in Berlin to separate mothers, but in 2009, Schalke's Kevin-Prince, 27, opted to play for the country of his father.
He turned to Ghana having become discouraged by a perceived lack of opportunities even after the brothers had made a single appearance in the same Germany Under-21 team.
The brothers normally have daily contact via SMS or telephone, but there has been radio silence as they prepare for the Fortaleza clash in Group G.
"We've had no contact recently, each of us is just concentrating on himself," said Bayern Munich's Jerome Boateng.
MESSI AUTOGRAPH HUNTER DETAINED
Brazilian security services on Wednesday detained a man who sneaked into Argentina's World Cup training camp to seek Lionel Messi's autograph, witnesses said.
The 33-year-old Brazilian was spotted jumping onto the pitch as more than 200 journalists gathered for a team press conference at the America stadium near Belo Horizonte, an AFP photographer said.
Last week, the same man was pictured receiving a t-shirt from Messi after cleaning his boots at the training camp. The man told police he wanted to get the shirt signed.
The man was seen crying as security forces forces led him away.
TARDY SON SAVOURS DEBUT
It was hardly the way South Korea's Son Heung-Min wanted to celebrate picking up the man-of-the-match award after a sparkly World Cup debut in a 1-1 draw with Russia.
The 21-year-old Bayer Leverkusen star's evening took an unexpected turn when he was hauled in for an anti-doping control after the Group H game in Cuiaba on Tuesday night.
Without going into details 'the procedure' took longer than anticipated, and by the time Son emerged his colleagues and the team bus had long since departed the Arena Pantanal.
So Son was left behind on one of the landmark nights of his career, forced to head back to the Korean hotel alone in a cab.
Before finally taking his leave of the stadium, the pacy attacking midfielder, who moved from Hamburg to Leverkusen in a 10 million euro deal in 2013, gave a glimpse of what the whole experience of playing for his country on the world's greatest football stage had meant to him.
"It's like a dream, I tried to sleep before the game, but I couldn't.
"I was a little bit nervous. And then happy that I performed well in the first game."
DEMPSEY BECOMES DEUCE
US star Clint Dempsey, who scored one of the fastest goals in World Cup history this week, hopes to record another hit with an upcoming rap album, a report said Wednesday.
Under his artist name Deuce, the 31-year-old spent two weeks in Los Angeles recording the 13-track album "The Redux" with friend and rapper XO, according to the Wall Street Journal (WSJ).
"We just were having fun with it and it ended up being an album," it cited Dempsey as saying, adding that the album is due for release "in the months ahead."
The soccer star, who has recorded before, improvised and turned out to be very good. This surprised some "because he's a soccer player, and people automatically expect it to not be good," said executive producer Mike Chehade.
"I'm not saying he's Eminem, but he's definitely qualified," he added.
A representative for the footballer did not immediately respond to request for comment on the WSJ report.
Dempsey scored after only 30 seconds against Ghana at the World Cup on Monday, stunning their long-time African rivals in a match which the USA went on to win 2-1.
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