Italy, Czechs, Australians start with wins
(Reuters)
Updated: 2006-06-13 07:33 Togo have provided the most bizarre saga so far in the month-long tournament,
which began on Friday.
Pfister, a 68-year-old German, quit as coach saying he could not work because
the players and the Togolese football authorities were embroiled in a dispute
over pay.
Togolese officials then put assistant coach Kodjovi Mawuena in charge for the
first game against South Korea on Tuesday. They also began talks with German
coach Winfried Schaefer.
But Pfister suddenly announced he had responded to an appeal from the players
to return and would be in charge on Tuesday.
"The players intervened massively. I received a fax from the (Togolese
football association) president and I will sit on the bench as coach of the team
tomorrow," he told Reuters.
The World Cup finals, the world's most watched sporting event, has so far
avoided any major incidents of hooliganism which some experts had feared could
overshadow the football.
Instead, the main trouble has been hot weather taking its toll on players and
casting heavy shadows across some pitches.
FIFA said it would close the roof at Frankfurt's Waldstadion for the
Togo-South Korea match on Tuesday to stop shadows spoiling television images. A
German meteorologist warned that could turn the stadium into a sweltering
"massive greenhouse."
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