England’s World Cup team arrived in Miami on Sunday for a week of training and a pair of games at Sun Life Stadium. Manager Roy Hodgson "has banned agents from the training camp to avoid distractions." Hodgson: "When we’re together, it’s England and purely England and we’re not going to combine the two things.” Summertime "is usually ripe with transfer activity, but Hodgson said any calls about transfers would have to happen during free time" (MIAMI HERALD, 6/1). ... Bringing any football team to Brazil "is like bringing coal to Newcastle." Or, "to use a more apt allusion, G-strings to Rio." But as the Socceroos "performed routine training drills more than 3,000 locals who had scrambled to get tickets to see Bailey Wright, Alex Wilkinson and others barely known in Sydney, let alone Sao Paulo, perched on concrete slabs in the dated grandstand and watched with unbridled enthusiasm." Fan Felipe Oliveira: ”No I do not know any of them." So "why" watch the Socceroos? Oliveira: "Because the World Cup is a global event" (DAILY TELEGRAPH, 6/1). ... Peru's tourism industry "will take a hit from the 2014 Brazil World Cup, as it diverts travelers away from the small Andean nation and towards the South American giant." Lima Convention Bureau President Carlos Canales said that the dates of the World Cup, which begins June 12 and concludes July 13, "coincides with Peru's high season, when hotels, airlines and tour operators traditionally see their biggest earnings of the year" (XINHUA, 5/28).
