Mexico's gifted but volatile forward Cuauhtemoc Blanco, left out of the World Cup squad, ridiculed the national coach after the team was knocked out of the tournament by Argentina. Blanco has clashed repeatedly with coach Ricardo La Volpe, an Argentine, and poured scorn on him after Saturday's 2-1 defeat and early exit from the World Cup finals in Germany.

"We lost, but we win, because finally the team will be freed of this dark personality who is now synonymous with failure," Blanco said of La Volpe.

Many believe the La Volpe era as Mexico's coach has come to an end. His contract expired with the team's defeat on Saturday.

Ivanov deserves yellow card...

FIFA president Sepp Blatter said the referee could have been yellow-carded himself after sending off four players and handing out bookings to eight others in Portugal's 1-0 win over the Netherlands.

Each team finished with nine men after Russian referee Valentin Ivanov took centre stage in Sunday's second-round match, creating a World Cup finals record for red cards in one match.

"I consider that the referee was not at the same level as the participants, the players. There could have been a yellow card for the referee," Blatter said.

"It was a great show with intervention by the referee that was not consistent and had lack of fair play by some players."

...gets backing from home

Referee Valentin Ivanov has received full backing from his most loyal fan, father and former top international striker Valentin Ivanov Sr. The elder Ivanov, who played in two World Cups in 1958 in Sweden and 1962 in Chile, where he was the joint top scorer, said his son did a good job.

"It was a very difficult game to officiate and I think he handled himself quite well considering the circumstances," he said.

"It was a very intense match. I have heard that Blatter had criticised my son. But it was FIFA itself who demanded from referees to get tough on players using foul tactics. Valentin just tried to follow FIFA's own instructions to stamp out rough play."

Figo free to play against England

Portugal captain Luis Figo is free to play against England in the quarter-finals after FIFA said they would not upgrade the yellow card he received for a head-butt against the Netherlands to a red.

Although the referee missed the incident when the Portugal winger head-butted Mark van Bommel, one of his assistants alerted him to Figo's misdemeanour and the referee duly yellow carded him.

When asked yesterday whether FIFA would review the incident and impose a tougher sanction, director of communications Markus Siegler said the yellow card would not be altered.

"He was sanctioned immediately by the referee at the time... it is very unlikely anything will happen as he has been sanctioned already," Siegler said.

Portugal to appeal red card

Portugal intend to appeal against the red card handed to playmaker Deco in Sunday's tumultuous second round win over the Netherlands, coach Luiz Felipe Scolari said yesterday.

Speaking to reporters after a short training session, Scolari criticised Russian referee Valentin Ivanov, as well as the Dutch coach Marco van Basten and his players for not abiding by FIFA's fair play regulations.

"We accept that we made some disciplinary mistakes, but we cannot accept in any way the red card for Deco," he said. "The Portuguese FA will put in a request to overturn the card for Deco," he added.

Verbeek new South Korea coach

Dutchman Pim Verbeek was yesterday named new coach of South Korea's soccer team. Formerly the assistant, Verbeek takes over from compatriot Dick Advocaat who stepped down after Korea were eliminated from the World Cup in Germany on Friday.

South Korea's Football Association said Verbeek had signed a two-year contract. The 50-year-old, who has 25 years' experience in coaching, played for Sparta Rotterdam from 1974-1980.

Brazil better spies

Roberto Carlos extolled the virtues of the Brazilian team, saying the world champions were ahead of the rest even when it came to spying on the opponents. The outspoken left-back, confident as ever, added that he saw no reason why Brazil could not win a sixth title, saying they would only lose if they got complacent.

"In Spain, people ask me why we study the opposition if we're already the best in the world," he said. "I tell them that the Brazilians are always looking to get better. We watch the opposition very closely, something the Europeans don't do.

"We spend 45 minutes shut in a room watching a video of the opposition... sometimes, the opposition just spend 10 minutes watching Brazil."