BRIEFS

Golden chance missed

SAO PAULO (AP):

Brazil's president says the national team should have easily won the World Cup in South Africa.

Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva says he still hasn't got over Brazil's 2-1 loss to the Netherlands in the quarter-finals, saying it was "the easiest World Cup for Brazil to win".

An avid football fan, he told a local radio station on Thursday it was the tournament with the "weakest" teams and that Brazil had an easy path to earn their sixth title.

The president says he will "accept" the defeat in 2010 if it means that Brazil have a better chance to win the competition at home four years from now.

He says "we can't repeat" what happened in 1950, when Brazil lost the final to Uruguay at Maracana Stadium in Rio de Janeiro.

Not for sale

BERLIN (AP):

Octopus oracle Paul's prescience wasn't needed to predict how this one would turn out: His aquarium in Germany yesterday gave a resounding "nein" to a bid to move the celebrity mollusc to Spain.

Paul rose from obscurity in Oberhausen's Sea Life aquarium during the World Cup to international celebrity as he correctly called the outcome of Germany's seven matches in the monthlong tournament, time and again picking a mussel from a tank marked with the flag of the would-be winner.

He also correctly predicted Spain would beat Germany in the semi-finals - prompting many in his home country to speculate how he would taste grilled in garlic butter.

Already a celebrity in Spain after the semi-final prediction - Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero offered to send a security team to protect the 2¹/_²-year-old floppy octopus from the hungry Germans - the country went wild for him after he correctly tipped Spain over the Netherlands in the finals.

Hodgson's SOS

LIVERPOOL, England (AP):

Liverpool midfielder Javier Mascherano is not returning Roy Hodgson's calls, thwarting the new manager's attempts to persuade him to stay at Anfield.

Since taking over, Hodgson has spoken to striker Fernando Torres and captain Steven Gerrard and insisted yesterday that neither is for sale. But Mascherano is proving elusive.

The Argentina captain indicated this week that he would like to be reunited with former Liverpool manager Rafa Benitez at Inter Milan.

"I have tried to contact Javier," Hodgson said Friday. "I have left him voice messages and sent him texts but had no reply. To be fair to him, that's not unusual because he's had a tough World Cup and I believe he's gone back to Argentina.

"It's not always easy to get in touch with people. I have tried to reach him to make clear I am happy to talk with him at his convenience."