Notebook

England's Hurst: Look for young stars in Euro 2004

LISBON, Portugal (AP) -- Geoff Hurst, the only player to score a hat-trick in a World Cup final, says there is a group of rising stars who should shine at Euro 2004.

He singled out Portugal's Cristiano Ronaldo, England's Wayne Rooney and Dutch international Arjen Robben to make an impact at the championship, which starts Saturday in Portugal.

"I'm looking forward to seeing Europe's finest young football talent on show, some of whom I'm sure we'll see playing in the Premiership next season," Hurst said on Friday.

"There is an abundance of young, hungry and talented strikers like Rooney, (Fernando) Torres, (Dmitri) Sychev and (Milan) Baros who will challenge the likes of (Thierry) Henry and Raul (Gonzalez) for the Golden Boot.

"But one of the existing young players I think will be missed is Spain's Jose Reyes."

The young Arsenal striker was left off the Spanish squad.

------

SCOUTING THE SCOUT: Sweden has scouts who spy on the opposition, and Freddy Ljungberg interrogates the spy.

Swedish scout Thomas Lyth -- charged with getting the low down on Sweden's first opponent, Bulgaria -- has been getting the first degree from Arsenal's star midfielder.

"I ask the scout what kind of player I'll be facing in the match, whether he is right or left-footed, whether he dribbles or plays long or short passes," Ljungberg said. "All the basic stuff."

Ljungberg hopes to ready for Sweden's key opening match against the Bulgarians on Monday.

But all that cross-examination may be unnecessary.

"In the first 10 minutes of the game you pretty much learn how the player plays anyway," Ljungberg admitted.

------

BREATHE EASY: Portuguese Soccer Federation president Gilberto Madail, the mastermind behind Portugal hosting of Euro 2004, says he'll be a happy man when Euro 2004 kicks off. But he'll only be able to relax once it's over.

"Saturday will be the happiest day of my life. It's a magical date for me. It's the start of the tournament we've been fighting for during the past five years," Madail said Friday.

"I'll only be able to breathe a sigh of relief once the tournament's over. We're all very tense," he said.

------

HAM IT UP: During the World Cup two years ago, Spanish players slipped into South Korea with one of their favorite foods -- Jabugo ham. Korean health officials failed to detect the ham, which is high in protein but also carries bacteria.

The Koreans called it "Spanish ginseng."

This time, there is no problem getting the ham into Portugal, where it's also a favorite. Portugal borders some of Spain's top ham regions -- Huelva, Extremadura and Salamanca.

------

THE MAN: Fans will be able to go into the Euro 2004 Web site -- Euro2004.com -- and vote for the top player. In addition to fans, a panel of coaches will also vote. The panel include three coaches who won the European championship. The members are: Andy Roxburgh (Scotland), Jozef Venglos, (Czechoslovakia), Rinus Michels (Netherlands), Berti Vogts (Germany), Gerard Houllier (France), Roy Hodgson (England), Anghel Iordanescu (Romania), Gyorgy Mezey (Hungary) and Holger Osieck (Germany).

------

VASCO DA GAMA AND SOCCER: How's this for precision?

Each game ball in Euro 2004 will carry the precise latitude and longitude of the match, derived from the center spot on each playing field. UEFA included this piece of information to make a connection between Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama and the name of Adidas' new game ball. It's called "Roterio," which was the name of Vasco da Gama's logbook.

The personalized balls will also carry the names of the countries playing, the date and stadium name. Adidas will be supplying 20 personalized game balls for each match. In total, Adidas is producing 2,370 ball for use at the three-week tournament, most of which go to the teams for practice. ------

SCARCE TICKETS: Tickets are scarce for Euro 2004.

As play began Saturday, 26 of the 31 matches were sold out. That means of the 1.2 million tickets available, only 35,000 remained unsold, UEFA said.

The only tickets available in limited numbers were for the following game: Switzerland vs. Croatia, June 13, Leiria; Sweden vs. Bulgaria, June 14, Lisbon; Czech Republic vs. Latvia, June 15, Aveiro; Bulgaria vs. Denmark, June 18, Braga; Russia vs. Greece, June 20, Faro; Italy vs. Bulgaria, June 22 Guimaraes. ------

KNOW YOUR ANTHEMS: Of the teams playing in Euro 2004, the French and the British/English probably have the best-known national anthems -- "La Marseillaise" and "God Save the Queen." But some of the others are worth remembering:

-- Bulgaria -- Mila Rodino/Dear Motherland

-- Croatia -- Lijepa Nasa Domovino/Our Beautiful Homeland

-- Czech Republic -- Kde Domov Muj/Where is my Home?

-- Denmark Der er et Yndigt Land/There is a Lovely Land

-- Germany -- Das Lied der Deutschen/Song of the Germans

-- Greece -- Imnos pros tin Eleftherian/Hymm of Freedom

-- Italy -- Inno Di Mameli/Mameli's Hymn

-- Latvia -- Dievs, Sveti Latviju/God Bless Latvia

-- Netherlands -- Wilhelmus van Nassouwe/william of nassau

-- Portugal -- A Portugal/The Portuguese

-- Russia -- Gimn Rossiyskaya Federatsiya/Hymn of the Russian Federation

-- Spain -- March Real/Royal March

-- Sweden -- Du Gamla, Du Fria/Thou Ancient, Thou Free

-- Switzerland -- Schweizer Psalm/Swiss Psalm

Both the Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.