ITALY
ALE AND BOBBO SHOW. No team, not even Brazil, has the depth up front that Italy has. Coach Cesare Maldini could afford to pass over such players as Gianfranco Zola, hero of Chelsea's Cup Winners' Cup title, Pierluigi Casiraghi, whose goal qualified Italy for the World Cup, and rising star Francesco Totti for France '98. Veterans Roberto Baggio and Fabrizio Ravanelli find themselves taking a back seat to Alessandro ''Ale'' Del Piero (31 goals with Juventus in league and European play) and Christian ''Bobbo'' Vieri (29 goals in league and European play with Atletico Madrid).
THE MISSING TREQUARTISTA. Maldini's biggest concern since taking charge of the team has been the lack of depth in midfield. He's bemoaned the domination of foreign playmakers in the Italian league, leaving him with few options. Roberto Di Matteo, Demetrio Albertini and Dino Baggio are all hard-working midfielders, but he lacks what he calls, evoking a rugby term, a trequartista, a combination midfielder-forward.
LIKE FATHER, LIKE SON. Few coaches get the chance to coach their sons at a high level.
Maldini, a star in his own right for AC Milan in the '50s and '60s, will have the opportunity to coach his son, Paolo, in the World Cup, more than a decade after he helped launch Paolo's career with Italy's U-21 team.
''With the under-21s, the situation was embarrassing,'' Paolo recalls, ''because for better or worse there were always people willing to say that I was a favored son…''
No more: At the age of 29, he will be playing in his third straight World Cup, having started every game in 1990 and '94.
Italy in brief
World Cup appearances: 13. Best finish: Champion (1934, 1938, 1982). Record (W-T-L): 35-14-12. How it qualified: Europe – England 1-0, 0-0, Poland 0-0, 3-0, Georgia 1-0, 0-0, Moldova 3-1, 3-0; Russia 1-1, 1-0 (wins playoff).
CHILE
THE ZA-SA SHOW. The Chileans feature one of the top one-two combinations in Ivan ''Bam-Bam'' Zamorano and Marcelo ''The Matador'' Salas. The two players combined for 23 of Chile's 32 goals, tops in South American qualifying. Ironically, the ''Za-Sa'' partnership was used in just six of Chile's 16 games. Zamorano, in particular, has battled injuries the last two years.
A MATTER OF RESPECT. ''Italians should respect Chile,'' Zamorano said recently. Chile's record in the World Cup finals leaves a lot to be desired – no wins since the '62 finals it hosted and no appearance since losing all three games at the '82 finals – but one team Italians – especially the sensational Italian media – won't forget is Chile.
Chile won ''the Battle of Santiago,'' 2-0 effectively knocking the Italians out of the tournament.
PROMISE KEPT. After coming within a minute of losing to perennial South American doormat Venezuela in its opening game during qualifying, Chile fired Spaniard Xavier Azkargorta and replaced him with Uruguayan transplant Nelson Acosta.
Acosta's promise: ''We will qualify for the World Cup,'' he wrote on a piece of paper and signed it.
That Acosta was able to keep his promise is amazing considering his team's poor record on the road. La Roja is the only team in the finals that did not win at least one game on the road in qualifying (four ties and four losses in eight games).
Chile in brief
World Cup appearances: 6. Best finish: runner-up (1962). Record (W-T-L): 7-3-11. How it qualified: South America – Venezuela 1-1, 6-0, Ecuador 4-1, 1-1, Colombia 1-4, 4-1, Paraguay 1-2, 2-1, Uruguay 1-0, 0-1, Argentina 1-1, 1-2, Peru 1-2, 4-0, Bolivia 1-1, 3-0 (fourth place).
CAMEROON
THE LION KING. It was a tad strange that the Cameroonian federation would stress patriotism to its players and coaches in its effort to rally the troops and then go out and hire a Frenchman, Claude Le Roy, to coach the World Cup team.
But a foreigner in charge of the Indomitable Lions is nothing new. Frenchmen Jean Vincent and Henri Michel coached Cameroon in 1982 and 1994 and Ukrainian Valeri Nepomniachi was at the helm when the Lions reached the quarterfinals in '90.
Le Roy was an obvious choice to replace Cameroonian Jean Manga Onguene. He had coached Cameroon to back-to-back African Nations Cup finals in 1986 and 1988. In recent years, he worked as a TV commentator and columnist before accepting a front-office position this past season at Paris St. Germain.
RUSH JOB. Le Roy will have had just 72 days between his appointment and the Lions' opener against Austria in Toulouse.
Complicating matters is the fact that he had to assemble his team from around the world. The 30-man squad he brought together in mid-May on the island of Corsica included players competing in 12 countries besides Cameroon.
The Lions are the youngest team in the tournament. They suffered a major blow when Marc-Vivien Foe, a star at French champion Lens, was lost with a broken leg.
SONG OF HOPE. Rigobert Song was the youngest player at the '94 World Cup.
Now 21, he has developed into one of the classiest young defenders in the world.
He'll have his work cut out playing behind a midfield that could include as many as three teenagers.
Cameroon in brief
World Cup appearances: 3. Best finish: Quarterfinals (1990). Record (W-T-L): 3-4-4. How it qualified: Africa – Togo 4-2, 2-0, Angola 0-0, 1-1, Zimbabwe 1-0, 2-1 (Group 4 champion).
AUSTRIA
NO WUNDERTEAM. There was a time when Austria was a world power.
Hugo Meisl's great team of the '30s was called the Wunderteam.
It finished fourth at the 1934 World Cup and qualified for the '38 finals only to be broken up by the German Anschuss on the eve of the finals.
Sixty years later, Austria finally gets to play in a World Cup in France. Only this time, it is a decided outsider.
Coach Herbert Prohaska likes the position, noting the success of Sweden and Bulgaria at USA '94 and the Czech Republic at Euro '96.
''Those teams were so strong because no one was expecting them to do well,'' Prohaska. ''We have no pressure on us either.''
CONFIDENCE-BUILDER. There's surely no pressure on the Austrians after April 22 at the Ernst Happel Stadium. Claudio Reyna and company didn't just beat them, they embarrassed them.
Austrian confidence was left reeling by the 3-0 loss to the United States, but Prohaska hasn't given up hope.
He purposely scheduled tiny Liechtenstein for Austria's final warmup June 3 in order to ensure his players got a boost just before the finals.
''This may make some people smile,'' he said, ''but Liechtenstein is the ideal opponent to lift my players' confidence.''
SHADES OF '78? Prohaska starred on the Austrian team that reached the second round of the '78 and '82 finals.
He likens current stars Toni Polster and Andy Herzog to Hans Krankl and himself.
''Herzog and Polster could be the force myself and Hans Krankl were in 1978,'' Prohaska says in reference to the tournament at which Austria upset archrival West Germany.
Herzog and the aging Polster will have to come up big. As demonstrated against the United States, Prohaska has little else to work with.
Austria in brief
World Cup appearances: 6. Best finish: Third place (1954). Record (W-T-L): 26-12-2. How it qualified: Europe – Scotland 0-0, 0-2, Sweden 1-0, 1-0, Latvia 2-1, 3-1, Estonia 2-0, 3-0, Belarus 1-0, 4-0 (Group 4 champion).