ARGENTINA
ON A ROLL. The hot pick at the moment to win the World Cup is Argentina.
After a slow start in the marathon South American qualifying tournament, Daniel Passarella's team finished strong, winning five straight at one point to clinch its seventh consecutive berth in the finals.
It's won all but one of its warmup games this year, including a 1-0 victory over Brazil in Rio de Janeiro.
With the exception of the goalkeeping position, where Passarella used six players during qualifying, he has a solid team.
Passarella, who captained Argentina to the 1978 World Cup title, isn't predicting a victory, but he is optimistic about his team's chances.
''We can go all the way to the final in Paris,'' he says.
OLYMPIC GENERATION. The core of Passarella's team is the group he took to the '96 Olympics as U-23 players, where Argentina was upset by Nigeria in the gold-medal game. He's had defenders Roberto Ayala, Pablo Paz and Javier Zanetti, midfielders Matias Almeyda, Ariel Ortega, Marcelo Gallardo and Juan Sebastien Veron and strikers Hernan Crespo, Claudio Lopez and Marcelo Delgado together for almost three years.
REVENGE FACTOR. Only a few players remain from the '94 World Cup team, but they will be out for revenge.
Argentina looked like the team to beat early in USA '94, but it collapsed after star Diego Maradona was kicked out of the tournment for testing positive to a banned substance.
Argentina in Brief
World Cup appearances: 11. Best finish: Champion (1978, 1986). Record (W-T-L): 26-9-17. How it qualified: South America – Bolivia 3-1, 1-2, Ecuador 0-2, 2-1, Peru 0-0, 2-0, Paraguay 1-1, 2-1, Venezuela 5-2, 2-0, Chile 1-1, 2-1, Uruguay 0-0, 0-0, Colombia 1-0, 1-1 (champion).
JAPAN
KING KAZU FALLS. First, Hideo Nomo was waived by the Dodgers. Then Kazu Miura is left off the World Cup team.
Within 24 hours, Japan was shaken by the fall of two of its biggest sports stars.
Miura was dropped by Japanese coach Takeshi Okada hours before he was supposed to submit his final roster to FIFA.
Okada had hinted this spring that, after a string of poor performances, Miura might not go, but the 31-year-old Verdy Kawasaki star had scored a hat trick against a Swiss club the day before he was dropped.
''Kazu has no place this time in my game plans for our World Cup,'' Okada insisted. ''I couldn't find a place for him even when thinking about the possibility of him being a substitute.''
The decision stunned Miura.
''He appeared much more shocked than I'd imagined at being told to leave,'' Okada told a packed news conference at Japan's training headquarters in Switzerland.
With 54 goals in 86 international games – including 15 in Japan's successful bid to qualify for the World Cup – Miura was known as ''King Kazu.''
ACCENT ON YOUTH. Okada's decision to drop Miura underscores Japan's emphasis on preparing for the 2002 World Cup.
Only two players expected to start – defender Masami Ihara and striker Masashi Nakayama – are 30 or older.
Okada has built the team around rising star Hidetoshi Nakata, 21.
He's even brought in 18-year-old Shinji Ono, who debuted in the J-League this spring and has been dubbed ''super-rookie'' by the Japanese media.
WORLD CUP FEVER. Despite the ailing economy and the struggling J-League, soccer is big in Japan – World Cup soccer, that is.
Japan's first appearance in the finals has touched off a wave of commercial ventures surrounding the World Cup.
More than 65,000 fans entered a lottery for 3,500 pairs of tickets to Japan's three first-round games.
As many as 20,000 Japanese fans, led by the ''Ultra Nippon'' supporters, could go to France for the finals.
Japan in Brief
World Cup appearances: 0. How it qualified: Asia – Oman 1-0, 1-1, Macao 10-0, 10-0, Nepal 6-0, 3-0; Uzbekistan 6-3, 1-1, UAE 0-0, 1-1, South Korea 1-2, 2-0, Kazakhstan 1-1, 5-1; Iran 3-2 (won playoff).
JAMAICA
SURPRISE POTENTIAL. Jamaica has been a team that has surprised for two years now.
No one figured it would get to CONCACAF's Hexagonal, and it won its first-round group, ahead of Mexico. After Mexico got revenge, embarrassing the Reggae Boyz early in the Hexagonal, no one figured they would finish in the top three.
Jamaica finished with four wins and two ties to become the first English-speaking country from the Caribbean to reach the World Cup finals.
Now, too, little is expected of Jamaica.
The Reggae Boyz are capable of surprising in France, though. It was their good fortune to be placed in a group where three of the teams are making their World Cup debuts. Secondly, Rene Simoes has demonstrated an ability to organize a tight defense that gives the opposition few chances.
'BOOPSY' BARRETT. Lost amid all the talk about Jamaica's English imports has been the steady play of goalie Warren Barrett.
''Boopsy,'' as he's known, is the second-oldest serving player on the Jamaican team, behind Peter Cargill, and his steady play in goal was a major reason Jamaica finished third in CONCACAF's Hexagonal.
Barrett's play at the Gold Cup was only slightly less spectacular than that of Kasey Keller. He held Brazil to one goal in two games.
COLLEGE CONNECTION. Jamaica has two New England college products in its team.
Andrew Williams was probably the top player in the country at University of Rhode Island. Dean Sewell was a star at Division II power New Hampshire College.
Jamaica in Brief
World Cup appearances: 0. How it qualified: CONCACAF – Suriname 1-0, 1-0; Barbados 1-0, 2-0; Honduras 3-0, 0-0, St. Vincent & Grenadines 2-1, 5-0, Mexico 1-2, 1-0; USA 0-0, 1-1, Mexico 0-6, 0-0, Canada 0-0, 1-0; Costa Rica 1-3, 1-0; El Salvador 1-0, 2-2 (third place).
CROATIA
A TEAM OF THEIR OWN. Croatia burst on the scene at the 1996 European Championship when it reached the quarterfinals.
Croats for a long time played a major role in Yugoslavia's international success, and they finally had a team of their own after the breakup of Yugoslavia in the early '90s.
Nationalism plays a major role in the Croatian team. President Franjo Tudjman is the team's biggest supporter.
English-based defender Slaven Bilic describes the campaign for international respectability at Euro '96 in military terms.
''You had to be a soldier,'' he says. ''We were all soldiers then. Now it is different, we are a stable country and a normal country just like England is.''
LACK OF FORM. Croatia doesn't come into the finals in the best of shape. Earlier this year, coach Miroslav Blazevic predicted a France-Croatia final, but the way things have been going recently, he'll probably settle on making sure Croatia gets out of the first round.
Striker Alen Boksic is out with a knee injury. Davor Suker spent much of the season on the bench at Real Madrid. Playmaker Robert Prosinecki was on the injury list much of the spring.
SUSPECT DEFENSE. Blazevic's biggest problem area is defense. The three goalies he used in qualifying gave up 12 goals in their first eight games.
Age is also a factor. Sweeper Goran Juric is 35. His backup, 34-year-old Nicola Jerkan, didn't survive the cut.
Croatia in Brief
World Cup appearances: 0. How it qualified: Europe – Bosnia-Herzegovina 4-1, 3-2, Greece 1-1, 1-0, Denmark 1-1, 1-3, Slovenia 3-3, 3-1; Ukraine 2-0, 1-1 (won playoff).