Perugia interested in signing Arsenal's Japanese midfielder Inamoto

World Cup Diary

* After refusing to take up an option on the South Korean Ahn Jung-Hwan following his winner against Italy, and then changing his mind, the Perugia president, Luciano Gaucci, has turned his attentions towards Japan's Junichi Inamoto. The midfielder will be released by Arsenal at the end of the month.

* Proving that Los Angeles has the largest Korean population outside Asia, more than 5,000 fans, wearing red, banging drums and waving South Korean flags, crowded into a Koreatown parking lot to see yesterday's semi-final, which started at 4.30am local time. "What they did brought the country together and put a spotlight on Korea," said one fan, the splendidly named Jimmy Bang. Others able to keep up with the game include North Korean soldiers. The South broadcast yesterday's defeat live to the North via a mammoth loudspeaker system from a military base about north of Seoul.

* The Germany midfielder Jens Jeremies found himself with a booking yesterday four days after his offence. Jeremies was given the yellow card shown to team-mate Oliver Neuville against the United States.