Word: cupful
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...Modena baker, himself an amateur opera singer, the young Pavarotti grew up dreaming instead of a career as a soccer player. Decades later, he would sing his signature tune Nessun Dorma at the inauguration of the 1990 World Cup in Italy, which by many accounts may have been his most widely seen peformance by hundreds of millions of television viewers. His last major appearance was singing at the opening ceremonies of the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin...
...With a population of just over 4 million, New Zealand has long punched above its sporting weight. Over the years, it has spawned the world's best miler (John Walker), one of cricket's greatest fast bowlers (Richard Hadlee) and yachtsmen skilled enough to win the America's Cup twice. While all of these men knew how it felt to compete under a nation's expectation, the All Blacks are a case apart. Failure has never been an option for them. Their hardheaded coach Graham Henry sounds positively Nietzschean when he declares: "The success of our rugby team is important...
...when they don't win? It's not pretty. John Hart had the misfortune of being the All Blacks coach when they were overwhelmed by France in their World Cup semifinal at Twickenham, England, in 1999. In the weeks afterward, he was vilified on New Zealand talk-back radio and spat on by patrons at an Auckland racetrack. Four years later, the All Blacks lost another semifinal 22-10 to Australia in Sydney. The coach that night, John Mitchell, was sacked, and now coaches in Australia. He declined to be interviewed by TIME on the All Blacks. "He baulks...
...Mitchell is a casualty of a failure that drives his country mad. For generations, the All Blacks have been the world's outstanding team, with a 75% win record against all rugby-playing nations, many of which have never beaten them. Yet the first Cup, of 1987, is the only one they have won. They're the rugby equivalent of Sergei Bubka, the Ukrainian pole vaulter who broke 35 vaulting world records but won only one Olympic medal...
...truth is we do tend to fall over and we're sick of it," said former All Black great Frank Bunce on the eve of the sixth World Cup, which began on Sept. 7 and climaxes at Paris' Stade de France on Oct. 20. The World Cup is the big profit-turning event (the previous one made $37 million for hosts Australia) for a game that was played for love until turning professional in 1995. Since that time, players have grown not only richer but a whole lot bigger and faster. While that may sound like progress, the game...