In the hot, smoky atmosphere of Moscow's Metelitsa cafe, financial gain took precedence over national pride Tuesday night, as the bets piled up on Cameroon before their 6-1 trouncing by Russia in the World Cup.


Martin Blackburn, the British manager of the Metelitsa, said Wednesday that large numbers of Russians and foreigners came regularly to his cafe to watch the late night World Cup games on its three-meter television screen. About 100 had turned up for the Russia-Cameroon match.


"Most of them put their money on Cameroon," he said. "They were disappointed when Russia started to win."


World Cup betting has become popular in plenty of other places around the capital. A Russian businessman who asked not to be named said he and a group of friends would go to various nightclubs to watch the games and lay $100 dollar bets on the outcome.


Another way was for the loser to pay the penalty by "setting the restaurant table with vodka and caviar."


But he had been unimpressed by Russia's performance against Cameroon. "The Russians play as though they're afraid of something," was his rather ungenerous observation.


Students at Moscow Technical University -- the former Bauman institute -- took a more wholesome patriotic attitude to the match. Fifth-year student Oleg Akhundov said about 2,500 students stayed up to watch the game in his hostel, shouting and cheering out of the windows after every goal.


"None of us got any sleep last night," he said. "Everyone believes Russia will win the championship!"


But his optimism was not reflected elsewhere. Yury Zuyev, deputy director of the Borets engineering plant, said he had discussed the result with workers at the factory Wednesday and most of them had felt gloomy about it.


"It's too late for our team to start playing well," he said. "Few people believe that they can keep up the fight."


As for Alexander Cherednyakov of the Moscow police, he had not even bothered to stay up to watch the match, because he had not thought the Russians stood a chance.


He confirmed earlier reports that crime in Moscow had gone down slightly since the start of the competition, with a drop of 6.8 percent in recorded incidents. "Our criminals are big soccer fans, too," he said.