PASADENA, California -- Romario, scorer of Brazil's late semifinal winner against Sweden, sees Sunday's World Cup final as the perfect stage for a duel between himself and Roberto Baggio to find the game's top striker.


"We have both shown that we are capable of scoring important goals for our teams," he said Wednesday after Brazil had beaten Sweden 1-0.


Earlier, Baggio had struck two superb goals in Italy's 2-1 semifinal victory over Bulgaria.


"I'm sure that the team which wins the final will be the one which has the best player in the competition," said Romario.


Both players have scored five goals in the tournament, one behind Bulgarian Hristo Stoichkov and Igor Salenko of Russia who scored five of his goals in one game against Cameroon.


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A Thai football fan in hospital with two broken arms got a bit carried away when Italy scored a goal in a recent World Cup match. He broke into wild applause -- and re-broke his arms.


The fan, who had been injured in a car accident, had completed his treatment and was about to be discharged when he watched Italy beat Spain in their quarterfinal match last Saturday, his doctor told the Bangkok Post in a report published on Thursday.


"The match was so exciting and when Roberto Baggio scored the last goal the man forgot himself and clapped his hands together very hard," the doctor said. "The result is he has to stay on in hospital for another two weeks while his arms heal all over again."


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Death marred Italy's victory celebrations when a man who was hanging out of a car waving and screaming after the win over Bulgaria lost his balance, fell to the ground and was run over by another vehicle Thursday.


Within minutes of the final whistle youths took to their motor bikes and cars, riding around in circles -- "carousels," as those motorized soccer celebrations are called.


Police said Gaetano Diomede, 30, was among those zipping around crazily with his friends in the southern city of Bari when he fell from the car and was run over by the vehicle behind. He died while being taken to a hospital.


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Diego Maradona, still angry and depressed about being thrown out of the World Cup for drugs, has stopped watching soccer altogether.


"As far as I'm concerned, soccer has come to an end," the disgraced Argentinian said Tuesday. "I can't stand watching it and I don't even want to play anymore."


FIFA, soccer's governing body, kicked Maradona out of the finals after a doping test showed traces of performance-enhancing drugs in his urine.


(Reuters, AP)