The U.S. men's soccer team has taken up residence in the Giants' clubhouse.
But Barry Bonds' corner Barcalounger is off limits, a security guard assured, as is something else that belongs to the third-leading home run hitter in major-league history.

"I'm just staying away from his medicine cabinet," U.S. midfielder Landon Donovan said with a sly grin.
The Americans, though, have the run of the rest of SBC Park in anticipation of tonight's friendly match against Japan.

"Japan has a good team - some young, exciting and attacking players - and it should be a fun game," U.S. coach Bruce Arena said. "I'm looking for a good game, a challenging game for our players, which I think we need. And if that's the case, it's going to certainly help me to evaluate some of our players."

The United States, which, with CONCACAF rival Mexico, is tied for seventh in the latest FIFA world rankings, already has played Canada to a scoreless draw and beat Norway 5-0 in the past month, thanks in part to a hat trick by forward Taylor Twellman, as part of preparation of this summer's World Cup in Germany.

The U.S. also will meet Guatemala in Frisco, Texas, on Feb. 19, Poland in Kaiserslautern, Germany, on March 1 and the World Cup host in Dortmund, Germany on March 22. Arena also said the U.S. plans to play three stateside exhibitions in May before he selects his 23-man roster.

Japan, ranked 15th, last played Nov. 16, beating Angola 1-0 in Tokyo.

The Americans and Japanese last met in the 2000 Olympics in Australia, the U.S. prevailing 5-4 on penalty kicks after a 2-2 draw.

"It was a fun game, a super-exciting game in a great little stadium, and they were a good team," Donovan said. "By all accounts, they could have been the champions ... we happened to squeak by them."

And they did not need the amenities of a medicine cabinet, either.

Puma AG, Europe's second-largest sporting-goods maker, raised its earnings and revenue forecasts for 2006 because of better-than-expected sales tied to the World Cup soccer tournament and U.S. demand. The shares surged.

Net income will drop 10 percent to 15 percent this year because of investments in new products, Chief Executive Jochen Zeitz told journalists in Nuremberg, Germany. Puma previously predicted a decline of 20 percent. Sales will climb 30 percent to 2.3 billion euros, aided by the purchase of license partners.

European orders at Puma benefited from World Cup-inspired demand for goods such as fashion-designed Italian national team jerseys and the v1.06 soccer collection. Zeitz aims to capitalize on the tournament, starting in Germany on June 9, to win market share from larger rivals Nike Inc. and Adidas-Salomon AG.

``Order backlog is much higher than what we were expecting and shows that the Puma story has a way to run yet,'' said Mark Josefson, an analyst at Kepler Equities in Frankfurt, who recommends that investors buy Puma stock.

Puma's order backlog was up 30 percent at the end of the quarter, or 17 percent excluding the acquisition of license partners. In Europe, orders rose 3.5 percent with better-than- expected spending ahead of the tournament. Orders climbed 64 percent in North America, where demand has risen among young consumers for Future Cat and Alpine Trail Racer sneakers.

Doubled Dividend

The stock jumped as much as 24.75 euros, or 9.2 percent, to 293 euros. They traded at 292.05 euros as of 1:15 p.m. in Frankfurt, bringing the gain in the last six months to 35 percent. That compares to a 13 percent advance for Adidas in that period and Nike's increase of 1.4 percent.

Zeitz said the company plans to double its dividend to 2 euros a share from 1 euro.

Fourth-quarter net income advanced 15 percent to 44.1 million euros, more than the 35 million euros expected by analysts surveyed by Bloomberg. Sales rose 28 percent to 349.2 million euros. Analysts had expected 300 million euros.

The latest quarterly profit gain was the 22nd in a row for the company. Zeitz, who has compared Herzogenaurach, Germany-based Puma's brand to those of Apple Computer Inc. and Viacom Inc.'s MTV, has almost quadrupled sales in five years by drawing fashion- conscious consumers to designs inspired by the 1970s.

New Fashions

Puma, known for its leaping-cat logo, last year unveiled plans to invest in areas such as soccer and golf to tap 3.5 billion euros in potential sales over five years. The company plans to spend about 500 million euros worth of funds on fashion items such as golf shoes designed with Swedish clothier J. Lindeberg.

Zeitz cited positive reactions from retailers for the company's new golf line, which will reach stores in a few weeks.

For the monthlong World Cup, Puma has sought to stand out from Nike and Adidas by becoming the jersey supplier for lesser- known countries such as Ghana. The company's Italy jersey was fashioned by designer Neil Barrett.

Zeitz has said marketing spending in the World Cup year, which made up between 14 percent and 15 percent of sales in 2005, will rise ``significantly'' in 2006. Sales costs will advance by 3 percentage points in this year, he said in an interview.

Further investment may take the form of buying non-Puma brands, though no potential target has emerged that fits the company's criteria, Zeitz said. Puma is acquiring licensing partners such as Canadian distributor ATA Inc., which it agreed to buy earlier this week.

Operating profit will amount to 350 million euros from an earlier forecast of 300 to 330 million euros, still down 398 million euros in 2005 because of further brand investment.

Puma shares rose 23 percent in the three months through January on speculation the company's main investors, billionaire siblings Guenter and Daniela Herz, would make an offer. The Herz investment fund denied the speculation.

Zeitz confirmed today that Guenter Herz is seeking a position on the company's supervisory board.

Matt Barrelle has gone from kicking a ball on Bondi Beach to producing the biggest feature film yet about soccer.

After watching Brazil beat England in the 2002 World Cup, Barrelle and an English friend, Mike Jefferies, decided to ditch everything to make a movie about the romance of football.

"At that point, we thought, 'Where is Rocky in soccer boots?' - we have got to make this film," Barrelle said during a brief visit to Sydney yesterday.

"So we camped out in Hollywood, and annoyed people to tears for two years, trying to convince the big studios the world needed a big story about football."

The pair ended up convincing a galaxy of football stars to join the cast, including David Beckham - in his first speaking role in a feature film - Ronaldo, Zinedine Zidane and former England captain Alan Shearer.

The finished product is called Goal!, the first in what Barrelle describes as a "rags to riches" trilogy about a Latin American teenager, played by Mexican actor Kuno Becker, plucked from the streets to become a professional footballer in Europe.

It includes cameo appearances by AC/DC guitarist Angus Young - as a Newcastle United football fan - and the actor and part-owner of Sydney FC Anthony LaPaglia, who also had a role in casting Becker, Barrelle said.

"As part of his trial, Kuno was asked to play with Hollywood United, a team LaPaglia plays in in Los Angeles with the film's director Danny Cameron and [singer] Robbie Williams," Barrelle said. "He scored a winner past LaPaglia - and at that point he said, 'get that guy on'."

Becker tells a different version of his on-field casting. "They just said I wasn't good enough," he joked yesterday. "They kept casting new people and I think they hated me." But, after weeks of gruelling training with a coach, Becker made the grade, although he had both ankles and his nose broken during filming.

"The guys I was playing with in the film are serious professionals. I am not a football player. They were great guys, but very tough," said Becker, who gave up a promising career as a violinist to take up acting 10 years ago.

The final part of the Goal! trilogy will be shot at the World Cup in Germany this year. Unprecedented co-operation from FIFA, the sport's governing body, has allowed the filmmakers intimate access to the professional football world.

"It has just opened the doors of authenticity, using real teams, real clubs, real players and real stadiums, and once we had that you can really get an insight into that life," Barrelle said.

He has also made it a personal mission to include the Socceroos in the third film.