Again, the Madness.(World Cup soccer fever)(Brief Article)

Maria Luz Garcia faced a quandary on the first weekend of this year's World Cup soccer tournament. The 30-year-old Argentine homemaker had planned a party for her daughter's first birthday, but because of the time difference between Argentina and Japan, the team's first match would air in Buenos Aires at 2:30 in the morning. Garcia and her husband feared that many of their relatives would skip the birthday festivities after staying up all night to watch their idols. What to do? Some of Maria Luz's kinsmen solved the problem. They agreed to turn up on one condition: they would all watch the game at the Garcias' apartment, sleep in their cramped living room afterward and then arise around noon on Sunday to celebrate the birthday. "I had no other choice," says Garcia, who handed out sheets and blankets for the impromptu pajama party after Argentina defeated Nigeria, 1-0. "Many of my relatives wouldn't have come otherwise."

For hundreds of millions of diehard football fans, the world stops when the World Cup starts. The 2002 edition of the tourney is upholding that tradition nicely--but some Latin American countries are paying a price. Because of the 12- to 14-hour time differences between the Far East and the Western Hemisphere, most matches begin in the wee hours of morning and end before normal breakfast hours. The result is a tired, bleary- eyed work force. Some experts are predicting a 10 to 20 percent drop in man-hours worked from Tijuana to Tierra del Fuego throughout the month of June. World Cup madness can put even the most amorous of relationships to a severe test. Onaicram Loures, a 35-year-old lawyer in Rio de Janeiro, has been watching as many games as humanly possible since the tournament began--even if that means getting up at 3 a.m. on the weekends and incurring his girlfriend's wrath. "She opens one eye and grumbles," shrugs Loures. "She woke up during the Argentina-Nigeria game and asked me, 'Are you still watching that?' I told her this was only the first game, there are two more to go."

Many businessmen, senior bureaucrats and restaurateurs are bowing to the inevitable and adjusting business hours to accommodate the inconvenient broadcast schedules. Students and government employees throughout Argentina were given special ...