Portugal held by Ivory Coast

It was a frustrating game for Cristiano Ronaldo, centre, against the Ivory Coast.

JOHANNESBURG // Neither the globe's most expensive soccer player nor one of its most prolific marksmen were able tonight to remedy a worrying shortage of goals at Africa's first World Cup. Both $123.7 million (Dh454m) striker Cristiano Ronaldo and goal machine Didier Drogba drew blanks when Portugal and Ivory Coast played out a goalless Group G encounter to add to the paucity of goals in South Africa so far.

After 13 matches the net has bulged just 20 times, an average of 1.54 per game - way below the 2.30 average for the whole of Germany 2006 and higher figures in previous years. Portugal's Ronaldo came closest when he hit the post in Port Elizabeth with a thundering long range shot and Drogba came on as a second-half substitute for the Ivory Coast despite a fractured arm.

Portugal coach Carlos Queiroz questioned Fifa's decision to let Drogba play wearing a cast on his broken arm while others are kept off the pitch for wearing string bracelets. Drogba, who fractured his forearm just before the tournament, appeared as a 66th minute substitute for the Elephants wearing a Fifa approved plastic cast. But his appearance did not sit well with Queiroz, who hinted Fifa may have broken their own guidelines.

"This was bit odd as far as we are concerned because there are rules and regulations," Queiroz told reporters after the match. "For example sometimes players cannot play with a string bracelet or a plaster and all of a sudden a player has fractured his arm and he could put at risk the Portuguese players with such a situation.

"The solution that was presented at the (Fifa) meeting wasn't perhaps one which we knew about so when it is said the referee's decision is final and then Drogba, an African football star, is to play I'd like to know if all the rules are the same for everybody. "So if you cannot play with a simple little string bracelet and somebody can play as Drogba did that is perhaps a bit unusual." The day's earlier match produced only two goals when Slovakia and New Zealand drew 1-1 in a Group F game.

That clash of the outsiders in Rustenburg gave each their first points in a World Cup as cold temperatures and pouring rain hit the only winter edition of the tournament since 1978, even extending to the tropical port of Durban. Only the German side has shown real World Cup class so far with a 4-0 drubbing of Australia on Sunday that will have surely struck fear into their big name rivals. While South Africans continue to exude pride and excitement at hosting the tournament, there was tragic news from elsewhere on the continent.

Residents of anarchic Somalia said Islamic militants had killed two people and arrested 35 for breaking their strict ban on watching the tournament on television.

* Reuters