Voodoo soccer doll

A Mexican newspaper has kicked off a campaign encouraging soccer fans to cast a voodoo hex on the U.S. national team with a new U.S.-based co-sponsor: Blockbuster Inc. Readers of the Record newspaper began trading in coupons on Friday for voodoo-doll likenesses of U.S. soccer players in Blockbuster stores in Mexico City.

Accompanying instructions direct fans to grasp a doll, close their eyes and wish for a Mexico goal when they played the U.S. in World Cup qualifying on Wednesday.

"Hold a needle firmly between your thumb and index finger and prick slowly the part of the doll's body where you want to affect the opponent," the instructions read.

Record calls the voodoo dolls "the secret weapon of the 'Tri,'" as Mexico's national soccer team is commonly known.

Electronics retailer RadioShack of Forth Worth, Texas, backed off as a potential distribution partner last week after learning details of the campaign.

But Record merely had to look across town to Dallas to find another co-sponsor, DVD and video game rental chain Blockbuster. A phone message left with the company's public relations office was not immediately returned Friday afternoon.

Record spokesman Daniel Paz said the promotion is lighthearted and intended in fun, without any malice toward Mexico's regional rival. The "Tri" have not beaten the Americans on U.S. soil in 10 years.

The US won 2-0