World Sports Scene / Randy Harvey : U.S. Soccer Team Must Qualify on Real Grass
The U.S. soccer team, which needs a victory here today against Guatemala after a sputtering start in its attempt to qualify for the 1990 World Cup, might have gained the confidence it lacked by winning the Marlboro Cup of New York, which actually was held in New Jersey.
Then again, the victories over Benfica of Portugal and Peru’s National team two weeks ago might have had less to do with the U.S. team’s skill than its home-field advantage. The field at the Meadowlands was covered with artificial turf, which is foreign to virtually every team outside North America.
Peru’s coach, Pepe Macias, complimented the United States after its 3-0 victory, specifically mentioning its malicia .
Malicia , which means cleverness or trickiness with the ball, is a word not often used in connection with the U.S. team, but perhaps it will become one with the continued improvement of midfielder Tab Ramos, 22, of Hillside, N.J., and the addition of swift midfielder Philip Gyau from the Baltimore Bays of the American Soccer League.
That aside, Macias said: “Our biggest problem was the field. I’d like to see how good they play on a regular field.”
The next opportunity for that will be against Guatemala at New Britain’s Veterans Memorial Stadium in the fourth of eight World Cup qualifying matches. Of the five teams in the tournament, the two with the best records at the end of the year advance to the 1990 World Cup tournament in Italy.
With a 1-1-1 record, the United States likely will have to win its two remaining home games to remain in contention. But unlike the Marlboro Cup, which does not count in the standings, World Cup qualifying matches must be played on natural turf.
Costa Rica, which split with the United States, leads the qualifying tournament with a 3-2-1 record after winning its most recent game, 1-0, at home last Sunday against Trinidad and Tobago. Those teams had earlier tied, 1-1. Trinidad and Tobago has a 0-1-2 mark, and Guatemala is 1-1.
Yuri Vlasov, who stunned the Soviet Union’s Congress of People’s Deputies earlier this month with his impassioned attack on the KGB, won a gold medal in the 1960 Summer Olympics at Rome as a super-heavyweight weightlifter, breaking Paul Anderson’s world records for the jerk and total lift in the process.
Four years later, in the Summer Olympics at Tokyo, Vlasov displayed the idealism that 25 years later would move him, as a deputy representing Moscow, to confront one of the world’s most powerful secret police organizations.
According to David Wallechinsky’s “The Complete Book of the Olympics,” Vlasov was the victim of a dishonest trick, having been lulled into a false sense of security when his Soviet teammate, Leonid Zhabotinsky, made believe he was conceding defeat. Thirty minutes later, Zhabotinsky broke Vlasov’s world record on his final attempt and won the gold medal.
“I was choked with tears,” Vlasov wrote later. “I flung the silver medal through the window. . . . I had always revered the purity, the impartiality of contests of strength. That night, I understood that there is a kind of strength that has nothing to do with justice.”
In recent years, Vlasov, 53, has been an outspoken critic of the Soviet sports bureaucracy. He wrote an article last year accusing sports officials of ignoring the use of anabolic steroids, amphetamines and other performance-enhancing substances.
Even though Ben Johnson completed his testimony this week, the Canadian government’s inquiry into drug use by athletes continues at Toronto.
The Canadian Track and Field Assn. has been severely criticized during the inquiry, but there was evidence that its new random, out-of-competition drug testing program works when it was revealed that Canadian high hurdler Julie Rocheleau, who finished sixth in the Seoul Olympics, tested positive last month for an anabolic steroid, stanozolol. That is the same steroid discovered in Johnson’s system at Seoul.
“How could Julie be so stupid?” asked Angella Taylor Issajenko, who has admitted her own steroid use in testimony at the inquiry.
Dr. Robert Kerr of San Gabriel, called a “steroid guru” by Issajenko, is expected to be on the witness stand Monday.
He has admitted to treating hundreds of athletes with performance-enhancing drugs, including anabolic steroids. But he said he quit the practice in 1984, when he discovered that many athletes were supplementing his treatment with drugs bought on the black market.
Now that Johnson has admitted taking steroids within a few months of setting the world record of 9.83 seconds in the 100 meters at the 1987 World Championships, International Amateur Athletic Federation officials plan to meet with attorneys at London next week to explore the propriety of removing his name from the record book.
“Those hard-liners are seemingly gaining increased support,” IAAF vice president Arne Ljungqvist told the Toronto Sun.
The IAAF, which governs track and field, may call a special congress of its members next month to deal with the issue. If Johnson loses the record, it likely will be passed on to Carl Lewis. He ran 9.92 at Seoul in finishing second to Johnson, who won in 9.79 but was disqualified.
Once again, it has been proved that the United States no longer can throw together a team of college basketball players and automatically beat any other team in the world.
Playing in a World Championship qualifying tournament at Mexico City, the U.S. team, which had been selected only a few days before, lost in the opening game to the Dominican Republic, 116-108.
The United States rebounded to win its next four games, struggling in a three-point victory over Cuba, and earned one of eight berths in the playoffs, which it opened Thursday night with a 75-73 victory over Canada.
Five teams advance to the World Championships in August of 1991 at Buenos Aires, Argentina. National Basketball Assn. players will be eligible for that tournament.
International Notes
Mary Decker Slaney withdrew from last Saturday’s McDonald’s Jackie Joyner-Kersee Invitational at UCLA’s Drake Stadium after undergoing arthroscopic surgery the week before on her Achilles tendon. Her coach, Bill Dellinger, said she plans to compete again before the end of the summer. . . The Forum will be the site of the last game for Karch Kiraly and Steve Timmons with the U.S. volleyball team. The USA Cup, involving the 1988 Summer Olympic gold, silver and bronze medalists--the United States, Soviet Union and Brazil, respectively--and South Korea, begins June 27 at Seattle, moves to San Francisco the next day, to UC Irvine’s Bren Center June 30, and ends with the final July 1 at the Forum. Kiraly and Timmons have announced that they will retire from international competition after the USA Cup.
Arie Selinger, who coached the U.S. women to a silver medal in volleyball at the 1984 Summer Olympics, has left the Dutch men’s national team and moved to a Japanese club team. . . The Chinese Olympic Commitee, in a letter to the Olympic Council of Asia, said that Beijing will continue its preparations to stage the 1990 Asian Games despite the tumoil there. . . The U.S. Olympic Committee has established a Winter International Sports Festival, awarding the first one to Lake Placid, N.Y., in 1991. It will include biathlon, bobsled, figure skating, freestyle skiing, ice hockey, speed skating and Alpine skiing.
