Three World Cup Soccer Teams to Play in Tournament at Coliseum

Three World Cup soccer teams will play in the Marlboro Cup of Los Angeles, Feb. 20 and 22, at the Coliseum, but the United States will not be among them.

The Soviet Union, Colombia and Costa Rica will join a Mexican club, Chivas of Guadalajara, in the tournament.

The United States, one of 24 teams to qualify for the World Cup finals this summer in Italy, will not play in Los Angeles because it already has an exhibition game scheduled against the Soviets Feb. 24 at Stanford.

“‘We’re trying to expose our players to as many quality games as possible, sure, but we also want to expose them to as many different styles as possible,” U.S. Coach Bob Gansler said. “There’s so few games we’re going to be able to play. To play one team twice within a week, I don’t think that serves our purposes in developing a team.”

Gigi Vera, manager of Marlboro’s soccer operations, said the United States would agree to play in Los Angeles only if it was guaranteed that it would not face the Soviets.

“We would have liked to help them out, but we didn’t want to change our format for one team,” she said. “That wouldn’t be fair to the other teams.”

The Feb. 20 games will match the Soviets against Colombia and Chivas against Costa Rica. The losers will play for third place and the winners for the championship on Feb. 22.