SOCCER : U.S. Players Get Back on the Field
With no games for more than two months, the soccer players of the U.S. national team have faced stiffer opposition off the field than on it. Whether that has made them battle-tested, or just battle-weary, will be revealed tonight, when they play for the first time since qualifying last November for this summer’s World Cup.
Their first-round opponent in the Marlboro Cup at the Orange Bowl is a familiar one, Costa Rica, which has even less World Cup experience than the United States. The United States last played in the world’s most prestigious soccer tournament in 1950; Costa Rica will be making its first appearance.
Costa Rica, like the United States, qualified from the Central and North American and Caribbean region. They split two games last year, the United States losing at San Jose, Costa Rica, 1-0, and winning at St. Louis, 1-0. But Costa Rica finished the five-team, eight-game qualifying tournament with a better record.
In tonight’s second game, Uruguay plays Colombia, two respected South American teams that also qualified for the World Cup. The winners will meet Sunday night for the championship, after the losers play for third place.
With four World Cup teams involved, there is more interest than usual for an exhibition tournament in the United States. Applying for credentials were 265 reporters from 18 countries.
“In the first Marlboro Cup of Miami in 1986, this was the number of fans we had,” one of the organizers, Noel Lemon, said this week at a news conference.
He predicted a crowd of more than 30,000 each night at the Orange Bowl.
U.S. Coach Bob Gansler said he has been pleased with his team’s practices, although it is difficult to predict if off-the-field distractions will affect the players on the field in their first game since Nov. 19.
The players claim they have a common enemy, the U.S. Soccer Federation, but some of the resentment appears to be spilling over into their relationships with each other. Twelve of the 16 players offered $26,000 to $40,000 12-month contracts by the federation in December have signed, but most say they did so reluctantly and are still dissatisfied with the terms.
Offers were withdrawn to two players, midfielder Paul Caligiuri of Santa Monica and reserve goalkeeper David Vanole of Manhattan Beach, who did not sign by the Jan. 14 deadline. Caligiuri, who scored the goal against Trinidad and Tobago that put the United States into the World Cup, remained with the team on a $40-per-diem basis, but Vanole has not been invited to return.
Two others, goalkeeper Tony Meola and midfielder John Harkes, both of Kearny, N.J., have not signed their contracts. The federation gave them extensions, explaining that the players were unable to review the contracts while trying out earlier this month with an English first-division team. But other players complain that the federation is giving them special treatment.
Some players also complained when four teammates--Meola, Harkes, Hugo Perez and Tab Ramos--received $250 each to do advertisements for Turner Network Television’s World Cup coverage.
Gansler has attempted to relieve the tension by forming a five-player committee to report grievances to him. The players were allowed to select two committee members. One of their picks was Harkes.
