Soccer Player Sets World Cup Sights on Rose Bowl
Few among those rejoicing over the recent selection of the Rose Bowl as one of the venues for the 1994 soccer World Cup saw it from the same perspective as Marcelo Balboa.
The 24-year-old defender on the U.S. national team is a veteran of 50 international matches, including the 1990 World Cup in Italy. He grew up and played high school soccer in Cerritos. So the possibility of playing at least a few matches close to home in the ’94 tournament appealed to him.
“The East Coast boys (teammates) probably would like to play in Boston or New York, but the West Coast guys like myself definitely want to play here,” Balboa said at the Amateur Athletic Foundation of Los Angeles shortly after watching a teleconference from New York announcing the sites. “It’d be real nice playing in Pasadena.”
Nine venues were selected for preliminary matches of the ’94 Cup, which will run from June 17 to July 17. One, the Silverdome in Pontiac, Mich., will be the first indoor facility ever used for a World Cup match.
The locations for the opening, quarterfinals, semifinals and finals will be announced in July.
The Los Angeles Coliseum, which was part of the Los Angeles/Pasadena bid, failed to land matches because of the uncertainty surrounding its refurbishing to satisfy an agreement with the National Football League’s Los Angeles Raiders.
But for Balboa, and those on the Los Angeles/Pasadena bid committee, the selection of the 70-year-old Rose Bowl was gratifying.
“We were always confident (about getting a bid),” said Mike Navarro of the J.R. Navarro & Associates marketing firm in Los Angeles, and the person who made the original written bid and oral presentation to World Cup USA on behalf of the bid committee. “We were hoping the Coliseum reconstruction would be finished by June of ’94 but it doesn’t look that way now, so that’s unfortunate. But we are extremely happy with getting Pasadena at least.”
All of the 27 U.S. venues that bid for matches underwent close scrutiny late last year by representatives of FIFA, soccer’s international governing body. One of the inspectors was Hugo Salcedo, now a Los Angeles businessman and a former U.S. Olympic soccer player. Salcedo believed the Rose Bowl would be chosen, but was surprised that the Silverdome was one of the venues selected.
“The biggest skepticism we have is whether the artificial turf in the stadium can be converted to natural grass,” Salcedo said. “It’s going to be a challenge. Most of the other choices are fine. I was really impressed with Chicago and Boston.”
Artificial turf at Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J., and at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas will also be covered with natural grass for the Cup competition.
Of all the sites, Balboa prefers the Rose Bowl. “I played there during the CONCACAF Gold Cup (last July) against Trinidad,” Balboa said. “It’s a beautiful field. The turf is tremendous. . . . Hopefully, Pasadena will get the opening or closing match also.”
Balboa also knows that the Los Angeles area has been good for the U.S. team. The Americans won the Gold Cup with a 4-3 victory over Honduras on penalty kicks at the Coliseum, with Balboa converting one of the penalty kicks. Many in the crowd of about 40,000 that night were Latinos.
Balboa figures that the team could enjoy similar success in Pasadena in two years. “Wherever we play we have to do our job,” Balboa said. “But it’d be easier if we could play in Pasadena because of the fan support and family support we would get.”
World Cup Venues These are the nine U.S. venues selected for the 1994 World Cup:
Venue Location Capacity Foxboro Stadium Foxboro, Mass. 61,00 Soldier Field Chicago 66,814 Cotton Bowl Dallas 72,000 The Silverdome Pontiac, Mich. 72,794 Rose Bowl Pasadena 102,083 Giants Stadium East Rutherford, N.J. 76,891 Citrus Bowl Orlando, Fla. 70,188 Stanford Stadium Palo Alto 86,019 RFK Stadium Washington, D.C. 56,500
