WORLD SPORTS SCENE / RANDY HARVEY : Rothenberg Joining the Critics of U.S. Olympic Soccer Coach

It’s a good thing that Lothar Osiander likes waiting on tables at Graziano’s in San Francisco, because he might need to do it full time in the future.

He took time off to coach the U.S. Olympic soccer team in 1988 and 1992, and although his record was a respectable (for the United States, not Italy or Argentina) 1-2-3, he did not receive good reviews for his team’s performance last summer in Spain. The United States lost to Italy, beat Kuwait, tied Poland and failed to advance to the second round.

In a recent newsletter, Trinidad’s Jack Warner, president of the sport’s North and Central American and Caribbean zone, praised the region’s other Olympic representative, Mexico, although it also failed to advance, but criticized Osiander for his strategy and lineups.

“The Mexicans played for their country and their confederation, while the USA simply played,” he wrote.

Of more concern to Osiander should be comments from U.S. Soccer Federation President Alan Rothenberg in a “Soccer America” interview.

“Was I disappointed that we didn’t go further?” he said. “Absolutely. Was I disappointed that the first pitiful minutes against Italy did us in? Absolutely. Is that the responsibility of the coach? Absolutely.”

The U.S. Figure Skating Assn. usually has plenty of ladies in waiting, but two of its most promising youngsters, Lisa Ervin and Nicole Bobek, showed in their first big international tests during the weekend in Skate America at Atlanta that they are not ready to overtake Olympians Nancy Kerrigan and Tonya Harding.

Ervin was third after the original program, but fell three times during the freestyle and dropped to eighth. Bobek didn’t complete a triple jump during her freestyle program and finished sixth.

Japan’s Yuka Sato, a former world junior champion, won in an upset over the Olympic bronze medalist, Kerrigan, who finished first in the freestyle competition but couldn’t overcome her fourth-place original program. Harding will open her season next month at Skate Canada.

Todd Eldredge, who recently moved his training base from San Diego to Detroit, led a U.S. men’s sweep ahead of Scott Davis and Mark Mitchell.

Figure skating fans in Los Angeles will not suffer from withdrawal during the next few months.

Back to featuring Olympians, as opposed to cartoon characters, the Ice Capades will be at the Forum from Tuesday through Sunday with cast that includes Dorothy Hamill, Christopher Bowman and Cathy Turner. A gold and silver medalist at Albertville, Turner is the first speedskater to serve as an ice show headliner.

Dick Button’s professional competition will come to the Forum on Dec. 17 with a field that includes all the Olympic gold medalists from 1988 and 1992 except Katarina Witt. Brian Boitano also will be at the Forum next spring in the annual tour of Olympic and world champions.

When the International Amateur Athletic Federation, which governs track and field, and Mobil Oil collaborated to start the Grand Prix circuit, they hoped the final would be recognized as a major championship.

It now has a chance after the recent announcement of a significant increase in prize money. The athlete with the most points in each individual event after the season will receive $35,000, while the male and female athletes with the most points overall will receive $100,000. But in order to win the season-long competitions, athletes must almost certainly compete in the final, which will offer triple points.

The IAAF had no choice but to raise the ante after the revelation that it held $1.5 million of Mobil’s money in reserve each year. Mobil officials said they were unaware that not all of their sponsorship money was going to the Grand Prix.

It seems inevitable that there eventually will be prize money for track and field athletes at the World Championships as well, although a proposal by their agents calling for that to begin as soon as next summer at Stuttgart, Germany, has been put on hold.

Wouldn’t it make more sense to give that money to national federations for the funding of junior programs? That would be particularly helpful in the United States, where schools are having difficulty financing athletic programs.

Why do prominent people keep saying they have nothing against professionals competing in the Olympics, then end up criticizing the pros?

The latest to join LeRoy Walker, the U.S. Olympic Committee’s incoming president, in this pursuit is Rep. Tom McMillen (D.-Md.), who said recently: “We’ve moved away from any sort of balance. How do we control this commercial monster? I’m not opposed to professionals in the Olympics, but we don’t want the Olympics to become a competition between paid mercenaries.”

Momentum is not in his favor. Less than two weeks after he made those comments, it appeared as if the pro golfers were no farther than a 9-iron away from gaining Olympic eligibility.

Notes

The U.S. Olympic Committee appointed Cartan Tours as its authorized ticket agency for the 1994 Winter Olympics, Feb. 12-27, at Lillehammer, Norway. Tickets and travel packages are expected to be available for sale Nov. 1 at Cartan’s Manhattan Beach office (1-800-841-1994). . . . Barely beaten by Nagano, Japan, in its bid to stage the 1998 Winter Olympics, Salt Lake City will try again for 2002. Officials from the bid committee expect their foremost competition to come from Quebec City, Canada. . . . The covered oval for U.S. speedskaters at Milwaukee, the Pettit National Ice Center, is expected to be completed for a New Year’s Eve opening.