WORLD CUP USA ’94 / THE FIRST ROUND : Spotlight : FOR GERMAN TEAM, D-DAY IN REVERSE

From Bonn, Germany’s General Anzeiger newspaper, Friday:

“A D-Day of Football?”

“That the world championship went to the United States is nothing but an attempt to eliminate that big white spot on the map of the FIFA. . . . It’s a fact that there are 250 million potential customers for soccer shoes, T-shirts, balls, trinkets and more. A gigantic market to be developed. . . .

“The world championship beginning today offers the last chance to make King Soccer acceptable in the USA. If this goes by, the industry might not be mobilized again. But so far the organizers still dream that their world championship will be the detonator. Should it be so, then Lothar Matthaeus, Andreas Moeller & Co. will possibly return in 50 years as those who freed the country from the dictatorship of American football and baseball. And maybe then they will sit in Soldier Field in Chicago, where today the opening match takes place, and dream of June 17, 1994--the D-Day of Soccer.”