WORLD CUP SOCCER ’94 / THE FIRST ROUND : U.S.-Romania Soccer Draws Impressive Ratings

The United States’ World Cup game against Romania on Sunday at the Rose Bowl, televised by ABC, got an impressive 11.9 Nielsen rating in Los Angeles and a 7.8 national overnight rating.

Los Angeles had the highest rating in the country, followed by Seattle, 10.1, and Cincinnati, 10.0. New York drew a 7.1, Chicago a 7.0.

The 7.8 overnight rating is the average for the nation’s 29 largest markets. The national rating for all markets will not be available until Thursday.

The highest national rating for a soccer game in the United States was 6.6 for the 1982 World Cup final between Italy and West Germany, also televised by ABC.

Other overnight sports ratings Sunday included 3.8 for the Greater Hartford Open on CBS and 3.4 for the Senior Players Championship on ABC.

In Los Angeles, the players championship, which led into the World Cup, got a 4.0.

The Hartford golf tournament, which went head-to-head against the soccer, got only a 2.1.