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Soccer

WORLD CUP USA ‘94: ROUND OF 16 : Spotlight : WHAT MELTING POT?

By BILL PLASCHKE
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Luis Arnaiz, veteran journalist from the sports newspaper AS in Madrid, joined the growing list of soccer experts who said this World Cup might be the the most exciting ever.

“I have been to seven World Cups, and I have nothing like I have seen here,” Arnaiz said. “Every place you go here, stadiums are full. In no other country has it ever been like that.”

Arnaiz said that judging from the crowds, he feels the only way for an American professional league to survive is to divide it in terms of ethnic groups.

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“Have one team just Irish, another team Mexicans, another team Dutch,” he said. “If you do it like that, each of those teams would have a huge following.”

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Bill Plaschke

Bill Plaschke, an L.A. Times sports columnist since 1996, is a member of the National Sports Media Hall of Fame and California Sports Hall of Fame. He has been named national Sports Columnist of the Year nine times by the Associated Press, and twice by the Society of Professional Journalists and National Headliner Awards. He is the author of six books, including a collection of his columns entitled “Plaschke: Good Sports, Spoilsports, Foul Balls and Oddballs.” Plaschke is also a panelist on the popular ESPN daily talk show, “Around the Horn.” He is in the national Big Brothers/Big Sisters Alumni Hall of Fame and has been named Man of the Year by the Los Angeles Big Brothers/Big Sisters as well as receiving a Pursuit of Justice Award from the California Women’s Law Center. Plaschke has appeared in a movie (“Ali”), a dramatic HBO series (“Luck”) and, in a crowning cultural moment he still does not quite understand, his name can be found in a rap song “Females Welcome” by Asher Roth.

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