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WORLD CUP USA ’94 / THE FINAL : Spotlight : UNITED FOR ITALY

By BILL PLASCHKE
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Perhaps nothing was more representative of the World Cup’s effect in Los Angeles than a 1981 pickup truck parked outside the soccer field at Loyola Marymount on Saturday morning.

Sitting on the roof, in hopes of catching a glimpse of the Italian team over the fence, were a fan from Mexico, two Italians from Walnut and two Italian fans from Canada.

None had laid eyes on each other.

“I have been gone from Italy 20 years. This is the first time I see this team. I am so nervous just sitting,” said Natalino Urbani, from Walnut.

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Said Luis Haro: “I let them sit on my truck because, with Mexico losing, I am now for the underdog.”

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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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