U.S., Brazil and Mexico Head Gold Cup Field : Soccer: Americans will play first-round games at Anaheim Stadium in nine-nation event that will end at the Coliseum.
The United States, world champion Brazil and defending champion Mexico are the top-seeded teams for the Gold Cup soccer tournament, to be played in Southern California Jan. 10-21.
Chuck Blazer, general-secretary for the Confederation of North and Central American and Caribbean soccer federations (CONCACAF), made the announcement in Los Angeles Thursday during the draw for the biennial championship.
The U.S. team, seeded atop Group C, will play its first-round games at Anaheim Stadium, facing Trinidad & Tobago on Jan. 13 and a Central American qualifier Jan. 16.
Brazil, which is likely to bring its Olympic team to the tournament, is the top-seeded team in Group B and will play Canada at the Coliseum on Jan. 12 and a Central American qualifier on Jan. 14 at the same stadium.
Mexico, which defeated the United States, 4-0, in front of more than 100,000 fans at Azteca Stadium in Mexico City in the 1993 Gold Cup final, leads Group A and will play St. Vincent & the Grenadines at San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium on Jan. 11 and a Central American team there on Jan. 14.
The three Central American participants in the nine-nation Gold Cup will be determined by a qualifying tournament to be played in El Salvador Nov. 29-Dec. 10. El Salvador, Honduras and Costa Rica are the most likely to qualify.
In the Gold Cup, the winners of each of the three groups and the second-place team with the best record will advance to the semifinals, to be played in Los Angeles and San Diego Jan. 18-19.
The third-place game and final will be played as a doubleheader at the Coliseum on Jan. 21.
Brazil was invited to the tournament in a reciprocal arrangement that saw the United States and Mexico participate in the 1993 and 1995 Copa America tournaments in South America.
Should the Brazilians win the Gold Cup, the tournament runner-up would be the CONCACAF champion and would represent the confederation at the King Fahd Intercontinental Cup in Saudi Arabia in January 1997 and in the Copa America in Bolivia that same year.
Soccer Notes
During Thursday’s news conference, U.S. Coach Steve Sampson jokingly served as translator for his predecessor, Mexico Coach Bora Milutinovic. . . . Among countries under consideration for U.S. Cup ’96 next summer are Mexico, the Netherlands and Ireland. . . . The scorer of Mexico’s winning goal in a 2-1 defeat of Saudi Arabia before 40,389 at the Coliseum Wednesday night was Javier Lozano, not Luis Hernandez as reported. . . . The United States’ first qualifying games for World Cup ’98 in France will be played next September, and the U.S. team could play as many as 20 qualifying matches, half of them outside the country.
Fans in Buenos Aires chanted for Coach Daniel Passarella to recall former star Diego Maradona after Argentina and Colombia played to a dreary 0-0 tie Wednesday night. In other international games, Brazil defeated Uruguay, 2-0, in Fonte Nova de Salvador, as Bebeto and Ronaldo combined for two goals; Chile defeated Canada, 2-0, with Sebastian Rozental and Marcelo Salas scoring. In Europe, Norway and England played to a scoreless tie in Oslo and Sweden beat Scotland, 2-0, in Stockholm on goals by Jorgen Pettersson and Stefan Schwarz.
