SOCCER / GRAHAME L. JONES : Galaxy Will Name Osiander as Coach

By GRAHAME L. JONES

Nov. 27, 1995 12 AM PT

Lothar Osiander, former United States national and Olympic team coach, this week will be named head coach of Major League Soccer’s Los Angeles Galaxy, The Times has learned.

Sources confirmed that Osiander’s appointment as the club’s first coach will be announced at a news conference at the Rose Bowl on Wednesday.

Osiander is perhaps best known in recent years for qualifying the United States for the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona and building a team that included no fewer than seven future World Cup ’94 players: Mike Burns, Brad Friedel, Cobi Jones, Alexi Lalas, Mike Lapper, Joe-Max Moore and Claudio Reyna.

He also coached the U.S. squad in the 1988 Olympics in Seoul, South Korea, where the team surprised many by tying Argentina and South Korea.

And it was Osiander’s U.S. team that won the Pan American Games gold medal in Cuba in 1991, defeating Mexico in the final.

Danny Villanueva, general manager of the Galaxy, would neither confirm nor deny Osiander’s appointment Sunday night, but earlier this month outlined the criteria the team had in selecting a coach.

“We’re looking for several things,” he said. “We’re looking for an entertaining brand of soccer. We’re looking for a coach who commands the respect of professional athletes and also a coach who has the sensitivity to understand the need to elevate soccer to first-division level and the necessary public profiles that have to be taken.

“[He should be] somebody who could sell the sport, advance the game and advance public awareness of the club. Unquestionably in this town, if you don’t win, people don’t come. This is one of the roughest towns in the country in terms of attendance and support of teams. So we also have to pick somebody who we believe can win in this league.”

Whether Osiander can continue his record of success with the Galaxy will depend in large part on the players he gets. So far, the Galaxy has only one player--Mexican national team goalkeeper Jorge Campos.

Born in Germany on Nov. 8, 1939, Osiander was raised in Munich and came to the United States when he was in his 20s and settled with an uncle in San Francisco.

From then on, he maintained ties to the Bay Area.

He played college soccer for San Francisco under Coach Steve Negoesco, who earlier this month won his 500th game in charge of the Dons, and helped USF win its first NCAA title.

Later, Osiander coached the San Francisco Greek-Americans to numerous state and national honors, including a national Open Cup triumph.

But it was his chosen profession as a waiter at Graziano’s, a fashionable Italian restaurant in the city’s financial district, that always caught writers’ attention.

For some reason, it seemed an odd career choice for a man with a sporting pedigree such as Osiander’s.

Two of international soccer’s most illustrious clubs, Ajax Amsterdam and Gremio of Porto Alegre, Brazil, meet Tuesday in Japan to decide the world club championship.

Both are former world title-holders, the Dutch club having won in 1972 and the Brazilian team in 1983, and there is little to choose between them.

Ajax, as European champion, will be trying to salvage some pride for that continent, Europe having seen South American teams carry off the trophy the last three years.

Gremio earned its spot in the final by winning first the Brazilian championship and then the Copa Libertadores, or South American title. Ajax won the Dutch championship and then the European Champions’ Cup.

The game, in Tokyo’s Olympic Stadium, will be televised in more than 60 countries.

The World Cup could return to the United States within 15 years and almost certainly will do so in 19 years’ time if a plan under consideration by FIFA is approved.

International soccer’s governing body last week began analyzing a proposal put forward by Lennart Johansson, president of the European confederation, UEFA, that would rotate the tournament between five continents.

Since World Cup ’98 will be in France and World Cup 2002 already has been narrowed to two candidates--Japan and South Korea--that leaves Africa, South America and the United States’ regional confederation, CONCACAF, in the running for 2006, 2010 and 2014.

South Africa is considered a front-runner for 2006, although Germany has also indicated it will apply to stage the tournament. Since South America has not played host since Argentina did so in 1978, the continent would be the likely choice for 2010.

If FIFA’s financial coffers are low, however, 2010 could well be awarded to CONCACAF, with the United States a more logical choice than Mexico (which already has staged the event twice, in 1970 and 1986). No other CONCACAF countries, including Canada, are viable candidates.

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World Club Champions

Year--Club (Country)

1960--Real Madrid (Spain)

1961--Penarol (Uruguay)

1962--Santos (Brazil)

1963--Santos (Brazil)

1964--Inter Milan (Italy)

1965--Inter Milan (Italy)

1966--Penarol (Uruguay)

1967--Racing Club (Argentina)

1968--Estudiantes (Argentina)