For Soccer Aficionados, the Honeymoon Begins
Ready or not, Major League Soccer’s time has arrived. Today at 5 p.m., before a sellout crowd of 31,000 and a national TV audience, professional soccer returns to the United States after an absence of 12 years.
On the same Spartan Stadium field where George Best once wove his magic for the San Jose Earthquakes of the old North American Soccer League, Eric Wynalda and friends will try to conjure some tricks of their own for the San Jose Clash.
Opposing the Clash will be Washington D.C. United, whose lineup features Bolivian striker Marco “El Diablo” Etcheverry and Wynalda’s teammate on the U.S. national team, midfielder John Harkes.
The game, to be televised live by ESPN, has attracted worldwide interest. Among the press contingent of more than 320 are journalists from a dozen nations, each of them wanting to know whether MLS will succeed where the NASL failed.
They are unlikely to get an answer from only one game, especially this one. An almost World Cup atmosphere surrounds the event, complete with pageantry and the usual cast of dignitaries.
But both coaches say that the 10 MLS teams have had nowhere near enough time to prepare for the season. Clash Coach Laurie Calloway said it will take “at least four games, two at home and two on the road” for his team to begin finding its feet.
It was only this week, for instance, that San Jose signed Guatemalan national team midfielder Jorge Rodas, who will start today despite not knowing the names of his teammates. Similarly, Harkes will start for D.C. United despite having arrived from England only days ago.
MLS chose San Jose for its opener partly because good weather could almost be guaranteed--it was sunny and 83 degrees Friday--and partly because the league believed local fans would make it a sellout.
“We could have sold 45,000 tickets,” Clash President Peter Bridgewater said, acknowledging that the league’s inaugural game has special appeal and it will not be as easy after this. “If we can average 12,500 over the season, maybe even get to 15,000, we’ll be ecstatic.”
The rest of the league’s teams open next weekend, including the Los Angeles Galaxy, which plays the New York/New Jersey MetroStars at the Rose Bowl on Saturday.
Soccer Notes
The U.S. Soccer Federation was given nearly $766,000 Friday to establish a development program for players under 14 years of age. It was the largest award in the first allocations from the endowment fund created by the 1994 World Cup profits.
