Clash of Events Creates Stir for Keeper’s Mom at Newsstand
After New York Times columnist George Vecsey wrote a feature on San Jose Clash goalkeeper Tom Liner, the keeper’s mother called the nearest out-of-town newsstand to save every copy she could find.
At least, so says Victor Chi of the San Jose Mercury News, who quotes Pat Liner:
“I asked the woman to see how many they had and if she could hold some for me, because my son was on the cover of the sports. But she already left the phone before I could say ‘sports section.’ When she came back, she said really quietly: ‘Your son is the Unabomber?’ ”
The running count: Through its first 12 games, MLS has drawn 356,585 fans, an average of 29,715 a game.
Interactive: One of the keys to the Los Angeles Galaxy’s season will be the ability of the midfield duo of Cobi Jones and Mauricio Cienfuegos to read each other’s moves. Jones says it’s already happening.
“I think we’re starting to click now,” he said. “We’ve been practicing more together. This is only the third week that I’ve ever played with him. But as we start playing together more, you’ll see us click. Me and Cienfuegos, me and [forward Eduardo] Hurtado.
“We have two games under our belt. Once we play our 10th or 11th game, it will run very smoothly.”
The last two: The Galaxy and the Tampa Bay Mutiny are the only two teams still unbeaten.
Sport of the ‘90s: He was one of the midfield stars of the Cosmos in the days when the North American Soccer League club was regularly drawing 70,000 a game. So it came as no surprise to Vladislav “Bogie” Bogicevic when the New York/New Jersey MetroStars drew 46,826 for their Giants Stadium debut.
“It has been 12 years now since the Cosmos,” he said, “and I think the fans in the New York area are starved for soccer.
“I think soccer is a sleeping giant which is ready to wake up. There will never be another Cosmos because that was a dream, a very unique thing, but I think if people are patient and understand that everything does not happen overnight, they will be rewarded.”
Quote, unquote: Charlie Stillitano, general manager of the MetroStars, when asked why the team hired former Cosmos coach Eddie Firmani, a Giants Stadium favorite:
“We needed somebody who knew where the lights were.”
The flying doctor: Last Saturday, Doctor Khumalo, the Columbus Crew’s South African national team playmaker, scored his first goal for the Crew in a 2-1 loss to Tampa Bay at Ohio Stadium.
“On Wednesday, Khumalo helped South Africa gain a 2-0 halftime lead against world champion Brazil in front of 80,000 in Johannesburg, before the Brazilians recovered to win, 3-2.
Today, Khumalo will be at Giants Stadium playing for the Crew against the MetroStars.
Eight days, three games, 17,000 miles. It gets worse in June. South Africa plays World Cup qualifying games in Malawi on June 1 and at home to Malawi on June 15. In between, the Crew plays Kansas City in Columbus.
Not that Khumalo is complaining about all the travel. His ties to South Africa could not be any stronger. His girlfriend is the granddaughter of Nelson Mandella, South Africa’s president.
Instant impact: Not to be outdone by Khumalo and the Crew, the Colorado Rapids can point out that South African forward Shaun Bartlett scored for them and made an even longer journey to play against Brazil.
But they’d rather point to U.S. national team captain Marcelo Balboa. The sweeper from Cerritos, who has a record 108 appearances for the U.S. team, scored the other two goals in the Rapids’ 3-1 victory in their home debut against the Dallas Burn at Mile High Stadium.
First three: The league’s first three players of the week have been Eric Wynalda of San Jose, Brian McBride of Columbus and Balboa.
Pioneer spirit: Ruben Dario Hernandez of the Colombian national team became the latest foreign player to join MLS when he signed this week with the MetroStars. But it wasn’t the almighty dollar that landed him.
“For the same money, I wouldn’t have gone to Uruguay or Argentina,” said Hernandez, 31. “I wanted to share the American experience. I wanted to come here to be a pioneer, to help the foundation of soccer here. I understand the situation. I came here to make this the triumph of my career.”
Hernandez has scored 20 or more goals for eight consecutive seasons in the Colombian first division, including 23 goals in 22 games this season for Santa Fe.
Bottled and shipped: Remember that Coca-Cola ad that ran on television during World Cup ‘94, the one with the two soccer players trying to outdo each other juggling the ball?
Well, it seems the twins were honest-to-goodness players, not merely actors. So much so that San Jose signed forward Gabe Garcia and Washington signed midfielder Carlos Garcia.
But it was not to be. Last week, the Clash waived Gabe and D.C. United waived Carlos.
Seems they weren’t the real thing.
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MLS Notes
It was a tough day for former U.S. World Cup goalkeeper Tony Meola. He shut out the New England Revolution for 89 minutes 47 seconds, then watched in disbelief as one of his defenders, Nicola Caricola, accidentally scored an own goal, costing the MetroStars the game, 1-0. Worse yet, Meola found out after the game that he had separated his left shoulder. He is listed as day to day. . . . The Galaxy, which plays the Clash at the Rose Bowl at 4:30 p.m. Sunday, has no sense of how large the crowd will be, expecting anywhere between 35,000 and 65,000. In case it’s the latter figure, the team and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority will run shuttle buses every 10 minutes from Union Station’s Gateway Transit Plaza in downtown Los Angeles to the stadium starting at 1:30 p.m. The round-trip fare is $1. . . . Sunday’s live game on Univision will feature Dallas at Tampa Bay at noon.
