Distractions Won’t Be Limited to the Field

Well, at least Sigi Schmid doesn’t have the ladies of the Nigerian night to worry about anymore. In the hotel, at least.

In one of the more bizarre soccer-related stories, a group of prostitutes threatened nude protests at the 12th FIFA World Youth Championship that begins in Nigeria on Sunday after tournament organizers barred them from the hotels being used by the 24 competing teams.

According to one Lagos newspaper, the Assn. of Practising Prostitutes of Nigeria--and don’t even ask what the dues are--has warned that hundreds of women will march naked through the streets if authorities do not allow them to operate freely.

Or at least inexpensively.

Of course, Schmid, who coaches UCLA and the U.S. under-20 national team, has more important things to occupy his time than keeping his players from hanging out the hotel windows to gaze at the spectacle, if it comes to pass.

There are, for instance, the opponents. The Americans play England in their opener Tuesday in Kano. After that are two games in Bauchi, the first against Japan on Friday, followed by Cameroon on April 11.

Keeping the players occupied will be a job for Schmid’s assistant coaches, both of whom have strong Southern California ties.

One is Wolfgang Sunholz, who played for the Los Angeles Aztecs in the mid-1970s. The other is David Vanole of Manhattan Beach, the No. 3 goalkeeper on the U.S. team at the 1990 World Cup in Italy and now the goalkeeper coach at UCLA.

“Obviously, I chose them as my assistants because I need somebody older than me and I needed somebody bigger than me,” Schmid joked.

“Wolfgang has the knowledge and playing experience and the way he looks at the game is very similar to mine. He has all those years of coaching youth soccer and a good ability to relate to the players. The players get along with him well and he’s got a unique sense of humor.

“David has been in these kinds of tournaments before. He’s been in the Olympics, he’s been in the World Cup. He’s a tremendous asset to team morale. He finds ways to say things that put everybody at ease and put a smile on everybody’s face.”

A MATTER OF STYLE

With a European, an Asian and an African team on their agenda, the American youngsters will face different styles of play and will have to be quick on their feet to adapt.

“Certainly, in the English style there are going to be a lot more aerial battles that we have to deal with,” Schmid said. “There’s a directness of play and there’s a good intensity that they play with in terms of their pressuring defense.

“That’s something that we have to be prepared for. We’re hoping that the heat is going to take them out of that game a little bit.

“Japan is . . . very quick, very busy, very active, very fit and is going to pressure us all over the place. We’ll have to be very good in our ability to use the ball. We’ve probably got to play a little more one- and two-touch against them, so we can keep the ball moving because we tend to overcommit a little bit defensively.

“Cameroon is maybe comparable to some of the [Caribbean] island teams that we’ve played, like Trinidad and Jamaica, in that they’re very athletic, have good one-on-one abilities and obviously have good speed.

“I feel confident that we can play against any of those styles because we’ve played against teams that have different styles as we’ve prepared. We’ve played against Wales and Norway, so that sort of approximates an England. We’ve played against Portugal and Spain, that are fit and busy and active and pressure you everywhere, like Japan. So we sort of have an idea what we’re going to be up against there. And Cameroon, we’ve certainly seen teams from the islands.”

The toughest task is probably the opening game, even though England has elected not to send its best youth players--Liverpool’s Michael Owen, for example--to the championship. But Japan will be troublesome and Cameroon could be a handful.

“The order doesn’t really concern me,” Schmid said. “I think the most important thing in a tournament like this is, you want to get points in your first game. Our objective is going to be three [victories], but we definitely want [at least one]. That’s important to get us off to a good start.”

THE HISTORY

The tournament dates from 1977, when the first edition was played in Tunisia.

The champions’ list: Soviet Union, 1977; Argentina, 1979; West Germany, 1981; Brazil, 1983; Brazil, 1985; Yugoslavia, 1987; Portugal, 1989; Portugal, 1991; Brazil, 1993; Argentina, 1995, and Argentina, 1997.

U.S. performances have been spotty. In the six tournaments for which they have qualified, the Americans have been knocked out in the first round three times, in the second round once and in the quarterfinals once. The best performance was in 1989, when a team led by tournament MVP Kasey Keller finished fourth in Saudi Arabia.

“Our goals are to advance as far as we can,” Schmid said. “Certainly, we want to advance out of our group. Once it becomes a knockout competition [in the round of 16], we think our chances are as good as anybody else’s.”

Besides the U.S. and its three opponents who play in Group E, the other nations playing are Nigeria, Costa Rica, Germany and Paraguay (Group A); Ghana, Croatia, Argentina and Kazakhstan (Group B); Australia, Saudi Arabia, Mexico and Ireland (Group C); Uruguay, Mali, South Korea and Portugal (Group D), and Zambia, Honduras, Spain and Brazil (Group F).

The championship game will be played in Lagos April 24.

THE FUTURE

The 18-player U.S. roster includes 13 players from the college ranks, among them UCLA’s Nick Rimando, Carlos Bocanegra, Ryan Futagaki and Shaun Tsakiris. It also features Major League Soccer players Jamar Beasley of the New England Revolution, Tim Howard of the New York/New Jersey MetroStars and Francisco Gomez of the Kansas City Wizards.

There are two foreign-league players in the squad, midfielder John Thorrington of Palos Verdes, who plays for Manchester United in England, and defender Steve Cherundolo of San Diego, who plays for Hanover 96 in Germany.

Many, but not all, will go on to become full national team players in the future, but for most the immediate goal is to make the U.S. team for the Sydney Olympics in 2000.

U.S. national team Coach Bruce Arena and Olympic Coach Clive Charles are expected to be in Nigeria.

“It’s an important steppingstone for our players, so that when they one day get selected for an Olympics or a World Cup, going to a world championship is not a new experience for them,” Schmid said. “Any experiences like this that our players can gain makes us a stronger country and increases the ability of our players to compete at that next level.

“I think when this tournament is over, there are some players from this team that will make that transition [to the 2000 Olympic team]. Who they are, I can’t really say. But I would be very surprised if there aren’t four or five who have a solid chance of making that Sydney 2000 team.”

Where Charles will have to worry about his players being distracted by the ladies of the Australian night, no doubt.