U.S. in Search of Success at Lower Levels
The world-champion U.S. women’s national team may be taking a richly deserved break, but that doesn’t mean the younger generation is taking it easy.
After watching Mia Hamm and company win the World Cup at the Rose Bowl, the U.S. under-18 national team headed north to Canada, inspired by the moment.
“That was good for all of us, and it drives us harder to fulfill our dreams and be a part of that team in the future,” midfielder Lauren Molinaro told the Associated Press.
Since then, Molinaro and the rest of the under-18 team have been tearing up the Pan American Games in Winnipeg.
They started out with a 6-0 whitewash of Costa Rica, going three goals up in the first seven minutes.
After that came a bit of a surprise. In a game battered by 30-mph winds, the U.S. gave up an 89th-minute goal and was held to a 1-1 tie by Mexico.
Marcia Wallis gave the Americans the lead on a fierce 19-yard shot in the 52nd minute, but Fatima Leyva tied it with an equally strong left-foot shot in the closing minutes.
“We played better today than we did against Costa Rica but the Mexican team played real well and we just didn’t take advantage of our chances,” U.S. midfielder Becky Myers said.
That was not the case in the third game, in which the Americans rolled to a 9-1 victory over Trinidad & Tobago. Wallis and Kim Patrick each had a hat trick.
On Saturday the U.S. shut out tournament host Canada, 3-0.
The under-18 women, along with the under-21 national team that Coach Lauren Gregg takes to the Nordic Cup in Iceland this month, are preparing for the 2003 World Cup, probably in Australia, and the 2004 Olympics in Athens, Greece.
The Olympic field has been increased from eight teams to 12, further proof of the growth of the women’s game.
GALACTIC AMBITIONS
The path has been laid out for the Galaxy to become--and this is no misprint--world club champion by January.
It all begins at the Rose Bowl on Aug. 18, when Necaxa, Mexico’s winter tournament champion, comes to Pasadena for a game that will send the winner to the CONCACAF Champions Cup.
That eight-team tournament, featuring the top clubs in North and Central America and the Caribbean, will be played in Las Vegas Sept. 28-Oct. 3.
The winner of the CONCACAF Champions Cup will advance to the inaugural FIFA World Club Championship, set for Jan. 5-14 in Brazil.
Four teams have qualified for the Champions Cup--Washington D.C. United, the defending CONCACAF champion; the Chicago Fire, Major League Soccer’s current champion; Toluca, Mexico’s summer tournament champion, and Trinidad & Tobago’s Joe Public, the reigning Caribbean champion.
The Galaxy, which earned its opportunity by posting the best MLS regular-season record (24-8) last season, or Necaxa also will qualify. The remaining three clubs will emerge from qualifying games underway in Central America.
D.C. United last year defeated Toluca, 1-0, to become the first American club to win the CONCACAF Champions Cup.
The FIFA World Club Championship will feature European champion Manchester United of England, Vasco da Gama and Corinthians of Brazil, and Al Nasr of Saudi Arabia, plus four other teams to be determined.
Four victories would put the Galaxy in that elite field.
A COMPROMISE
The U.S. women’s national team has scored another victory of sorts, this time over the U.S. Soccer Federation.
The team reached an agreement with U.S. Soccer last week that will allow it to go on a privately promoted indoor tour while keeping its outdoor commitments with the federation.
No details have been revealed, but it is believed that the agreement will scuttle plans for a tour to Egypt and South Africa by the world champions. The U.S. still will compete in the Pacific Cup in Australia next year, however, as well as the Algarve Cup in Portugal.
Meanwhile, the Columbus Crew has sold out its 25,000-seat stadium for an Oct. 3 doubleheader that features an MLS game followed by the U.S. women playing an unknown opponent in the Nike U.S. Women’s Cup tournament.
VESTED INTERESTS
Too bad the Italian soccer federation has decided to ban players from wearing anything but sponsor’s logos on the vests they wear beneath their club jerseys.
Over the last couple of seasons, the sight of players pulling off their jerseys after scoring a goal--a la Brandi Chastain--to reveal an unusual or politically charged message has enlivened Serie A considerably.
There was, for instance, the “99+1=100” message that Liberia’s George Weah proudly displayed when he scored his 100th goal for AC Milan. Yugoslavia’s Sinisa Mihajlovic used his vest to protest NATO bombing of his homeland. Others have protested nuclear testing or praised God.
The final straw, as far as the federation was concerned, occurred last season when Roma’s Francesco Totti scored in his team’s victory over cross-town rival Lazio, then ran over to thousands of despondent Lazio fans and flashed a message saying, more or less, “I’ve done you again.”
Now, vests will be boring again and players will have to find new ways of celebrating.
QUICK PASSES
With U.S. starting goalkeeper Kasey Keller having decided to leave England and pursue his career in continental Europe, Leicester City signed former England goalkeeper Tim Flowers for $1.78 million. Keller is negotiating a move to newly promoted Rayo Vallencano of the Spanish first division. . . . Bayern Munich’s Lothar Matthaeus has been voted German player of the year for the second time. Matthaeus, a 1990 world champion who earned his 139th cap for Germany in Friday’s Confederations Cup game against the United States in Guadalajara, Mexico, also won the award in 1990. The veteran sweeper, 38, will join the New York/New Jersey MetroStars in January.
Meanwhile another former German national team captain and World Cup winner with connections to New York is being touted as a possible future president of FIFA. Former New York Cosmo star Franz Beckenbauer, president of Bayern Munich, would be a perfect choice, according to Sepp Blatter, who has had a stormy one-year ride as FIFA president. Beckenbauer would be “an ideal candidate,” Blatter told Germany’s Welt am Sonntag newspaper. “He could really make things move. Franz loves football. He likes watching small games as much as big ones. I think there are very few people in the world with as much charisma. And naturally he is the ultimate soccer expert.”
Argentina’s Gabriel Batistuta scored a pair of goals and Yugoslavia’s Predrag Mijatovic had a goal and an assist as Fiorentina of Italy defeated Aston Villa of England, 4-0, to win the Gotham Cup tournament hosted by the MetroStars at Giants Stadium. “Mijatovic and Batistuta were the difference,” said Aston Villa Coach John Gregory. “They taught us a lesson in finishing. [Fiorentina’s] forwards are the best in Europe.” . . . There was an interesting quote from the Berlin newspaper BZ after Germany’s 4-0 Confederations Cup loss to Brazil. “We thought losing 3-0 in the 1998 World Cup to Croatia was the bottom,” BZ said. “And then the 3-0 defeat to the United States was even more embarrassing. And now the shameful 4-0 defeat to Brazil. The fans now want to know: How far can German soccer sink?”
Tahj Burrell, 20, the son of Horace Burrell, president of Jamaica’s soccer federation and the man whose leadership inspired the “Reggae Boyz” to the 1998 World Cup, was shot and killed along with a friend, Jason Byles, as they walked into a Kingston pizza restaurant. No motive for the murders has been determined and the assailants escaped. . . . Bruce Grobbelaar, the former Liverpool and Zimbabwe national team goalkeeper and a one-time North American Soccer League player with the Vancouver Whitecaps, won his libel case against the Sun newspaper in England and was awarded $134,900 in damages. The tabloid will also have to pay Grobbelaar’s legal fees of $793,800.
(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)
FIFA World Rankings
The latest rankings of the world’s leading national teams as released by FIFA just after the Copa America tournament in Paraguay but before the current Confederations Cup in Mexico.
*--*
Rank (Last Month) Country Points 1 (1) Brazil 835 2 (2) France 762 3 (3) Czech Republic 753 4 (4) Italy 726 5 (5) Germany 720 6 (tie) (8) Argentina 719 6 (tie) (7) Croatia 719 8 (6) Spain 712 9 (9) Romania 696 10 (11) Norway 690 11 (14) Mexico 688 12 (12) Portugal 682 13 (10) Netherlands 680 14 (13) England 672 15 (15) Sweden 666 16 (21) Paraguay 647 17 (17) Denmark 632 18 (32) Colombia 629 19 (18) Morocco 626 20 (19) Austria 625 21 (16) Yugoslavia 624 22 (29) Chile 618 23 (20) Slovakia 613 24 (25) Ukraine 611 25 (22) Israel 610 26 (tie 23) Poland 607 27 (tie 23) Russia 602 28 (26) Tunisia 596 29 (28) South Africa 595 30 (31) United States 594
*--*
