Women’s Team Void of Veterans
Following the success of the Women’s World Cup over the summer, it didn’t take long for some of the ugliness of big-time sports to invade women’s soccer.
With veterans boycotting for better wages, the United States picked 12 college players for its 18-woman roster for next month’s Australia Cup.
The veterans on the U.S. team, which won last summer’s Women’s World Cup, said earlier this week they are boycotting the games, claiming the United States Soccer Federation refused to negotiate new salaries.
Other than defender Thori Bryan, who has 13 international appearances, the rest of the roster has combined for one goal and 21 international appearances.
Santa Clara midfielder Aly Wagner is the other most experienced player, with six appearances and that one goal.
The roster includes three high-school players and three just out of college. Seven of the players have no international experience.
Assistant coaches Lauren Gregg and Jay Hoffman will lead the team. The USSF hasn’t hired a replacement for World Cup Coach Tony DiCicco, who quit Nov. 3.
The American women’s team travels to Australia on Jan. 2 to play against the Czech Republic on Jan. 7, Sweden on Jan. 10 and Australia on Jan. 13. The first two games are at Melbourne and the third is at Adelaide.
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Michael Bridges and Lee Bowyer scored as first-place Leeds rallied to defeated Leicester, 2-1, at London to remain two points ahead of defending champion Manchester United in England’s Premier League.
Manchester United defeated visiting Bradford, 4-0, getting all its goals in the final 15 minutes from Quentin Fortune, Dwight Yorke, Andy Cole and Roy Keane.
Leeds reached the season’s midpoint with a 14-3-2 record and 44 points. Manchester United, at 13-2-3, has played one fewer game.
Hockey
The United States blew two leads and had to settle for a 2-2 tie against the Czech Republic in the World Junior championships at Stockholm, Sweden.
Josef Vasicek’s power-play goal in the third period was the equalizer of the Group A opener for Team USA, which features 10 NHL draftees.
Barrett Heisten of the University of Maine put the Americans ahead less than four minutes into the game with a power-play goal.
Vasicek set up Martin Havlat’s goal, making it 1-1 halfway through the second period. With three minutes left in the period, Boston College defenseman Brooks Orpik gave the Americans a 2-1 lead.
Vasicek tied the score again at 8:45 of the third period.
The Czechs defeated Slovakia, 5-2, Saturday in their opener.
Team USA, which outshot the Czechs, 31-29, next plays Slovakia on Tuesday.
Slovakia tied Finland, 1-1, in the other group A game. Sweden, co-favored with defending champion Russia, defeated Switzerland, 7-1, in its Group B opener. Russia improved to 2-0 with a 4-1 victory over winless Ukraine in the other group B game.
Miscellany
The year-long countdown to ESPN’s top athlete of the century ended Sunday, and basketball’s Michael Jordan is No. 1.
Jordan won six NBA championships with the Chicago Bulls after winning an NCAA title at North Carolina. Along with being the league’s all-time leader in scoring average, he has become one of sport’s most recognizable and marketable stars, even after retirement.
Rounding out the ESPN top 10 were Babe Ruth, Muhammad Ali, Jim Brown, Wayne Gretzky, Jesse Owens, Jim Thorpe, Willie Mays, Jack Nicklaus and Babe Didrikson Zaharias.
Twenty-five of the 48 people on the panel selecting the top athletes were employees of or contributors to ESPN, ABC or affiliated businesses of the TV networks or their parent, The Walt Disney Co. The list was limited to North American athletes.
The full SportsCentury series profiling the top 50 athletes will run consecutively on ESPN2 on Thursday and Friday.
ESPN’s second 10 were Joe Louis, Carl Lewis, Wilt Chamberlain, Hank Aaron, Jackie Robinson, Ted Williams, Magic Johnson, Bill Russell, Martina Navratilova and Ty Cobb.
Winter Sports
Former World Cup skiing overall champion Pernilla Wiberg of Sweden will skip two races next week in Austria because of a swollen right knee.
The ex-Olympic and world champion considered surgery after hurting the knee in a pre-Christmas race. But she decided to rest instead after being examined by a doctor.
“I’ve had problems with both knees in the past few years,” she said. “I could have raced 1/8in Austria 3/8 if I wanted. But I said before the season started that I might skip a few races because I have such a hectic World Cup schedule.”
Wiberg, who competes in all four Alpine disciplines, has not missed a race this season.
She will skip a giant slalom and a slalom at Linz, Austria, on Tuesday and Wednesday, respectively, but hopes to be back on the circuit for two races at Maribor, Slovenia, Jan. 5-6.
