National Teams Face Full Schedules

By GRAHAME L. JONES

Jan. 3, 1999 12 AM PT

Soccer in the United States might lag behind the rest of the world in many areas, but in one respect it certainly has caught up. No longer seasonal in nature, it is now a year-round sport.

On Monday, the fourth day of 1999, three U.S. national teams will open training camps, two in the San Diego area and one in Florida. By the end of the month, two other U.S. national teams will have joined them.

Skip forward 12 months to December and the calendar already includes the NCAA men’s and women’s championships, the Honda U.S. player of the year and Hermann trophy awards as well as, most significant, the qualifying draw for World Cup 2002 to be played in Japan and South Korea.

For U.S. national teams, the year will feature at least two--and probably three--world championship tournaments, not to mention the Algarve Cup, the Confederations’ Cup and dozens of international games.

Throw in a Major League Soccer season that this year will stretch from the opening of training Feb. 1 to the MLS Cup ’99 championship game on Nov. 21, and it is easy to see that 1999 offers little respite for players and coaches alike.

And since American television networks--most notably Fox, Univision, Telemundo and ESPN/ESPN2--are showing more international soccer, there is, for the viewing audience at least, also the prospect of such events as the Copa America, the European Champions’ League, the Toyota/Intercontinental Cup and the yearlong qualification for the 2000 European Championship to be played in Belgium and the Netherlands.

American teams will not only be playing year round but worldwide, from Norway to Nigeria and from Portugal to, perhaps, New Zealand. Here’s a brief look at the year ahead for the U.S. national teams.

WOMEN

Having had only a two-week break since finishing 1998 with a best-ever 22-1-2 record, Coach Tony DiCicco’s women’s national team gathers in Orlando, Fla., on Monday to open a five-month residency camp in preparation for the third FIFA Women’s World Cup, to be played in seven U.S. cities June 19-July 10.

The American team, world champions in 1991, convened in a similar camp before the 1996 Atlanta Games and won the gold medal. DiCicco is hoping this camp will be as successful.

“It’s why we’re doing this,” he said. “I don’t think there’s probably any other competition, maybe even the Olympics, that would have kept us together.

“We want to be world champions again. Our goal was to be world champions and Olympic champions together. We want to accomplish that now.”

The U.S. team, which features an astonishing eight players with more than 100 international games to their credit, will play as many as 17 games before the World Cup.

First up is Portugal on Jan. 30 in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

After that, the big date on the calendar is Feb. 14, when the draw for the 16-nation World Cup will be held in San Jose at halftime of a game between the U.S. and a world all-star squad featuring players from the other 15 competing countries.

The major pre-World Cup test for the U.S. comes in March, when the team travels to Portugal for the Algarve Cup, which features world champion Norway and Olympic silver medalist China.

National teams scheduled to visit the U.S. in the next six months include Finland, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands and Brazil.

Sometime before the World Cup, two milestones probably will have been passed. Mia Hamm, who has scored 101 international goals, should surpass the world record of 108 held by Italy’s Elisabetta Vignotta. In addition, teammate Michelle Akers should become only the fourth woman after Hamm, Vignotta and Italy’s Carolyn Morace (105) to score 100 international goals. Akers, who made her U.S. debut in 1985, has 98.

The Women’s World Cup is being billed as a breakthrough event for women’s sports. Already, 190,000 tickets have been sold, including 25,000 for the championship game to be played July 10 in the Rose Bowl.

That will make the Pasadena landmark the only stadium in the world to have staged a World Cup (1994), Women’s World Cup (1999) and Olympic (1984) soccer final.

MEN

For Coach Bruce Arena’s men, 1999 will be a year of experimenting and rebuilding. Arena has two years to reshape the team and restore its morale after the debacle of France ’98.

Results won’t matter as much as growth until qualifying starts for the 2002 World Cup late next year.

Meanwhile, 26 players have been called in for a 10-day training camp in Orlando starting next Saturday.

They include Germany-based players Claudio Reyna (VfL Wolfsburg) and Escondido’s Jovan Kirovski (Fortuna Cologne) and Netherlands-based Gregg Berhalter (Cambuur Leeuwarden).

Four Galaxy players called in are goalkeeper Kevin Hartman, defender Robin Fraser, midfielder Clint Mathis and forward Cobi Jones.

The U.S. schedule, as usual, has not been fully announced. It will, however, include games against Bolivia at Santa Cruz, Bolivia, on Jan. 26; against Germany at Jacksonville, Fla., on Feb. 6, and against Chile at Fort Lauderdale, Fla., on Feb. 21.

The only significant event on the 1999 calendar for the men’s team is the Confederations’ Cup in Mexico July 24-Aug. 4. World champion France has withdrawn from the eight-nation tournament and has been replaced by Germany.

The U.S. will play Oceania champion New Zealand, South American champion Brazil and European champion Germany in Guadalajara in the first round. Dates have yet to be announced.

UNDER-23

Coach Clive Charles’ under-23 team, the Sydney 2000 Olympic team in training, opens camp Monday in Chula Vista.

The 13-day camp is in preparation for a Feb. 6 game against Germany’s Olympic team as part of a doubleheader with the men’s national team.

Among the 28 players Charles has invited to camp are midfielder Joey DiGiamarino of Corona and the Colorado Rapids and UCLA midfielders Steve Shak, Sasha Victorine and Peter Vagenas.

UNDER-20

While Sigi Schmid might drop in to see how his players are doing with the prospective Olympic team, the Bruin coach has his hands full with the under-20 team.

Having qualified the team for the FIFA World Youth Championship in Nigeria on April 3-24, Schmid has three months to hone it into tournament shape. Toward that end, the team opens a 16-day camp in Chula Vista on Monday.

Twenty-nine players have been called in, including local standouts Nick Rimando (Montclair), Carlos Bocanegra (Alta Loma), Dan Califf (Orange), Ray Ramirez (Ontario), Ryan Futagaki (Fountain Valley), Ryan Mack (Beverly Hills) and John Thorington (Palos Verdes).

After the camp, Schmid will select 18 players to take to the Copa Atlantico in the Canary Islands, Jan. 20-28. Other world championship-qualified teams taking part in the tournament are Germany, Spain and Portugal.

UNDER-17

Move over, Eric Wynalda, an heir to the throne as the United States’ top men’s striker might have been found.

Landon Donovan of Redlands had 11 goals and five assists in five games last month as the under-17 team won the Christchurch Cup in Christchurch, New Zealand.

Donovan, 16, a 5-feet-8, 150-pound forward from Redlands East Valley High who plays club soccer for the Cal Heat, has scored 35 goals in 41 appearances for the under-17 national team.

Coach John Ellinger’s squad was 31-8-7 in 1998, including a 17-7-4 mark against national teams. Now comes the difficult part.

The team, which includes seven Californians, opens residency camp in Bradenton, Fla., on Jan. 17.

It is the first time U.S. Soccer has put a youth team into a full-time residency program.

Assuming they qualify for the FIFA Under-17 World Championship, to be played in New Zealand Nov. 10-27, the players will live and attend classes away from home for the next 10 months.

They will also see a bit more of the world. From Florida, the team travels to Argentina, where it will play Boca Juniors on Feb. 1 and Argentina on Feb. 4, both in Buenos Aires.

It then takes part in the CONCACAF qualifying tournament for the world championship and will play three games in Kingston, Jamaica--against Honduras Feb. 24, Costa Rica Feb. 26 and Jamaica Feb. 28.

The Under-17 World Championship is held every two years, and the United States is the only nation to have taken part in every tournament since the inaugural event in 1985.

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1999 Soccer Calendar

Feb. 1: FIFA World Player of the Year Gala, Barcelona, Spain

Feb. 14: 1999 FIFA Women’s World Cup Draw and USA vs. Rest of the World, San Jose.

Feb. 24-28: CONCACAF qualifying tournament for FIFA Under-17 World Championship, Jamaica.*

March 14-20: Algarve Cup, Portugal.*

March 20: Major League Soccer season opens.

April 3-24: FIFA World Youth (Under-20) Championship, Nigeria.*

April 30: Deadline for formal bids to stage World Cup 2006.

May 1: F.A. Cup Final, Moscow.

May 12: UEFA Cup Final, Moscow

May 19: European Cup Winners’ Cup Final, Birmingham, England.