Night of Ties and Loose Ends
There were two significant defections at the Coliseum Wednesday night. Surprisingly, neither of them involved Cuba.
Instead, it was Tomasz Radzinski and Mauricio Cienfuegos who were at the center of fast-swirling storms in their respective Canadian and Salvadoran national soccer teams.
Radzinski, a striker who plays for Anderlecht, one of Belgium’s leading clubs, failed to show for Canada’s 6 p.m. game against Cuba.
“He never responded [to being called up to the team],” said Canada’s coach, Holger Osiek. “He got all the information. He got all the travel arrangements. The club got the information that it was required [to release him], according to FIFA regulations. But he didn’t respond.
“That’s definitely not acceptable.”
Without Radzinski, who had scored two goals while leading Anderlecht to a 3-0 victory in a UEFA Cup game last week, Canada struggled to a 0-0 tie with Cuba in front of a small but vocal crowd of 6,583.
Galaxy midfielder Cienfuegos’ defection was even more dramatic. He walked out of the El Salvador team’s practice Wednesday afternoon and didn’t return for it’s 8 p.m. game against Haiti.
El Salvador fared no better than Canada, managing only a 1-1 tie with the Haitians in the four-nation qualifying tournament for next year’s Gold Cup. The Central American team got a third-minute goal from Elias Montes and appeared headed for victory, but Johny Descolines took advantage of a fumble by Salvadoran goalkeeper Ivan Munoz in the 80th minute and earned Haiti a point.
The teams switch opponents for two more doubleheaders Friday and Sunday, with the top two qualifying for the 12-nation Gold Cup, to be played in Los Angeles, Miami and San Diego in February.
Cienfuegos was unavailable for comment Wednesday night, but several sources said he had become embroiled in yet another dispute with the Salvadoran soccer federation over financial and other promises made by the federation that apparently had not been kept.
His status for the rest of the qualifying tournament remained in doubt.
Nor could Galaxy General Manager Sergio Del Prado or Coach Sigi Schmid say whether he would be able to play for the team in its pivotal Major League Soccer regular-season finale at Kansas City on Saturday.
The Galaxy clinched home-field advantage in the MLS playoffs when the Chicago Fire defeated the Colorado Rapids, 1-0, Wednesday night. But whether the Galaxy finishes first or second, and who its playoff opponent will be, depends on the outcome of the game against the Wizards.
“I think tomorrow we have to talk to Mauricio and we probably have to talk to the Salvadoran officials and find out exactly what the ramifications are,” Schmid said. Del Prado said it is possible that El Salvador could prevent Cienfuegos from playing for the Galaxy, but would not guess why he had left the national team.
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Ante Razov scored on a penalty kick in the 26th minute as the Chicago Fire (17-14) defeated the Colorado Rapids, 1-0, before 6,635 at Denver. The Rapids (20-11) have gone scoreless for an MLS-record 375 minutes. . . . Tampa Bay got late goals from Musa Shannon and Manuel Lagos and ended D.C. United’s 11-game winning streak with a 4-2 victory before 10,846 at Washington. Tampa Bay (14-17) handed United (23-8) its first defeat since July 10. . . . San Jose goalkeeper Joe Cannon extended his shutout streak to 325 minutes as the Clash closed its season with a 1-0 home victory over Kansas City before 7,961.
