L.A. Set to Make International Mark This Week
Los Angeles is not often the focus of worldwide attention in soccer, but the city occasionally grabs international headlines, and the next three days are a good example.
* On Monday, Julio Grondona, senior vice president of FIFA and president of the Argentine soccer federation, will headline a panel of speakers at the third Honda Symposium in Beverly Hills.
Also taking part in the event will be Alan Rothenberg, former president of U.S. Soccer and founder of Major League Soccer, and Jaime Rodriguez, a former World Cup player for El Salvador and now coach of Alianza, one of that country’s leading teams.
* On Tuesday, Futbol de Primera will host its 10th Honda Player of the Year luncheon, also in Beverly Hills. The three finalists for the most prestigious individual award that can be won by an American player are Kansas City Wizard goalkeeper Tony Meola, Everton forward/midfielder Joe-Max Moore of Irvine and Glasgow Ranger midfielder/defender Claudio Reyna.
In addition to the player of the year, which is voted on by 233 soccer journalists and broadcasters in the United States, Futbol de Primera also will announce the U.S. Player of the Decade, as selected by the eight previous players of the year--Hugo Perez (1991), Eric Wynalda (1992 and 1996), Thomas Dooley (1993), Marcelo Balboa (1994), Alexi Lalas (1995), Eddie Pope (1997), Cobi Jones (1998) and Kasey Keller (1999).
* On Wednesday, a nearly full house is expected at the Coliseum when Argentina and Mexico face off at 8 p.m. in the latest edition of an international rivalry that seldom fails to live up to expectations.
THE SYMPOSIUM
Previous symposiums included speakers such as former U.S. national team coaches Bora Milutinovic and Steve Sampson, Argentine national team Coach Marcelo Bielsa and FIFA executives Michel D’Hooghe of Belgium and Keith Cooper of England.
Grondona’s appearance marks the first appearance by a FIFA official who ranks second only to FIFA President Sepp Blatter in world soccer’s governing hierarchy and further underlines the growing significance of the event.
Rather than speaking extemporaneously, Grondona will be interviewed by Telemundo’s Andres Cantor, who, along with Alejandro “Alex” Gutman, is the founder of Futbol de Primera. The topics will be FIFA’s view of U.S. soccer over the years and the changing role of referees.
Rothenberg will kick off the symposium by discussing U.S. Soccer, past, present and future. Rodriguez will analyze why El Salvador is “10 years behind” its Central American neighbors Costa Rica and Honduras.
As part of Monday’s event, Futbol de Primera will honor former U.S. women’s national team standout Michelle Akers as “the best female soccer player ever.”
Akers--who last week was named the FIFA women’s player of the century by a vote of national team coaches, journalists and FIFA officials--will be introduced by Amy Allman, her teammate on the 1991 U.S. world championship-winning team and now a TV analyst. A third member of that ’91 team, defender Joy Fawcett of Rancho Santa Margarita, also will be on hand.
THE PLAYER OF THE YEAR
Meola already has won every conceivable award this season. He led the Wizards to the MLS title, was named the league’s most valuable player, its top goalkeeper, its comeback player of the year and the MVP of MLS Cup 2000.
He is favored to be named Honda Player of the Year after being a finalist in 1991 and 1994.
His closest opposition is expected to be Reyna, the U.S. national team playmaker who was a finalist in 1997 and 1999. Meola will attend the ceremony, while Reyna and Moore will be linked to it live from Glasgow via a Scottish television feed.
Also linked to the event via telephone or video will be Milutinovic, the U.S. World Cup coach in 1994 who now coaches China’s national team. On Thursday, U.S. Soccer announced that Milutinovic will bring his team to California for a game against the United States in Oakland on Jan. 27.
Meola, Reyna and Moore would be worthy winners, but the Galaxy’s Jones had the best year of any U.S. national team player. Having won only two years ago might have hurt him in voters’ eyes.
One footnote: The best U.S. player never to win the award is Tab Ramos, who will no longer be eligible, having retired from the national team last month. Perhaps his peers will vote him player of the decade.
Among those who will attend the luncheon and award ceremony will be all former winners; Sunil Gulati, vice president of U.S. Soccer, Bill Peterson, senior vice president for Anschutz Soccer and the man who oversees the Galaxy, Chicago Fire and Colorado Rapids for Philip Anschutz; Tim Luce, Galaxy general manager and vice president of business operations; MLS coaches Sigi Schmid of the Galaxy, Fernando Clavijo of the New England Revolution and Octavio Zambrano of the New York/New Jersey MetroStars, and Akers’ parents.
NETWORKING
None of this would have come about had Gutman and Cantor not launched the idea in 1991. U.S. Soccer has its own, awkwardly named “male and female athletes of the year,” but those awards are a pale shadow compared to the Honda Player of the Year award and generally pass almost unnoticed.
Futbol de Primera, which produces soccer radio programs that air on more than 40 stations in North and Central America and which scored a coup earlier this year by winning regional Spanish-language radio broadcast rights to the 2002 and 2006 World Cup tournaments, has brought recognition to not only the individual athletes it honors but also to the sport in the U.S.
“Fox is putting [highlights of the symposium and awards ceremony] all around Latin America,” Gutman said. “Last year, Bora sent me a videotape that was shown in China. They spent about two minutes on it. I couldn’t believe it.”
As is invariably the case with anything involving soccer in the United States, English language television is about a decade or two behind. Twelve TV crews will cover the symposium and awards ceremony, but it is doubtful that any of them will be from non-Spanish networks.
“The people at the English-language TV stations don’t know what’s going on,” Gutman said, adding that producers understand neither the significance of the event nor the high profile of those involved.
“Grondona means nothing to them,” he said. “Alan [Rothenberg], they have half a clue who he is. Michelle [Akers] rings their bell. Basically, it’s an educational process. We need to be very patient. This symposium is a pioneer. We are about five or 10 years away from taking full advantage of a symposium like this.
“In 20 years, it probably will be a completely different story.”
