With World Cup Qualifying Next, U.S. Sitting Pretty
Only a week remains until the U.S. takes on Mexico in what rapidly has turned into the most hyped soccer game ever involving the U.S. national team.
But the World Cup qualifying match in Columbus, Ohio, is not the only qualifier being played next Wednesday that will have a bearing on whether Coach Bruce Arena’s squad goes to Japan/Korea in 2002.
By the time Claudio Reyna leads the U.S. team onto the field at Crew Stadium, the result of the Jamaica-Trinidad and Tobago game in Kingston will be known.
And by the time referee Rodolfo Sibrian of El Salvador blows the final whistle in Columbus, the U.S. coaching staff will have learned the outcome of the Costa Rica-Honduras game in San Jose, Costa Rica.
If all three games produce winners, the six teams will be split into three front-runners and three stragglers. And since only three of the six will qualify for the World Cup after each has played a 10-game series, that divide will mean something right away.
At the moment, the U.S. is well positioned--which is to say, it has not yet dropped a point or a player. Everyone is fit and healthy and Arena is optimistic.
“This is a very talented group, with a good mix of European and Major League Soccer players, and after a few days of training together, we should be in great shape for the Mexico match,” he said when naming his 24-player roster.
“Most people would rate Mexico as one of the top teams in our group, so to be able to get three points in that game would be a major plus for our team. That’s certainly what we’re shooting for.”
A HANDFUL OF PROBLEMS
The five other contenders have not been as lucky.
Mexico, for example, is in such a slump that the team is refusing to talk to the media. Coach Enrique Meza’s side has lost four and tied one of its last five games.
National team players, led by the Galaxy’s Luis Hernandez, last week said they were tired of what they see as unfounded attacks on their recent performances.
That did not concern Televisa. The Mexican television network put a crew in Columbus a week ago.
With Major League Soccer’s Columbus Crew in Germany and the U.S. and Mexican teams not arriving in town until Saturday, soccer is a lot thinner on the ground than snow, so Televisa’s reporters are having to be creative and are filing daily reports on life in Ohio in midwinter.
The weather is a lot better in Jamaica, but Coach Clovis de Oliveira has experienced one setback after another.
First, “the Reggae Boyz” suffered a serious loss when veteran defender Stephen Malcolm was killed last month when a tire blew out and his car overturned while he was driving to Montego Bay. Midfielder Theodore Whitmore was injured in the accident.
De Oliveira also is without a starting goalkeeper, Aaron Lawrence having broken his ankle. Backup Donovan Ricketts has a strained groin, and third-string Leon Gordon broke his nose in a league game last week.
Meanwhile, Ian Porterfield, Trinidad and Tobago’s coach, took his squad--including Galaxy draft pick Brent Rahim--to England, where his players from the islands were joined by his players from the British Isles for three warm-up games.
On Porterfield’s team is the most accomplished, highest-paid and most successful player of any in the qualifying field, Manchester United striker Dwight Yorke.
Yorke, 29, who was acquired by Manchester for $18.4 million in 1998, has made it clear what getting to the World Cup means to him.
“I think this is my last chance,” he said on United’s Web site last month. “If we don’t qualify, I will hang up my boots in terms of international football.”
Costa Rica and Honduras, meanwhile, have suffered injuries.
Costa Rican striker Paulo Wanchope underwent arthroscopic surgery on his right knee earlier this month and is unavailable. Honduras lost its top forward when Carlos Pavon limped off the field in Mexico earlier this month after aggravating an injury to his right knee suffered in December.
“The possibilities for Pavon to play against Costa Rica are minimal,” said Oscar Benitez, the Honduran team doctor.
In Florida, Arena hears these tales of woe and smiles to himself. Things are looking better every day for the U.S.
HOW ABOUT IT, PHIL?
Memo to Phil Anschutz: As long as money is not a concern--and obviously it isn’t--it would be a good idea to send someone over to London to attend the auction at Christie’s on March 23.
Items will go under the hammer that would be a glittering centerpiece to any soccer museum that might be considered as part of the Galaxy stadium and multi-sport complex in Carson.
Gordon Banks, England’s World Cup-winning goalkeeper of 1966 and the man who made “the save of the century” against Pele in the 1970 World Cup in Mexico, is selling his memorabilia.
Why the 63-year-old Banks is doing so is not known, but items such as his World Cup winner’s medal will probably fetch more than $100,000. Also being offered are the West German goalkeeper’s shirt that Hans Tilkowski wore in the memorable 1966 final, won 4-2 by England at Wembley, and a ball signed by the 1966 English team and manager Sir Alf Ramsey.
It always is sad to see the game’s history sold off like this. Only last September, Sir Geoff Hurst, who scored a hat trick in the ’66 final, sold the red shirt he wore in that game for $133,400.
Such items belong as much to the public as they do to the individuals and should not be dispersed. England’s Football Assn., in fact, has a duty to acquire them. But if it fails to do so--as it fails in so many other areas--Anschutz should take advantage and keep the collection together.
There is even a U.S. connection. Banks, after all, did play for the Fort Lauderdale Strikers of the old North American Soccer League.
QUICK PASSES
Coach Wolfgang Suhnholz selected three UCLA players, goalkeeper D.J. Countess and defenders Alexander Yi and Nelson Akwari, for the U.S. under-20 national team’s two-week camp in Chula Vista. All three Bruins were members of the U.S. team that finished fourth at the FIFA under-17 World Championship in New Zealand in 1999. The under-20 team is preparing to qualify for the FIFA World Youth Championship June 17-July 8 in Argentina.
The Women’s United Soccer Assn. selected Tony DiCicco, the world championship and Olympic gold medal-winning former coach of the U.S. women’s national team, as its chief executive officer. . . . Former U.S. national team player Martin Vasquez was named assistant coach of the WUSA’s San Diego Spirit.
The New York/New Jersey MetroStars will acquire a third Colombian player, midfielder Pedro Alvarez, to supply passes to forwards Adolfo Valencia and Alex Comas. . . . MLS teams Washington D.C. United and the Columbus Crew will play in the new CONCACAF Giants Cup to be launched this spring.
Former U.S. national team midfielder Dominic Kinnear has been named assistant coach of the San Jose Earthquakes. . . . Austria and Switzerland are considering a joint bid to stage the European Championship in 2008. Portugal will be the host in 2004.
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CONCACAF World Cup Qualifying
* What: Mexico vs. U.S.
* When: Feb. 28, 4:30 p.m. PST
* TV: ESPN2, Telemundo.
* Where: Columbus, Ohio.
* Update: The U.S. opens the final round of a 10-game World Cup qualifying schedule, trying to become one of three teams from a six-team group that plays in Japan/Korea 2002. The U.S. will try to extend its 16-game home unbeaten streak in World Cup qualifying play, having last lost a match to Costa Rica on May 31, 1985, in Torrance. Mexico holds a 27-7-9 record in the all-time series, but the U.S. has lost in only four of the last 12 meetings.
* Other opening games: Trinidad and Tobago vs. Jamaica at Kingston; Honduras vs. Costa Rica at San Jose.
