Women’s Team Wants to Make Name for Itself

Brandi Chastain’s husband is doing OK.

Of course, Jerry Smith would prefer to be known as coach of the U.S. under-21 women’s national team rather than as the spouse of the two-time World Cup winner and Olympic gold medalist, but hey, she has the bigger name.

In any event, Smith’s team is in Gjovik, Norway, where it will play Germany today for a place in the championship game of the Nordic Cup for the fifth consecutive year.

The Americans shut out Iceland, 3-0, on Wednesday, and Denmark, 4-0, on Friday to reach this point in the eight-nation tournament.

Gjovik is about 60 miles from Lillehammer, and between games the players went dry-land bobsledding on the course that was used for the 1994 Winter Olympics.

According to midfielder Lori Lindsay, it was “like an extreme roller coaster with a turbo boost.”

The U.S. team includes defender Ally Marquand, 20, of Irvine and midfielders Erin Misaki, 19, of Valencia and Jill Oakes, 17, of West Hills.

Oakes, from Studio City Harvard-Westlake High, will return to Europe several times in the next year as a member of the U.S. under-19 women’s national team that is preparing for the first FIFA Under-19 Women’s World Championship in Canada next year.

The under-19 squad is coached by Tracey Bates Leone, a teammate of Chastain’s on the U.S. team that won the first Women’s World Championship in China in 1991.

The Americans have won three of the last four Nordic Cups, defeating Norway in the title games in 1997 and 1999, and defeating Germany in the final last year.

China-Bound?

Unlikely as it seems, the reigning world champion U.S. national team will not automatically qualify for the next Women’s World Cup, in China in 2003.

Instead, Mia Hamm and company will have to qualify through tournament play, and CONCACAF last week decided that the 2002 Women’s Gold Cup would serve that purpose.

No details of the Women’s Gold Cup have been finalized, but the winner and runner-up will qualify for China 2003, with the third-place finisher advancing to a playoff against the third-place team from Asia for a place in the world championship.

Branding

Bill Peterson, senior vice president of soccer operations for the Anschutz Entertainment Group, which counts the Galaxy among its baubles and beads, talks about the MLS team being “a brand” that needs to be built.

Like Manchester United, for instance.

The reigning English and former European champion will play Thailand in Bangkok today and the 60,000 fans at Rajamangala Stadium will include a sizable percentage wearing United jerseys.

The hot commodity in town is a fake ManU shirt, which costs about $6.50 compared to 15 or 20 times as much for the real thing.

“I get 200 fans a day asking for Manchester shirts at the moment,” the manager of a shop selling counterfeit jerseys told Reuters. “If I had the stock, I could sell thousands, no problem.”

No sign yet of fake Galaxy jerseys--on these or any other shores.

Two Kinds of Dough

The Flaky Crust in Brooklyn is probably not high on the list of culinary adventures sought out by visitors to New York, but soccer fans should recognize the restaurant.

Or at least the owner.

He is Liberia’s George Weah, European player of the year and FIFA world player of the year in 1995 and a New York resident off and on for more than 12 years.

Weah was back in town last week, drumming up support for Saturday’s match between Liberia and Colombia at Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J.

That game, in turn, is supposed to raise the $750,000 needed to transport $10 million worth of donated medical equipment to a children’s hospital in the Liberian capital of Monrovia.

The country is suffering the effects of a lengthy civil war.

“I am trying to save my country any way possible, and this is a good way to help the people,” said Weah, 34.

The game is part of a doubleheader that also features the New York/New Jersey MetroStars playing the Miami Fusion. The Metro-Stars might figure in Weah’s future.

“I’m just waiting for them,” he told the Associated Press. “Any time they’re ready for me, I’ll come.”

World Cup 2002

Weah will be glued to a television set today, watching Nigeria play Ghana in a crucial World Cup qualifying game.

If the Nigerians win, they’ll go to Korea/Japan 2002.

If they tie or lose, Liberia will qualify for its first World Cup.

“We’re hoping for a miracle to happen,” said Weah, who is Liberia’s finest player as well as its financial benefactor. “We’re all praying that Nigeria draws the game.

“God knows, it would change many people’s lives in Liberia.”

Quick Passes

The U.S. will play Germany on March 27 at a site to be determined, according to the German soccer federation. U.S. Soccer spokesman Jim Moorhouse said only that such a game is being discussed. . . . Japanese government officials estimate that 425,000 people will travel to Japan for the World Cup and that 2.33 million people will visit the 10 Japanese host cities. Japan is co-host of the May 31-June 30 tournament with South Korea. . . . Bolivia Coach Carlos Aragones resigned in the wake of his team’s feeble performance at the Copa America in Colombia, where it lost all three games and failed to score. Bolivia was 4-14-5 during Aragones’ 18 months in charge. . . . In his “state of the league” address Friday, MLS Commissioner Don Garber identified these sites as possibilities for expansion in 2003: Milwaukee; Philadelphia; Rochester, N.Y.; Atlanta; Louisville, Ky.; Houston; St. Louis; Seattle, New York and the Carolinas. A decision on which, if any, to add to the 12-team league will be made by the Oct. 21 championship game, Garber said.