U.S. Draws S. Korea, Cuba in Gold Cup
The United States on Tuesday was drawn to play World Cup 2002 co-host South Korea as well as Cuba at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena in the first round of the sixth CONCACAF Gold Cup soccer tournament.
The 12-nation event, an early test for the U.S. as it prepares for the May/June World Cup in Japan and South Korea, will be staged at the Rose Bowl and at Miami’s Orange Bowl Jan. 18-Feb. 2.
The American team will open against South Korea on Jan. 19, having played the same team only six weeks earlier in Seogwipu, South Korea.
It then will play Cuba on Jan. 21. The U.S. is in Group B, with South Korea and Cuba. Group A--consisting of World Cup-bound Mexico, along with Guatemala and El Salvador--also will be based in Pasadena. In Miami, Group C features World Cup-bound Costa Rica, as well as Trinidad and Tobago and Martinique. Group D is made up of Canada, the defending Gold Cup champion, along with Ecuador and Haiti.
The tournament quarterfinals will be played in Pasadena and Miami on Jan. 26 and 27, respectively. The semifinals and final will be at the Rose Bowl Jan. 30 and Feb. 2, respectively.
The U.S. won the inaugural Gold Cup in 1991; Mexico won in 1993, 1996 and 1998, and Canada won in 2000.
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Neither the U.S. Soccer Federation nor Major League Soccer would comment at any length Tuesday regarding the lawsuit filed against them by the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum Commission.
The suit, filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, alleges that USSF and MLS engage in “anti-competitive, arbitrary and discriminatory” practices.
Specifically, the suit questions USSF’s authority to govern soccer on a professional level in this country and seeks unspecified damages and an injunction against the federation and the league, which it claims “have conspired to prevent [the staging of] professional soccer matches which compete with those of the MLS teams.”
Dan Flynn, the USSF secretary general, was traveling to Los Angeles from Chicago Tuesday and not available for comment, a federation spokesman said.
The league, meanwhile, issued only a brief statement. “It is Major League Soccer’s policy not to comment on litigation until we have been officially served with a complaint,” said Dan Courtemanche, MLS vice president of communications. “Once this process takes place, we will review all documentation and make a statement at the appropriate time.”
