Last Step Trips Aussies Again
The 778th and final qualifying game for the 2002 World Cup was played in Montevideo, Uruguay, on Sunday and, as usual, luckless Australia came out on the short end.
Two-time world champion Uruguay rolled to a 3-0 victory in front of 68,000 fans at Centenario Stadium, thereby winning the two-legged playoff, 3-1, on aggregate after being beaten, 1-0, by Australia last week at Melbourne.
The South Americans thus claimed the 32nd and final place in World Cup and assured that the May 31-June 30 tournament in Japan and South Korea will feature all seven former world champions: Argentina, Brazil, England, France, Germany, Italy and Uruguay.
The Socceroos, meanwhile, were left to contemplate another failure. In a playoff for a place in USA ‘94, Australia was edged, 2-1, by Argentina. Four years later, in a playoff for France ‘98, they were leading Iran by two goals with 15 minutes left but were tied, 2-2, and eliminated on away goals.
“Obviously, everyone is very, very disappointed,” said Coach Frank Farina, who added that the Oceania champion “should have direct entry” to the World Cup rather than have to face an additional playoff.
Australia also lost a playoff to Scotland in 1986 and earlier was ousted by North Korea (1966) and Israel (1970) at the last hurdle. Its only World Cup appearance came in 1974.
Uruguay controlled most of Sunday’s game. It got a 13th-minute goal from Dario Silva to erase Australia’s first-game lead, several superb saves by goalkeeper Fabian Carini and, finally, two goals from substitute Richard Morales in the 70th and 90th minutes to clinch its World Cup place.
MLS Players Take Aim
Twenty-eight Major League Soccer players, including the Galaxy’s Danny Califf, Cobi Jones and Pete Vagenas, arrived in camp at Chula Vista Sunday to begin preparing for the U.S. national team’s Dec. 9 game against World Cup 2002 co-host South Korea.
The U.S. team will fly to South Korea on Dec. 3 for the match at Seogwipo on the island of Jeju, and Coach Bruce Arena will take a roster composed entirely of MLS players.
Purposely not calling upon his European-based players, Arena also will employ only MLS players for the 12-nation CONCACAF Gold Cup, to be played in Pasadena and Miami Jan. 18-Feb. 2. In addition to the U.S., other World Cup teams taking part in that tournament are Costa Rica, Ecuador, Mexico and South Korea.
The South Korea match and the Gold Cup will offer the opportunity for MLS players to stake their claim to a place on Arena’s eventual World Cup roster.
Newcomers called into camp are defender Wade Barrett of the MLS champion San Jose Earthquakes, midfielders Mark Lisi of D.C. United and Evan Whitfield of the Chicago Fire, and forward Jeff Cunningham of the Columbus Crew.
The U.S. roster:
Goalkeepers--Tim Howard (New York/New Jersey), Tom Presthus (Columbus), Nick Rimando (Miami), Zach Thornton (Chicago).
Defenders--Jeff Agoos (San Jose), Barrett, Carlos Bocanegra (Chicago), Califf, Carlos Llamosa (Miami), Pablo Mastroeni (Miami).
Midfielders--Chris Armas (Chicago), DaMarcus Beasley (Chicago), Bobby Convey (DC), Diego Gutierrez (Chicago), Jones, Manny Lagos (San Jose), Lisi, Jesse Marsch (Chicago), Richard Mulrooney (San Jose), Vagenas, Brian West (Columbus), Whitfield.
Forwards--Cunningham, Landon Donovan (San Jose), Clint Mathis (New York/New Jersey), Brian McBride (Columbus), Ante Razov (Chicago), Josh Wolff (Chicago).
Euro 2004
The next major tournament after the 2002 World Cup will be the 2004 European Championship, to be played in Portugal, which qualifies automatically as host.
On Friday in Geneva, Switzerland, 50 other countries were divided into 10 groups of five for qualifying play. France, Sweden, Spain, the Czech Republic, Germany, Ireland, Romania, Italy, Belgium and Turkey are the top-seeded teams.
It Gets Weird
In one of the stranger soccer happenings of late, Chile national team defender Mauricio Aros claims he was only joking when he asked referee Pablo Pozo to issue him a yellow card during a league match so that he could be suspended from his team’s next game and therefore be free to attend his sister’s wedding.
As it turned out, Aros was cautioned for a violent tackle and suspended.
In England, meanwhile, guidelines are being drawn up to control the behavior of out-of-line club mascots.
Several have become involved in on-field brawls in recent seasons, including one in which a mascot ripped the head off another, but the last straw came earlier this season when Bury’s “Robby the Bobby” dropped his pants and mooned fans of rival Stoke City.
Officials were not amused.
Quick Passes
American stars Mia Hamm and Tiffeny Milbrett and Chinese standout Sun Wen are finalists for the first FIFA Women’s world-player-of-the-year award after being nominated in voting by 72 women’s national team coaches. The winner will be announced Dec. 17 in Zurich, Switzerland.... World Cup participants Croatia and Mexico are finalizing plans for a friendly match in Los Angeles between Dec. 12-16.
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2002 World Cup Field
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Country App. Recent Argentina 12 1998 Belgium 10 1998 Brazil 16 1998 Cameroon 4 1998 China First appearance Costa Rica 1 1990 Croatia 1 1998 Denmark 2 1998 Ecuador First appearance England 10 1998 France 10 1998 Germany 14 1998 Ireland 2 1994 Italy 14 1998 Japan 1 1998 Mexico 11 1998 Nigeria 2 1998 Paraguay 5 1998 Poland 5 1986 Portugal 2 1986 Russia 8 1994 Saudi Arabia 2 1998 Senegal First appearance Slovenia First appearance South Africa 1 1998 South Korea 5 1998 Spain 10 1998 Sweden 9 1994 Tunisia 2 1998 Turkey 1 1954 United States 6 1998 Uruguay 9 1990
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