Under-19 Women’s Team Is Named

Tracy Bates Leone, coach of the U.S. Under-19 women’s national team, on Thursday named 18 players, including three from Southern California, to the team that will try to qualify for the first FIFA Under-19 Women’s World Championship in Canada this summer.

Leone, who played on the U.S. team that won the first FIFA Women’s World Championship in China in 1991, selected five college freshmen, eight high school seniors, three high school juniors and two high school sophomores to her roster.

The local players chosen were defender Rachel Buehler of San Diego, forward Megan Kakadelas of Carslbad and midfielder Jill Oakes of West Hills.

CONCACAF qualifying for the Aug. 17-Sept. 1 world championship in Edmonton, Vancouver and Victoria will be held May 7-11, in Trinidad and Tobago.

The U.S. is in Group B with Suriname, Haiti and Costa Rica.

Group A features Trinidad and Tobago, Mexico, Jamaica and Panama.

Only the group winners qualify.

Europe

Italy defender Gianluca Pessotto, injured in Wednesday’s tie with Uruguay in Milan, was ruled out of the World Cup after tests Thursday showed that he had ruptured the anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee.

Last week, Italy lost midfielder Demetrio Albertini for the tournament because of an Achilles’ tendon injury.

*

Poland, one of the United States’ three first-round opponents at the World Cup, was lambasted by the Polish media after a 2-1 setback to Romania on Wednesday.

“Hopeless. The closer it gets, the worst it goes,” read the front-page headline in Gazeta Wyborcza. “They moved like flies in tar,” wrote the tabloid Super Express. “We were our own worst enemy,” Poland Coach Jerzy Engel said. “But when we will play with our full squad, everything will be all right.”

*

Albania fired Sulejman Demollari as coach, along with his assistants, after it was upset, 2-0, by tiny Andorra. Armando Duka, head of the Albanian soccer federation, stormed into the locker room after Wednesday’s match and told the coaching staff, “You must all be ashamed of what you have done.” He then dismissed them all. It was only the second victory ever for Andorra.

Asia

FIFA officials completed their inspection of South Korea’s 10 World Cup stadiums and praised the facilities themselves and security arrangements for the May 31-June 30 tournament.

FIFA coordinator Peter Velappan called the stadiums “a valuable legacy ... for the future,” while FIFA director Walter Gagg said: “There will be no hooligans, no terrorists, and Korea and Japan will be a safe place to watch soccer.”

*

Jose Carreras, Placido Domingo and Luciano Pavarotti, better known as the Three Tenors, confirmed that they will perform a World Cup concert for the fourth and final time. The trio performed in Rome before the 1990 final, in Dodger Stadium before the 1994 final and in Paris before the 1998 final. Their 2002 concert will be in Yokohama, Japan, on June 27.

Africa

Furious Cameroon fans called for the ouster of leaders of the state-owned television channel after it failed to broadcast Cameroon’s game against Austria the day before. Because of technical difficulties, CRTV broadcast the sound but not the image, carrying instead a still picture from an earlier Cameroon game. “Man created the machine, but the machine has ended up betraying man,” CRTV program director Gervais Mbarga said. “We are indeed very sorry.”