U.S. Opponent Finds Itself in Fine Mess
Taking a page out of the 1998 U.S. Olympic hockey team’s rather besmirched playbook, Canada’s national soccer team last week allegedly trashed its locker room at the Orange Bowl in Miami.
The players were angered by a 2-0 loss to Ecuador in which the South Americans scored twice in the final two minutes, the second goal on a penalty kick. The Canadians--and especially their German coach, Holger Osieck--were furious at U.S. referee Brian Hall and other game officials.
Osieck’s comments to officials landed him a $5,000 fine from CONCACAF, soccer’s governing body in North and Central America and the Caribbean. The players’ actions--they claimed all they had done was knock over a chalkboard--earned the Canadian Soccer Assn. a similar fine. Both are being appealed.
At 8:30 tonight, Canada, the defending Gold Cup champion, plays the United States in the semifinals of the biennial tournament at the Rose Bowl.
In the other semifinal, at 6 p.m., South Korea plays Costa Rica. Whether or not the Canadians have been further angered by the fines imposed on them, they still present a challenge for the Americans, U.S. Coach Bruce Arena said.
“I know generally how they play and what they’re like,” he said. “Obviously, they’re very difficult to play against and they’ve been very successful here.
“No one has been able to eliminate them in this tournament in two tries [2000 and 2002]. We’re going to have quite a task on our hands.
“They have a real physical presence. They’re outstanding on attacking restarts [free kicks and corner kicks], and that’s an area where they get their goals.”
Canada reached this point--the lone outsider among three World Cup-bound teams--by surviving a blind draw after its first-round group ended in a three-way tie.
En route to the semifinals Canada defeated Haiti, 2-0, lost to Ecuador, 2-0, and defeated upstart Martinique on penalty kicks after a 1-1 tie in the quarterfinals.
Osieck does not accept the fact that this is largely a second-string U.S. squad.
“The only one who is really missing is [Claudio] Reyna in midfield, and [Earnie] Stewart, but the rest are here,” he said.
The U.S., seeking its first Gold Cup title since 1991, got here by defeating South Korea, 2-1; Cuba, 1-0, and El Salvador, 4-0. The Americans hold a 9-8-7 edge against the Canadians in the all-time series, but the teams have not met since qualifying play for the 1998 World Cup.
Arena will make one change to his roster, but did not announce it Tuesday. Before Sunday’s quarterfinal against El Salvador, he replaced forward Jeff Cunningham and midfielder Manny Lagos with forward Clint Mathis and midfielder Brian Maisonneuve, respectively. Since then, forward Ante Razov has been lost to injury, and either Bobby Convey or Brian West will be his likely replacement.
South Korea, meanwhile, has been weakened by the return of several players who have rejoined their club teams in Japan’s J-League.
Even without them, the Koreans were able to overcome Mexico in the quarterfinals, albeit on penalty kicks, when goalkeeper Lee Woon-Jae made two tremendous saves.
“I don’t complain about that [the loss of players],” said Coach Guus Hiddink, the Dutchman who is guiding South Korea’s World Cup preparations.
Hiddink said it gave him the opportunity “to bring into the tournament [reserve] players who normally wouldn’t get this experience. It’s good for their development.”
Costa Rica will provide the World Cup co-hosts with a serious and useful test, in advance of their World Cup matches against Poland, the U.S. and Portugal.
“I think it’s very good to meet different styles [of play],” Hiddink said. “Now we play a mid-American team. That’s good.”
Costa Rica is seeking to become the first Central American team to win the Gold Cup.
The five previous tournaments have all been won by North American countries: the U.S., Mexico and Canada.
Coach Alexandre Guimaraes’ Costa Rica team is unbeaten in the tournament. It shut out Martinique, 2-0, and tied Trinidad and Tobago, 1-1, before defeating Haiti, 2-1, in overtime in the quarterfinals.
“It [tonight’s match] will be a much different game than those we played in Miami,” Guimaraes said. “I think South Korea will be a good opponent for us [in preparing to meet Brazil, China and Turkey in the World Cup].”
Meanwhile, in Pasadena on Tuesday, U.S. Soccer named its four Chevrolet athletes-of-the year for 2001.
Stewart, the U.S. team’s top goal scorer during World Cup qualifying, was the men’s winner. Women’s World Cup winner and Olympic gold medalist Tiffeny Milbrett earned the women’s award for the second year in a row.
Young athlete of the year honors went to Aleisha Cramer and DaMarcus Beasley.
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Chile’s soccer federation and the players’ labor union set a Friday deadline for clubs to pay off their debts, putting this season’s championship in doubt less than three weeks before the start.
Colo Colo, the country’s biggest and most popular club, was formally declared bankrupt by a judge Monday.
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Congo (Zaire) secured a place in the quarterfinals of the African Cup of Nations by beating Ivory Coast, 3-1, and titleholder Cameroon, which had already qualified, thrashed Togo, 3-0, in Bamako, Mali.
After Tuesday’s final Group C games, Cameroon won the group with a maximum nine points from three matches while Congo took second with four points.
Togo finished third with two points and was eliminated from the competition with Ivory Coast, which had one point.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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Gold Cup
At Rose Bowl
SEMIFINALS
Wednesday
South Korea vs. Costa Rica, 6 p.m.
U.S. vs. Canada, 8:30 p.m.
THIRD PLACE/FINAL
Saturday
Semifinal losers, 10 a.m.
Semifinal winners, noon.
