Warmup Games Are Sure to Generate Some Heat
With the start of the 2002 World Cup less than 10 weeks away, all but two of the teams that will be in Japan and South Korea for the May 31-June 30 world championship will play warmup games this week.
China and Mexico are idle, but the 30 other World Cup hopefuls will be playing today and Wednesday as their coaches move closer to selecting which players to take to the tournament.
A quick look at the week’s more significant matches and developments:
* The United States will play three-time world champion Germany at the Ostseestadion in Rostock, Germany, on Wednesday, and for U.S. Coach Bruce Arena the match will be the next-to-last opportunity to evaluate his European-based players.
Arena named only eight Major League Soccer players to the roster, among them the Galaxy’s Cobi Jones and the San Jose Earthquakes’ Landon Donovan, and picked 12 players from European clubs.
Significantly, Tony Meola will make the trip as the backup to starter Kasey Keller, an indication Meola might be Arena’s choice as the No.3 goalkeeper.
England-based midfielder Claudio Reyna is coming off yet another injury and is not on the roster. Neither is former Galaxy defender Greg Vanney, now playing in France.
The 23-man U.S. World Cup team will be named after a game against Ireland April 17 in Dublin, Arena said. That team will open a 10-day camp in Raleigh, N.C., on May 1 in preparation for its final three warmup games--against Uruguay on May 12, Jamaica on May 16 and the Netherlands on May 19.
* Japan, which will play one of the American team’s World Cup opponents, Poland, on Wednesday in Lodz, Poland, defeated Ukraine, 1-0, in front of 45,000 fans at Nagai Stadium in Osaka last Wednesday. Kazuyuki Toda scored the goal, but Alessandro Santos, the Brazilian-born midfielder who took Japanese citizenship in November specifically to play in the World Cup, impressed most in his debut.
Poland Coach Jerzy Engel is using the Japan game to gauge Asian opposition. The Poles’ opening World Cup match is against South Korea on June 4. The U.S. plays Poland in the teams’ final first-round game on June 14.
* South Korea, which plays the U.S. on June 10, earned a 2-0 victory over Finland in Cartagena, Spain, last Wednesday with substitute Hwang Sun-hong scoring twice in the last four minutes.
“When we have the whole team together, it’s obvious that we’re growing,” South Korea Coach Guus Hiddink said. “You could see that today. This was a very good win for us. The opposition was outclassed, I think.
“We have to improve, of course, but it’s satisfying that we’re on the road, and with a chance of making the second phase [of the World Cup], which is necessary.”
South Korea plays World Cup-bound Turkey in Bochum, Germany, today, the same day two other World Cup teams, Nigeria and Paraguay, play in London.
* Portugal, the first hurdle in the U.S. path at the World Cup, will play Finland at home in Porto on Wednesday, and Coach Antonio Oliveira is using the game to assess a new goalkeeper, Nelson Pereira.
Pereira, 26, gets his debut because veteran keeper Vitor Baia continues to battle injuries and Portugal’s usual starter, Joaquim Silva, has been banned after failing a drug test.
The Portuguese have two more warmup games before facing the United States in Suwon, South Korea, on June 5. They are at home against four-time world champion Brazil on April 17 and play China, under former U.S. coach Bora Milutinovic, in Macau on May 25.
* Brazil will play Yugoslavia in Fortaleza, Brazil, on Wednesday, but influential midfielder Rivaldo will sit out the game because of an ankle sprain.
Coach Luis Felipe Scolari told the Spanish newspaper Sport that the player could be out of the World Cup altogether.
“I am very worried about the injury problems Rivaldo has had this season,” he said. “If he hasn’t fully recovered by the beginning of May, I will have to look for someone else to cover his place because the World Cup is going to be very tough.”
* Argentina, which plays Olympic gold medalist Cameroon in Geneva on Wednesday, also was hit by injuries that could affect its status as one of the World Cup favorites.
Defender Roberto Ayala, Argentina’s 28-year-old captain, will be sidelined for a month after tearing a thigh muscle while playing for his Spanish club, Valencia, in a UEFA Cup quarterfinal game against Italy’s Inter Milan on Thursday.
Meanwhile, striker Hernan Crespo injured ligaments in his ankle while training with his Italian club, Lazio. He too will be out for at least four weeks.
* France, the reigning European and world champion, will play Scotland at Stade de France outside Paris on Wednesday in a game that marks Berti Vogts’ debut as Scotland’s coach.
Nicknamed “McVogts” now that he has switched countries, Vogts won the World Cup while playing for Germany in 1974 and coached the Germans to the quarterfinals in 1998.
Meanwhile, France’s coach, Roger Lemerre, said he is a long way from naming the squad that will try to retain the World Cup.
“I don’t have to make up my mind yet,” said. “I still have some time.”
Not too much time, though. France opens the World Cup against Senegal in Seoul 68 days from today.
* England is at home against Italy on Wednesday in Leeds in a game matching former World Cup winners.
Three other games that day pit World Cup-bound teams against each other: Ireland and Denmark meet in Dublin, Croatia and Slovenia square off in Zagreb, and Saudi Arabia plays host to Uruguay in Riyadh.
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World Cup Rankings
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