Rongen Selects Eight Pros for Team
Coach Thomas Rongen on Tuesday named eight professional players, six from Major League Soccer and two from clubs in Europe, to the United States under-20 national team that will try to qualify for the FIFA World Youth Championship in the United Arab Emirates March 25-April 16.
The U.S. plays Haiti, El Salvador and Canada in a round-robin tournament Nov. 13-17 in Charleston, S.C., with the top two teams advancing to the world championship. Mexico and Panama already have qualified from the CONCACAF region. The full U.S. team:
Goalkeepers: Steve Cronin, Santa Clara, and Ford Williams, North Carolina.
Defenders: C.J. Klaas, Washington; Frank Simek, Arsenal, England; Chad Marshall, Stanford; Ryan Cochrane, Santa Clara; Jordan Harvey, UCLA, and Chris Lancos, Maryland.
Midfielders: Ricardo Clark, Furman; Bobby Convey, D.C. United; Ned Grabavoy, Indiana; David Johnson, Willem II, Netherlands; Justin Mapp, D.C. United, and Jordan Stone, Dallas Burn.
Forwards: Devin Barclay, San Jose Earthquakes; Knox Cameron, Michigan; Eddie Johnson, Dallas Burn, and Santino Quaranta, D.C. United.
Bradley Takes Over
Bob Bradley officially took charge of the New York/New Jersey MetroStars, becoming the unsettled MLS team’s seventh coach in as many seasons.
The 44-year-old Montclair (N.J.) native was under contract to the Chicago Fire, which received Brazilian forward Rodrigo Faria and a conditional 2004 draft choice from the MetroStars for giving Bradley his release.
Turkey Chosen
World Cup semifinalist Turkey was selected to round out the field for the eight-nation FIFA Confederations Cup, to be played June 18-29 in the French cities of Paris, Lyon and Saint-Etienne.
The United States, as CONCACAF champion, will play three of the seven other teams in the first round, meaning that it could be up against World Cup champion Brazil, African and Olympic champion Cameroon, South American champion Colombia, European champion France, Asian champion Japan, Oceania champion New Zealand or Turkey, the third-place finisher at Korea/Japan ’02.
Champions League
Home-field advantage meant little in European Champions League play, since not one of the eight home teams won.
Defending champion Real Madrid squandered a two-goal lead that Steve McManaman had provided and was tied, 2-2, by AEK Athens at Santiago Bernabeu stadium in Madrid. Costa Rica international Walter Centeno scored the tying goal for the Greek team after Costas Katsouranis had cut Real’s lead in half.
The biggest upset of the day was in London, where English champion Arsenal was beaten, 2-1, by French league leader Auxerre, which got first-half goals from Olivier Kapo and Khalilou Fadiga.
Nwankwo Kanu scored for Arsenal, which lost again only days after its seven-month, 30-game unbeaten streak in the English Premier League had ended Saturday when it was beaten by Everton.
Spartak Moscow’s hopes of advancing to the final 16 ended when it was trounced, 3-1, by Liverpool in Moscow, where Michael Owen had a hat trick.
In Switzerland, Spanish champion Valencia gave up a late goal and had to settle for a 2-2 tie against FC Basel in a game in which Basel’s Ivan Ergic scored the 2,500th goal since the Champions League was launched in 1992.
Olympique Lyon and Inter Milan swapped goals with some abandon in a match that ended 3-3, with Sonny Anderson scoring twice for the French team and Hernan Crespo scoring twice for the Italian team.
