Rapids’ Player to Leave
One of Major League Soccer’s more significant off-season acquisitions, former Arsenal midfielder Gilles Grimandi, who was obtained by the Colorado Rapids as a replacement for Carlos “El Pibe” Valderrama, is leaving MLS.
The French player told the Denver Post that he was turning his back on the multiyear contract he signed with the league and heading home.
“I’m going to leave,” Grimandi said. “I don’t know when, but sooner or later. I’ve got family problems I have to take care of and that’s all I’m going to say.”
Dan Counce, the Rapids’ general manager, said Grimandi’s leaving would create “a legal mess,” but insisted that the team would not allow the player to simply walk out without the Rapids receiving some form of compensation.
“Our position is ... he has a contract and we expect him to fulfill it,” Counce told the Post. “Maybe he’s hoping the contract is going to go away, but it’s not.”
Grimandi did not play in Colorado’s 2-1 loss to the San Jose Earthquakes on Saturday in the team’s season opener.
Hurdles Ahead
If the two remaining MLS teams in the CONCACAF Champions Cup -- the Galaxy and the Columbus Crew -- want to remain in the tournament, they will have to overcome huge odds today.
The Galaxy, which lost its first-leg quarterfinal game to Necaxa last week, 4-1, has to beat the Mexican team by three goals at Aguascalientes, Mexico, simply to even the series and force an overtime tiebreaker.
The Crew faces even stiffer odds. It was beaten, 6-0, by Morelia in Mexico last week and has to win by seven goals tonight in Columbus to advance. Coach Greg Andrulis was not optimistic.
“We have to be realistic,” he told the Columbus Dispatch. “Obviously, the fifth and sixth goals sealed our fate.”
Scolari’s Law
Luiz Felipe Scolari didn’t coach Brazil to the World Cup in 2002 without laying down a few rules, and now he is doing the same as Portugal’s coach.
Faced with a possible revolt by Portuguese clubs hesitant to release players at a crucial time in the league and cup season, Scolari said that he would demand their assistance.
“I can’t always be leaving players off the [national team] roster,” he said in Lisbon. “The scheduled games will be maintained and I will call up all the players I deem to be necessary. I’m here to help the clubs, but I also want to feel they’re helping me. The day that doesn’t happen, I won’t help them either.”
Portugal, host of the 2004 European Championship, plays the Netherlands on April 30.
Quick Passes
Roberto Baggio’s Italian Serie A club Brescia announced that it would build a 25,000-seat stadium on the outskirts of the city and hopes to occupy it by the start of the 2005-06 season.... European soccer’s ruling body, UEFA, ordered Georgia to play its next Euro 2004 qualifying match, against Russia on April 30, behind closed doors after a penknife was thrown from the stands during the team’s March 29 match against Ireland in Tbilisi and struck Irish forward Kevin Kilbane.
FIFA suspended Azerbaijan from international competition, citing “severe and unacceptable levels of external pressure” by the government in the affairs of the Azerbaijan soccer federation.... FIFA also upheld the provisional international ban against Brazil’s Roberto Carlos for running into referee Alon Yefet and will announce the length of the ban on May 9.... Manchester United said that midfielder David Beckham and goalkeeper Fabian Barthez, who suffered minor injuries Saturday, would play against Arsenal today in a match that could determine the English Premier League title race.
