Messing Knows What It Takes
They’re rolling the dice again down on South Prairie Avenue in Chicago.
There, at the corner of Prairie and 18th Street, in the three-story Victorian that serves as home to U.S. Soccer, the odds are being calculated, the angles judged, the chances weighed.
At issue, quite simply, is whether the defending world champion U.S. women’s national team can do in 2003 what it did in 1999 -- sweep the nation along for a thrill-a-minute ride en route to regaining the world championship it first won in 1991.
Four years ago, the crowds turned out in ever-increasing numbers, culminating in the record 90,185 that packed the Rose Bowl to see the Americans prevail -- only just -- over China in the final.
And so, on Prairie Avenue, the question is this: Can the U.S. reach the final again and, more to the point, should the schedule for the 2003 FIFA Women’s World Cup -- assuming FIFA gives it to the U.S. -- therefore include the Rose Bowl as one of its venues?
It’s a gamble, but as Marla Messing says, it was a roll of the dice in 1999 too.
“We had the same exact thing in 1999,” the women who headed the most successful Women’s World Cup ever said from her Brentwood home. “We had the Rose Bowl for the final and we didn’t know who was going to qualify or who was going to end up in it.
“So it’s always a big gamble. I don’t know if they’re going to want to take that big a gamble this time.”
No matter whether U.S. Soccer takes the risk or plays it safe and schedules the final for, say, RFK Stadium in Washington, Messing is quite certain the U.S. can stage a successful tournament even if it has only four months to prepare.
The experience of four years ago is key.
“That’s one of the biggest things they have going,” she said. “People know what the event is about. Unlike 1999, when we really had to start from scratch, when we had to tell people and explain to people and teach people what the event was about, there’s a huge knowledge base in the country now of people who understand what the Women’s World Cup is about, who understand what women’s soccer at the highest level is about.
“They’re going to be excited to go. You don’t have that learning curve that we had.”
That experience should be enough to cause FIFA to name the U.S. as the stand-in host for the quadrennial world championship now that world soccer’s governing body has taken it away from China because of SARS.
But Messing said 2003 would be different from 1999.
“It’s always hard to have lightning strike twice,” she said. “That first time and the cultural impact of that, and [it being] something brand new, it’s probably going to be hard to duplicate that. But at the same time, can they put on a great tournament? Absolutely.
“It’s another four years that these [national soccer] federations have been funding women’s soccer teams and it’s quite possible that the soccer on the field could be better than it was in 1999.
“At the end of the day, that’s what really matters.”
Monopoly Money
Zinedine Zidane was noticeably silent last week when France Football magazine’s annual survey of player salaries revealed that David Beckham had supplanted him as soccer’s highest-earning player.
Not to worry, though, Marcel Desailly, Zidane’s teammate on the French national team, was more than willing to step in and say a few words.
“David Beckham is no longer in the soccer world, but he is an integral part of show business,” Desailly told France Football. “His wife [former Spice Girl Victoria] is already part of show-business circles and he is surrounded by people who give him advice, from the shoes he should wear to whether he should get a tattoo.
“Beckham has left the context of traditional football, while players like Zidane or Ronaldo refuse to do so.”
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Moneymakers
Soccer’s highest-paid players:
*--* Player Club P Income* David Beckham Manchester United M $16.9 Zinedine Zidane Real Madrid M $15.8 Ronaldo Real Madrid F $13.2 Rio Ferdinand Manchester United D $10.8 A. Del Piero Juventus F $10.7 Hidetoshi Nakata Parma M $10.6 Raul Real Madrid F $10.5 Christian Vieri Inter Milan F $10.4 Michael Owen Liverpool F $10 Roy Keane Manchester United M $9.75 Luis Figo Real Madrid M $9.7 Gabriel Batistuta Inter Milan F $9.7 Sol Campbell Arsenal D $9.1 Oliver Kahn Bayern Munich G $8.6 Alvaro Recoba Inter Milan F $8.5 Francesco Totti AS Roma F $8.2 Rivaldo AC Milan M $8.1 Thierry Henry Arsenal F $7 Fabio Cannavaro Inter Milan D $6.9 Paolo Maldini AC Milan D $6.8
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*Annual income In millions; Including salary and endorsement income as compiled by France Football magazine.
