Guevara’s Father Is Slain
Alfonso Zuniga Peralta, the 54-year-old father of midfielder Amado Guevara of the New York/New Jersey MetroStars and Honduras national team, was kidnapped at gunpoint, then shot and killed, Honduran police said Tuesday.
“The killers apparently executed him,” said police spokesman Gustavo Fajardo, who said Zuniga Peralta’s body was found Monday in roadside brush at Tamara, about 12 miles from Tegucigalpa, the Honduran capital.
He had been shot twice in the head. No motive for the slaying was known.
Guevara was in camp with the national team, preparing for Honduras’ four-game tour of Taiwan and Hong Kong later this month when the crime took place Sunday night. Police said Zuniga Peralta apparently had been kidnapped after leaving a casino.
Nick Sakiewicz, the MetroStars’ president and general manager, expressed the team’s condolences to Guevara, the Major League Soccer team’s most valuable player last season.
“We have been in constant contact with Amado throughout this tragedy, and we will continue supporting him in every way that we can,” Sakiewicz said.
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Perez’s New Role
The Galaxy has clarified the status of Ralph Perez, the team’s assistant coach for the last six years, saying that he had not left the team, as at least one Web site had reported, but rather had moved into a front-office role as director of youth development and identification.
Perez, 52, will continue to serve as an assistant coach for the United States under-23 national team, training at the Home Depot Center for the CONCACAF Olympic qualifying tournament in Mexico next month.
Galaxy Coach Sigi Schmid has yet to name a new assistant.
In other MLS developments, the Columbus Crew reached agreement with forward Jeff Cunningham on a contract that will keep him with the team through at least 2005.
Free-agent forward Clint Mathis, formerly with the MetroStars, began a tryout with Hannover 96 of the German Bundesliga after earlier failing to land a place with the Glasgow Rangers in Scotland.
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USA Women
April Heinrichs, the U.S. women’s national team coach, called 27 players into camp at the Home Depot Center starting Monday, including 18 members of the team that finished third in last year’s Women’s World Cup.
The U.S. opens its 2004 season at the Four Nations Tournament in Shenzhen, China, where it will play World Cup runner-up Sweden on Jan. 30, China on Feb. 1 and World Cup fourth-place finisher Canada on Feb. 3.
The two World Cup players not called up were forward Tiffeny Milbrett and defender Danielle Slaton.
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Quick Passes
Humberto Torres, president of the Salvadoran soccer federation, told the newspaper El Diaro de Hoy that the federation was investigating the “disagreeable situation” in which the league club Metapan recruited other players and then misrepresented itself as El Salvador’s national team in a 0-0 tie with Zimbabwe in Harare, Zimbabwe, on Sunday.
AS Roma’s unbeaten run in Italy’s Serie A this season came to an end Tuesday when it lost, 2-1, to European champion AC Milan in front of 80,000 in Rome.
Ukraine international Andriy Shevchenko scored both Milan goals.
Ukraine champion Dynamo Kiev signed 20-year-old forward Kleber, who led Brazil to the FIFA World Youth Championship last month. Kiev paid Sao Paulo a reported $2.5 million for the striker.... After reaching an agreement on unpaid wages and bonuses, Peru’s players ended their two-month strike that caused the league season to be canceled.
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Times wire services contributed to this report.
