| |
 Inside Soccer
Posted: Tuesday June 08, 1999 04:25 PM MLS top scorer Roy Lassiter is auditioning for a U.S. team starting job By Grant Wahl
In April, U.S. team coach Bruce Arena sent D.C. United striker Roy (Lights Out) Lassiter a letter. He explained that Lassiter was a strong candidate for a forward spot but that Lassiter's most likely role would be that of a sub who would play when the Americans were looking for a late goal. When the two men spoke last month, Lassiter had other ideas. "Bruce," he recalls saying, "I can't score any goals sitting on the bench. I want to be a starter."
Sunday's match could be a turning point for the 30-year-old Lassiter, an opportunistic striker who uses speed to make up for his technical shortcomings. Although he's MLS's alltime leading scorer, Lights Out has consistently blown a fuse in international play, scoring just four times in 25 games and shanking a number of sitters in recent matches. What's more, Lassiter concedes that it'll be hard not to feel even more pressure against Argentina, one of the world's best teams. "I have this title behind my name of 'goal scorer' -- You must score goals!" he says. "But right now I've got a lot of confidence. I'm going to perform." He never got that chance at last year's World Cup. Steve Sampson, the U.S. coach at the time, left Lassiter off the team, saying he hadn't proved himself internationally -- a move that Sampson later called a mistake. As for Arena, he has promised to call up MLS's best players, regardless of their experience, as he rebuilds the national team. "Coming out of the 1998 World Cup, how many U.S. players have proved themselves internationally?" says Arena. "If that's the knock on Roy, he's just part of a long list."
MLS Commissioner: As MLS lurches through its fourth season, it has become increasingly clear that commissioner Doug Logan should go. Logan himself proclaimed 1999 the Year of No Excuses, and three years of administrative malaise is enough reason for MLS owners to dispense with excuses and show Logan the door. The numbers don't lie. Under Logan, MLS's average attendance plunged from 17,406 in its debut season (1996) to 14,619 in '97 and hasn't climbed above 15,000 since. TV ratings have been similarly stagnant. On ESPN2, MLS's flagship network, the league hasn't approached the 0.35 rating it attained in '96, and both ABC and Univision are broadcasting fewer games this season than they did in '98. Moreover, in 3 1/2 years as commissioner, Logan has presided over the sale of only one (San Jose Clash) of the three league-owned franchises (Dallas Burn and Tampa Bay Mutiny remain unsold). MLS, meanwhile, has reportedly lost $100 million in its four years. That's not all. According to management sources around the league, Logan so resented the power of deputy commissioner Sunil Gulati, who negotiated all player contracts and was considered the brains of MLS, that when Gulati angered a team owner in March, Logan helped orchestrate Gulati's acrimonious departure. That was only one of the moves that have alienated several members of MLS management. "The league was successful the first year because there was a good plan and Doug let other people do their jobs," says one. "Then he decided he knew more than the experts, and since then we've been on a downhill slide." Says another, "This league has done horribly in the media ever since Doug announced that we'd draw 20,000 people a game before the season two years ago. He never talked to any of us before he said that." Who could replace Logan? Here's one suggestion: 1994 World Cup organizer Alan Rothenberg. Although Rothenberg refused to comment on the subject last week, sources close to him think he would be interested in the commissioner's job, which he turned down in '95 when he went back to his law practice. After all, Rothenberg's influence on American soccer is at its lowest point since '90: Term limits forced him to give up his U.S. Soccer presidency last year; his attempt to buy the Clash fell through; and his closest ally in MLS, Gulati, was forced out. Sure, Rothenberg comes with baggage. His law firm, Latham and Watkins, profited handsomely from his connection with World Cup '94 (the firm handled all the legal work for World Cup USA), and his buddies on the Cup board voted to award him a $7.4 million payment for his "volunteer" work after the tournament's conclusion. That said, Rothenberg was the main reason the Cup cleared a $50 million profit, and he's the only administrator who has made soccer work in America. If he's interested in creating a lasting legacy, a successful MLS would mean far more to soccer in this country than World Cup '94 ever could. By no means is MLS a lost cause. It's producing good young American players, and two or three of its teams could compete in any first division in the world. But for the league to grow, it needs its own David Stern, a leader with a financial and marketing vision who produces results and leaves the soccer part to the experts. In other words, no more excuses. And no more Commissioner Logan.
Issue date: June 14, 1999
| |||||||||||||||||
Copyright © 1999 CNN/SI. A Time Warner Company. Terms under which this service is provided to you.
| |||||||||||||||||
