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 Throw ins Indiana, North Carolina top pre-season college soccer polls
Posted: Friday August 27, 1999 05:44 PM
So, who's going to win the NCAA Division I championships this year? As Claude Reins said to one of his police officers in the movie Casablanca, "Round up the usual suspects." According to CNN/SI's Pre-Season Super Poll, Indiana should repeat as men's champions, and the North Carolina women are expected to return to the top of their heap. The Super Poll brings together three pre-season rankings -- the National Soccer Coaches Association of America, Soccer America and Soccer Magazine. Indiana (23-2 last year), which meets second-ranked Maryland at IU Credit Union Classic on Sept. 3, has the core of last year's side, including Ukrainians Alexi Korol, a forward, and Yuri Lavrinenko, a midfielder, and U.S. Under-20 defender Nick Garcia. Topping the women's poll is North Carolina (25-1), which is led by All-America defender and U.S. Women's World Cup player Lorrie Fair. Defending champion Florida, which lost Danielle Fotopoulos to graduation, also is expected to be a factor, though not as dominant as last season.
The (un)luck of the draw: They might not talk about it publicly, but U.S. Soccer Federation officials weren't exactly jumping for joy about the draw for the U.S. Open Cup semifinals that will be played in Virginia Beach on Sept. 1. The blind draw placed defending A-League champion and Open Cup upset king Rochester Raging Rhinos against the Columbus Crew, and A-League upstart Charleston Battery against the Tampa Bay Mutiny. With the Rhinos' record against MLS clubs in the competition this year -- 2-0, they could very well up-end the Crew, which hosts the final at the its home stadium on Sept. 14. The federation would have preferred those teams to play in separate semifinals. By the way, the Battery sports attacker Wojtek Krakowiak, last year's Division I men's scoring champion from Clemson. Krakowiak was drafted in the second round of this year's MLS draft by the San Jose Clash, but a deal could not be worked out. He went overseas for a while and tried to catch on with a club before returning home. St. John's defender Pawel Krakowiak, Wojtek's brother who played countless hours of soccer with his sibling while growing up, described the best way to defend the dangerous goalscorer. "You just have to be patient with him because he's very tricky," he said. "He makes one move and he goes another way." Memo to Major League Soccer: Will someone please get a good look at El Salvadoran forward Elias Montes? He's 24 years old and one of those young, Hispanic foreigners the league has talked about signing. And he should come relatively inexpensive as well. Montes performs for the Boston Bulldogs in the A-League after moving from Alianza in El Salvador's First Division. Because he was owed money by Alianza, a bank was ready to foreclose on his house in El Salvador. So, he was brought to the Bulldogs, according to Baltazar Palencia, sports director of radio station WUNR in Boston, who helping bring Montes to the U.S. "This is the only way for me to bring him to MLS's attention," said Palencia, who said he is the El Salvadoran manager when the national team plays in the United States. I've seen Montes play three times this season, and he's the real deal. He scored in an international friendly against Colombia at Giants Stadium, against the Long Island Rough Riders as a Bulldog on Aug. 11 and twice against the Rough Riders as a member of the El Salvadoran team in a 3-2 victory this past Thursday night. Montes was unquestionalbly the player of the match. On El Salvador's first goal, his fine, right-wing cross set up Fredy Gonzales Vilchez's goal on a bang-bang play in the 14th minute. After the Riders equalized, Vlichez returned the favor to Montes, who struck from point-blank range at the far post for a 2-1 lead in the 56th minute. And after the Riders tied it again, Montes connected for the game-winner, a penalty kick in the 79th minute, after he was fouled in the penalty area. "I think he's very talented and very, very intelligent," said Riders coach Paul Riley, who would love to have Montes play for his team next season. "He's very nippy around the box. He likes to take palyers on. He's got speed and he works hard, which is unusual for that kind of player. He's got the whole package." Project 2010 update: The first competition of the Under-14 Boys national team recently completed a series of games against Mexican youth teams in Guadalajara, Mexico, and the reports were encouraging. The players were broken into four teams. The team directed by U-14 coaching coordinators Alfonso Mondelo and Juan Carlos Michia finished at 2-1, losing to Chivas, 2-0, but rebounding with victories of 4-0 over Delpines and 3-1 over Atlas. The side coached by Tim Carter and Wolfgang Suhnholz went 1-2, falling to Atlas and Chivas, 3-1, but besting Delpines, 2-0. Between 18 to 24 of those players -- there are 85 in the program -- will be invited to another U-14 session at Cocoa Expo in Florida over Thanksgiving weekend. "There are some really good kids who responded very well," Mondelo said. "There's some nice talent coming out of there. "We saw a special couple of kids who have to be performing in the right environment and a couple of kids who can develop into players and players who have to grow," Mondelo said. "We had some players who were 4-foot-9. When size catches up to their abilities, they will be interesting players." Michael Lewis covers soccer for the New York Daily News and is editor of Soccer Magazine. To submit a question or comment to Michael Lewis, click here.
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