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Throw-Ins

MLS hits a milestone at Champions Cup

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Posted: Thursday January 18, 2001 5:54 PM
Updated: Monday January 22, 2001 9:37 PM

First of all, congratulations to the Los Angeles Galaxy for not only securing a berth in the FIFA Club World Championship but winning the CONCACAF championship as well. It certainly is a milestone in Major League Soccer history.

Secondly, good luck this season playing in MLS and trying to focus the team on winning MLS Cup 2001 after the Galaxy returns from Spain in August.

Teams historically can focus on one major competition. Regardless how the Galaxy fare in Spain from July 30-Aug. 12, it could be difficult to get back on track domestically. That will be the huge challenge facing coach Sigi Schmid as his team reaches for the brass ring.

If the Galaxy manage to earn the MLS Cup as well as decent showing in Spain, it will be a crowning achievement to a memorable season.

A few other observations from the CONCACAF Champions Cup:

Where was everybody? A crowd of 8,147 showed up the L.A. Coliseum for the championship game between the home team and Olimpia of Honduras. What an embarrassment. The total attendance for the four dates was 26,476. The Galaxy, by the way, averaged 20,400 a match at the Rose Bowl last season.

Who was at forward? The Galaxy were so desperate for attacking players they put defender Adam Frye at forward. Frye hadn't scored a goal in 52 MLS matches. Somehow, I couldn't imagine Manchester United or Real Madrid putting a little-used player up front in a vital Champions League encounter.

How long were those contracts? MLS signed forward Cobi Jones and defender Greg Vanney to short-term contracts to play in the tournament. Good idea for the short term, but it could be a bad precedent for the long term because other players might want the same treatment some day.

Who was that ref? Did anyone notice the man in the middle for the final?

Why it was Mr. Peter Prendergast of Jamaica, Bruce Arena's favorite referee in the whole world. For the uniformed, Prendergast called that controversial penalty kick in stoppage time in the United States' 2-1 loss in Costa Rica last July.

Prendergast, incidentally, called a hand ball in the penalty area on Galaxy defender Alexi Lalas that led to Olimpia's first goal on Sunday. Lalas leads all American players in handball calls resulting in penalties this offseason. Remember, his handball led to the equalizing goal by Ebony & Ivory in the Walsh Cup last month.

And how about the schedule? At least two and as many as three games will have to be rescheduled to accommodate the Galaxy's participation in Spain. The Aug. 4 match in Chicago and the Aug. 8 encounter in Tampa will be rescheduled. The Aug. 11 home game against D.C. United is another candidate for rebooking. And because the tournament begins the same weekend as the MLS all-star weekend in San Jose (thank heavens L.A. isn't the host), don't expect Galaxy players to attend for obvious reasons.

Coaching rumor mill

The Chicago Fire could announce the signing of Bob Bradley to a contract as early as this week. . . . With SMU coach Schellas Hyndman taking his name out of the mix, Fire assistant coach Mike Jeffries has emerged as one of the favorites for the Dallas Burn job. The Burn have scheduled a press conference for Tuesday afternoon to announce their new coach. . . . The name of former Burn coach David Dir keeps resurfacing as a possibility in San Jose. The latest rumor about the Earthquakes? Former Columbus Crew and MetroStars midfielder Thomas Dooley is said to be interested in the position.

It's Mia vs. Brandi in WUSA launch

The Washington Freedom will host the Bay Area CyberRays in the Women's United Soccer Association's very first game at RFK Stadium on Saturday, April 14 at 2 p.m.

In other words, it will be Mia Hamm's team vs. Brandi Chastain's team in a smart marketing move. The league is planning a celebration of women's soccer for a few days prior to the game, bringing in the top players. It would be the only game played that weekend with the rest of the six teams starting the weekend of April 21.

The season will run through Aug. 26, the day of the championship game. The New York Power, which will call Mitchel Athletic Complex in Uniondale, Long Island, home, is being considered as the host.

The Carolina Tempest will announce it will change its name to the Courage next week.

U.S. vs. Brazil at Rose Bowl

The U.S. takes on Brazil in an international friendly at the Rose Bowl on March 3.

The U.S. also is hosting part of the CONCACAF qualifying tournament for the Under-17 World Cup in St. Louis with three doubleheaders on April 18, 20 and 22. One team will advance to the world championships in Trinidad, while another from a tournament in Honduras will qualify. The teams have not been announced.

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Loser(s) of the week

That goes to St. Etienne, which was penalized seven points in the French first division due to its false-passport scandal. Brazilian player Alex was discovered to have used a Portuguese passport this season. Ukrainian international Maxim Levitsky had Greek travel documents. St. Etienne dropped from 11th to 16th place in the 18-team league and is now in danger of relegation.

A close second is English radio morning-show host Mike Maguire, who ambushed England coach Sven Goran Eriksson. Maguire identified himself as former English national coach Kevin "The Quitter" Keegan and not telling the Swede that the call was on live radio. While it may be a prank, it's child's stuff like this that will egg on more crap and eventually chase a class act like Eriksson away from the job.

At least when shock jocks such as Don Imus or Howard Stern do something like that, they identify themselves. Hey, we all know that dealing with the English media is no walk in the park. They love to build you up, knock you down and build you up all over again. It's amazing that Bobby Robson lasted eight years in the job, a feat that will be difficult to duplicate in that atmosphere.

Sack of the week

Depending on your vantage point, Lothar Osiander was either the latest firing in the postseason or the earliest in the preseason. Moreover, he is out of a job as boss of the San Jose Earthquakes in the wake of the team's new ownership.

I keep hearing the name of David Dir popping up. It will be interesting to see if the Earthquakes name a new coach before Dir's old team, the Dallas Burn. Remember, Dir was canned on Oct. 20. Unfortunately, Burn general manager Andy Swift did not return phone calls. Hopefully, he's negotiating a contract. As of Thursday, there are 18 days until SuperDraft Day on Feb. 5.

Chips shots

"Tough" reputation. MetroStars general manager Nick Sakiewicz is trying to figure out why he is considered the second coming of Attila the Hun in some quarters. Like it or not, a hard-nosed reputation precedes him. "Some have characterized me as a George Steinbrenner kind of guy," he said. "If you ask any of the front office staff, they'll tell you I'm not Atilla the Hun."

By the way, the leftover fan malaise from the nightmare 1999 season lingered last year that the team sold only 2,700 season tickets. Sakiewicz wants to double that figure, which he termed "dismal."

"There is a battle to be won of getting the fans back," he said. "I want to break the 20,000 mark [in average attendance] as a personal, internal goal. I want to make more money to cut down the losses."

Vote late and often. Balloting ends Saturday on U.S. Soccer's players of the year. I threw my support behind Chicago Fire midfielder Chris Armas as men's player of the year and Tiffeny Milbrett as the top woman. For youth players, I'll take the Fire forward Josh Wolff for the male selection and Christie Welsh for the women's player.

If Welsh wins, maybe U.S. women's national coach April Heinrichs will use the Penn State sophomore striker -- Welsh had 11 goals in only 744 minutes in internationals last year * in the next series of friendlies. * *

In a unique category called "fans of the year" (seven national team matches were nominated), I picked the 51,996 spectators who showed up for the U.S.-Guatemala World Cup qualifying confrontation at RFK Stadium. Yeah, I realize a good bulk of that crowd was Guatemalan, but the atmosphere was fantastic. If you're interested in throwing in your two cents, you can vote at us-soccer.com.

Forgotten Tiffeny. I have to take umbrage with the three finalists in the soccer category of the Espy soccer awards, actually the lack of one. I don't have a problem with MLS scoring champion Mamadou Diallo or league MVP Tony Meola or even Mia Hamm, who had a disappointing Olympics. But forgetting Tiffeny Milbrett, who was the real offensive hero of the Olympics and who is the key player on the women's national team? How could they? Regardless of how well known a player, coach or personality is, sometimes you don't go with the obvious. ESPN missed the boat on this one.

Ben's double. Ben Olsen, who scored the game-winner for D.C. United in stoppage time in its quarterfinal victory in the CONCACAF Club Championship on Wednesday, certainly has made an impression at Nottingham Forest as he was voted top player by the fans (via the Internet) for consecutive months (November and December). And that has nothing to do with the fact I voted for him 57 times. Only kidding. Word has it that Forest will eventually pay a US$2.4 million transfer fee to MLS for Olsen.

Landon's unhappy. The scuttlebutt out of Germany has it that Landon Donovan is unhappy in his role with Bayer Leverkusen and wants out big time. Actually, when you're not playing at all, you have to wonder what role that actually is. "If there was a possibility of Landon coming back, we'd jump at that," MLS deputy commissioner Ivan Gazidis said. "We've had no contact with Bayer Leverkusen."

Media watch. In the wake of my rant of two weeks ago that I wasn't going to take it any more from the sometimes-ignorant U.S. media comes this little ditty: In a commercial for EA Sports' FIFA 2001 video game, the announcer mispronounced FIFA as Fy-Fa, with a hard i, instead of Fee-fa. I mean, it's seven years since we hosted the World Cup. Don't you think we'd be able to get it right by now -- especially in a commercial for a product they sanction?

Enough already! I admit it. I am one of those advocates who feels that soccer should be at the Olympics -- as an under-23 competition for men and an open event for women. But when I hear of the International Olympic Committee considering the possibility of adding beach soccer and indoor soccer for the 2008 Summer Games, I cringe. Enough already adding new sports. Enough already with adding new soccer events. The Olympics are big enough already. What's next? Soccer on ice? Oh, I'm sorry. That would be for the winter Olympics.

Into the future. By the way, if you're planning well in advance, the soccer schedule for the 2004 Athens Olympic is out and it is a duplicate of the Sydney Summer Games. The tournament kicks off on Aug. 11, two days before the Opening Ceremony. The venues include Volos, Thessaloniki, Herakilo and Athens with the medal-round matches set for Nea Philadelphia Stadium in Athens from Aug. 26-28.

Gut feeling. In the first "MLS" matchup of the season, the Los Angeles Galaxy takes on D.C. United in the semifinals of the CONCACAF Championship Cup on Friday night. With the Galaxy a bit depleted, I envision a 2-1 win by a revived United side. Regardless of which side prevails, U.S. soccer is the winner because the victor qualifies for the FIFA Club World Championship in Spain next summer.

Michael Lewis covers soccer for the New York Daily News. On Friday, he was honored by the National Soccer Coaches Association of America in the college division of its writing contest for Life is Beautiful, a column on University of San Francisco coach Steve Negoesco.

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