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Overbeck gets assist from Devers
Posted: Friday April 14, 2000 08:08 AM
When it was announced last week that U.S. defender Carla Overbeck has Graves' disease, an exhausting (but treatable) condition caused by an overactive thyroid, most fans learned through a sparsely-worded press release. For Overbeck's teammates, though, the news came in a far more emotional setting. At a team meeting in Charlotte last week, Overbeck and several U.S. players broke down as she revealed her condition. "I couldn't even look at some of them," Overbeck says. "I'm used to feeling so fit and confident, so when something happens and you can't be yourself, it's hard. I've played with these people for 12 years. Who knows what will happen? But I still want to be there playing in the Olympics." Fortunately, doctors caught the disease early enough that Overbeck, 32, will attempt to continue training with the team as she undergoes treatment. Last week she spoke for half an hour by phone with Olympic sprinter Gail Devers, who endured a more severe bout with Graves' disease between 1988 and '91. (At one point Devers nearly had to have both feet amputated.) "Gail assured me that once you get on the medication you'll feel much better," says Overbeck, who has won two World Cup titles and an Olympic gold medal in her 161-game international career. "It was comforting for me to talk to someone who's an elite athlete and has already gone through this."
Overbeck plans on being in Chula Vista, Calif., on Monday for the start of the U.S.'s three-month-long Olympic residency camp, but keep in mind, making the team won't be a cinch. New coach April Heinrichs has already left five Americans from last year's World Cup-winners off the 30-player camp roster (Tisha Venturini, Danielle Fotopoulos, Tiffany Roberts, Saskia Webber and Tracy Ducar).
The club/country disconnectHere's a question that has been on my mind for a while: Why do some players star in the club game but flounder at the international level, and vice-versa? Examples: Dallas Burn midfielder Jason Kreis, thedefending Major League Soccer MVP, is leading the league in scoring for the second straight season, and Miami Fusion forward Roy Lassiter is the league's alltime top goal-scorer, yet neither one has proved himself with the U.S. national team. On the other hand, Columbus Crew forward Brian McBride has never topped the MLS marquee, and Eddie Lewis never became a star when he was with the the San Jose Earthquakes (formerly the Clash). Yet both have started solid international careers, earning indispensable roles in coach Bruce Arena's lineup. "You see it everywhere in the world," says Arena. "Kenny Dalglish [a Scottish soccer star in the 1960s and '70s] was European player of the year, but he never had much of an international career. I think forwards have the most difficult adjustment to make, because you're going against outstanding defenders and there's so much pressure to score that if it doesn't happen, people question it. Plus the international level is a little faster. Sometimes at the club level players can play at a comfort speed." There are other factors, too. D.C. United defender Jeff Agoos, a longtime national-teamer, thinks the adjustment is as much mental as physical. Adaptability also helps. "I started my career in a central role and have had to play wide left on the national team," he says. "Jason [Kreis] has a role at the Burn where he flourishes [as an attacking mid], but he hasn't had the same role on the national team [where he has mostly played forward] and he's not as comfortable. Brian McBride's role in Columbus [where he's a more withdrawn forward] is different than it is with the national team, and he doesn't get as much quality service in MLS." A lot has to do with the coach, of course, and whether he has faith in a player or uses him in a suitable role. Still, Arena argues that international competition is just an entirely different beast. "Look at how much trouble the U.S. Davis Cup team had with the Czech Republic last weekend," he says. "International competition is extremely challenging. Some deal with it. Some don't." Chicago pulls Fire alarmMLS vice president of game operations Joe Machnik requested a special meeting Wednesday in Chicago with Fire coach Bob Bradley, his staff and U.S. Soccer director of officials Esse Baharmast after Bradley and his players voiced complaints about the officiating following Chicago's 3-2 loss to D.C. United on Saturday (MLS's best match of the year so far). A Fire player has now drawn a red card in each of the team's games -- four expulsions in all, or three more than any other team in the league. "I've had a couple of referees tell me that we're a difficult team to referee," Bradley says. "I don't totally buy that. Sure, it's always easy if you have players who don't show emotion and never say a word about calls, but that's not the way it works around the world. There were clearly some calls that influenced the D.C. game." "When a situation develops over a couple of games and the coach is concerned about the big picture, it's good to have a face-to-face meeting," says Machnik, who will bring along videotapes of the incidents and discuss his interpretations with the Fire coaches. For starters, Machnik dismisses the handballs Fire players alleged against United midfielder Judah Cooks ("no deliberate movement of the hand to the ball") and forward Jaime Moreno ("no video evidence in any way"). As for Chicago's red cards, Machnik considers two of them (Peter Nowak's against Dallas and Diego Gutierrez's against Columbus) to be "100 percent legitimate," though he admits the latter wouldn't have happened if the referee had properly called a foul on the Crew immediately prior to the play. According to Machnik, the Fire's other two reds (Hristo Stoitchkov's against Kansas City and Andrew Lewis's against D.C.) were what he calls "orange cards," or somewhere between yellow and red. Our take: Since red cards are so debilitating, causing teams to lose a player for the rest of the game and the next match, let's give offenders the benefit of the doubt. If it's "orange," show them the yellow. Extra timeDon't expect MLS to sign Mexican star Luis Hernández for the Galaxy in the next few days, at least. MLS foreign signings czar Ivan Gazidis now says he's looking at Mexicans "on three or four different fronts," and he hasn't yet made a trip south of the border to negotiate a deal. What's more, one of Hernández's agents, Enrique Nieto, tells me that specific dollar figures haven't even come up yet in his telephone discussions with MLS. ... Galaxy coach Sigi Schmid and Kraft Soccer Properties (which operates the New England and San Jose franchises) majordomo Sunil Gulati spoke at length during Sunday's Project-40 game in Santa Ana, Calif., about trade possibilities between L.A. and San Jose for the Earthquakes' allocation (which would allow the Galaxy to add a marquee Mexican). The two haven't yet worked out a trade, and Schmid is getting frustrated with the general attitude toward dealing in MLS. "Are trades ever reasonable in this league?" he asks. "Everybody wants something for nothing." ... Arena says he'll wait a few days to find out if he'll call up a replacement for Joe-Max Moore, who injured his knee in an English Premier League game for Everton last weekend and could miss the April 26 friendly between the U.S. and Russia in Moscow. "It only appears to be a small injury," Arena says. Five players to look for in Arena's heavily European-based starting lineup: Ernie Stewart, Gregg Berhalter, David Régis, Eddie Pope and Kasey Keller. ... Quick. Name the five players who both started for the U.S. in its 1990 World Cup opener against Czechoslovakia and are currently starting for their teams in MLS. We'd expect you to get the Wizards' Tony Meola, the Revolution's John Harkes and the Fusion's Eric Wynalda. Bonus points for the Wizards' Peter Vermes. And a tip of the hat if you named the Mutiny's Steve Trittschuh, who at 34 is Tampa Bay's biggest surprise, according to coach Tim Hankinson. Game of the WeekDallas at Los Angeles: Saturday, April 15, 10:30 p.m. ET. Central Division-leading Burn (3-1-0) visits Western Division-leading Galaxy (2-0-2) in a rematch of last season's conference finals. After two come-from-behind ties, look for L.A. to break out of its mini-slump. Prediction: Galaxy 3, Burn 1. Sports Illustrated staff writer Grant Wahl will keep you up to date on U.S. soccer teams and players each Wednesday. To send him a question or a comment on the subject, click here.
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