It's One Way to Start a Revolution

By GRAHAME L. JONES

Aug. 30, 1998 12 AM PT

Within 48 hours last weekend, two things happened in New England that could point the way to a bright future for Major League Soccer.

The first occurred Saturday afternoon, when 18-year-old Jamar Beasley made his debut for the New England Revolution.

The second came Monday, when the Revolution replaced Thomas Rongen as coach with Walter Zenga.

With all due respect to Rongen, the league’s coach of the year in 1996, both moves are extraordinarily positive. The first signals a willingness--albeit belated--to give young American players a chance to shine.

The second brings MLS its first internationally recognized coach.

If the league is to gain the respect of the rest of the soccer world and, more important, to develop the U.S. national team players of the future, it needs top-level coaches on the sideline and promising youngsters on the field.

Zenga and Beasley are excellent examples of each.

True, this will be Zenga’s first coaching job, but the former Italian national team goalkeeper has 11 years of experience playing in Italy’s Serie A, most notably with Inter Milan.

Add to that 58 appearances for Italy and a third-place finish in the 1990 World Cup and he has soccer credentials far stronger than any of the other 11 MLS coaches.

That his name is readily recognized in Europe does not hurt, either. If some young Italian players choose to come to the league simply because Zenga is here, or if he can open the door to Europe for some young American players, MLS and U.S. soccer will benefit.

TOP PRIORITIES

Brian O’Donovan, the Revolution’s general manager, is putting no pressure on Zenga to salvage a playoff berth for last-place New England.

Instead, he sees the regular season’s final six games as a chance for the player Boston-area fans last year nicknamed “Spiderman” to see if he is cut out to be a coach.

Zenga, he said, “will not be judged solely on making the playoffs. He has to decide if he likes coaching, if he’s suited to coaching. This gives him a chance to find out.”

Donovan knows three mediocre seasons in a row cannot be followed by a fourth. Another on-field debacle and MLS risks seeing one of its success stories disintegrate.

“We’ve got to be very careful, because collectively we’ve built something very special here,” he told the Boston Globe. “Even if we do make the playoffs, there are problems we can’t ignore.

“We are concerned about our fans. We had 25,000 of them [24,143 against the Galaxy last Saturday] giving a vote of confidence to the existence of a professional soccer team in Boston. Off the field, we are a model for MLS, but not on the field, and the margin for error is getting slimmer.”

The league cannot afford to fail in such key markets as Boston, New York/New Jersey, Washington, Chicago and Los Angeles.

They have to be the cornerstones of MLS.

If, say, Kansas City or Tampa Bay or Denver or Dallas falls by the wayside because of lack of fan interest, it really is no big deal. There are better soccer cities--Portland, Rochester, Seattle, San Diego, etc.--waiting to take their place.

But the big five have to lead the way.

The Revolution, despite an 8-18 record this season, still is averaging 17,690 fans a game, third best behind the Galaxy (24,047) and Chicago Fire (20,027).

The New York/New Jersey MetroStars, at 17,098, and Washington D.C. United, at 15,615, are holding their own.

Despite its many shortcomings, the beauty of the single-entity concept, in which all players are owned by the league and profits and losses are shared, is that it leaves MLS free to build where it sees fit.

And where it should see fit is in those five cities. Put or keep top players and coaches in each of them, get each of them averaging 25,000 or more a game over a few seasons, and the rest will follow suit.

Trying to build all 12 teams at the same time is possible only if the league is willing to spend millions more than it has so far. And because that’s not likely, selective construction is necessary.

INTERNATIONAL UPDATE

Brazilian striker Ronaldo of Inter Milan was named Europe’s MVP for the 1997-98 season in voting by the 24 coaches whose teams reached the quarterfinals in Europe’s three cup competitions. . . . Mallorca defeated Barcelona, 3-1 on aggregate, to win the Spanish Super Cup. . . . Judge Victor Perrota ordered the temporary suspension of night games in Argentina’s first division as a means of curbing fan violence. . . . Nigeria appointed former Dutch national team coach Thijs Libregts as its new coach, replacing Bora Milutinovic, whose contract expired.

Former Portugal national team coach Antonio Oliveira quit as coach of Real Betis four days before the start of the Spanish season. . . . French first-division club Bastia signed Portugal national team forward Paulo Alves from Sporting Lisbon. . . . Chelsea won the European Super Cup, beating Real Madrid, 1-0, on a goal by Uruguay’s Gustavo Poyet at Monaco. . . . Dutch striker Patrick Kluivert was bought by Barcelona from AC Milan for $13.8 million.

Liverpool striker Michael Owen signed a new five-year contract with the club. . . . Defender Thomas Helmer and goalkeeper Andreas Koepke said they no longer will play for Germany. . . . Australia’s Mark Bosnich was named Oceania’s “goalkeeper of the century” by the International Federation of Football History and Statistics, which earlier accorded Mexico’s Antonio Carbajal the same honor in CONCACAF. . . . VfL Bochum of the German Bundesliga fired striker Sergei Yuran for leaving to train with Russia’s national team without permission.

Kenny Dalglish resigned as coach of Newcastle United and was replaced by former Dutch national team star Ruud Gullit. . . . Lazio acquired Italian World Cup striker Christian Vieri from Atletico Madrid for $28 million. . . . Vasco da Gama won South America’s Copa Libertadores, defeating Barcelona of Ecuador in the two-game final.

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European Championship Schedule

European Championship 2000 qualifying (home team listed first):

WEDNESDAY

Romania vs. Liechtenstein

SATURDAY

Armenia vs. Andorra

Austria vs. Israel

Belarus vs. Denmark

Bosnia-Herzegovina vs. Estonia

Bulgaria vs. Poland

Cyprus vs. Spain