Australia Opens Olympic Venue in Fitting Style
What an interesting week it was for Jorge Campos and Christian Vieri, and how strange that the goalkeeper from Mexico and the striker from Italy should both end the week in the same stadium a long, long way from home.
Campos, who on Wednesday helped Mexico earn a 2-2 tie against Argentina in front of 64,433 at Soldier Field in Chicago, flew halfway around the world to be in Australia by Saturday.
So did Vieri, who headed for Sydney after being traded Tuesday from Lazio of Rome to Inter Milan for a world-record $42.9 million.
Both players made the journey so they could take part in a game that probably wasn’t reported on your local TV news Saturday night--a match between a FIFA World All-Star team and Australia that marked the official opening of Sydney’s Olympic stadium.
It is hardly surprising that Australian officials chose a soccer match to inaugurate the $450-million, 110,000-seat stadium that will be the focus of the sporting world’s attention next September during the 2000 Olympic Games.
What other sport could have attracted a crowd of 88,101? Not track and field, certainly.
The attendance was the largest in Australian soccer history-- bettering the 85,066 who saw Australia lose to Iran in a World Cup ’98 qualifying game in 1997. This time, the home team won, 3-2.
Campos got into the game in the second half after France’s Bernard Lama had shut out Australia in the first 45 minutes with some exceptional saves.
The former Galaxy keeper soon found himself fishing the ball out of the back of the net as the Socceroos turned a 1-0 deficit into a one-goal victory.
The match marked the final appearance of Germany’s 1990 Word Cup-winning forward Jurgen Klinsmann, who served as the FIFA team’s captain.
Klinsmann, who makes his home in Southern California, called it a “great honor,” adding, “It looks like this will be my last game.”
Meanwhile, Vieri, who grew up in Sydney, was fending off some unwanted criticism over the size of his transfer fee.
The Vatican daily newspaper blasted the near-$50-million figure as “an offense against poor people.”
The Italian striker did not rise to the bait, but others stepped to his defense.
England’s Roy Hodgson, the former Inter Milan coach who coached the FIFA All-Stars, told Agence France-Presse: “The price tag for Vieri could be considered ridiculous. But then comparisons would have to be made with people in the golf world, the tennis world and not least of all what Elton John gets for a concert.”
OLYMPIC DREAMS
Japan is only one of many countries to dream of playing in Sydney’s new showcase stadium next year, and it certainly got off to the best possible start on Saturday.
Japan trounced the Philippines, 13-0, in a Sydney 2000 qualifying game in Hong Kong, with Tomoyuki Hirase scoring four first-half goals in a match covered by more than 150 Japanese journalists. The reason?
“One is because the Olympics is a special event for the Japanese,” said Japanese soccer federation spokesman Kato Hideki.
“Secondly, the squad is being groomed to represent the country at the [2002] World Cup finals [which Japan will co-host with South Korea]. . . . This squad will form the backbone of the World Cup squad.”
MEXICO SHOWS THE WAY
While Campos was flying to Australia, his teammates on the Mexican national team were winging their way to Seoul, where Mexico on Saturday played South Korea to a 1-1 tie in the four-nation Korea Cup tournament.
It was the second tie in four days for Coach Manuel LaPuente’s team, but the earlier 2-2 result in Chicago was more impressive for the crowd it attracted than the score.
Which prompts this question: How many U.S. fans will turn out at RFK Stadium today to watch the American team play Argentina?
Not 64,433, that’s for sure. And until fans in the United States support their team as passionately and in the same numbers as Mexico’s fans do, the team will continue to struggle.
To his credit, U.S. Coach Bruce Arena is taking a calm approach to the fact that his players often have to play in front of hostile crowds, even at home.
“First of all, I’m not playing the role of marketer,” he said. “I think the way you market soccer is by putting a successful team on the field. Once we establish ourselves, our team will become marketable.
“The showing in France hurt us a little bit. We have played in front of some hostile crowds. I personally don’t mind that. It makes things more challenging for us.”
GET A CLUE
It is seldom a week goes by without some monumentally foolish comment being made in connection with soccer in the United States, and the past week was no exception.
This time the guilty party was a publicist who works for the U.S. Soccer Hall of Fame, which on Saturday opened the doors to its new $5.5-million museum in Oneonta, N.Y.
A press release listing the players and former players who would be attending the opening included this in the first few words of the second paragraph:
“[Tony] Meola, who is soccer’s answer to Michael Jordan. . . .”
Yup. That’s the first comparison that comes to mind, all right. The two are almost inseparable, in fact. What absolute nonsense.
Mia Hamm as the Jordan of soccer? Sure. They’re even golfing buddies on occasion and she, at least, has a resume that includes a world championship, an Olympic gold medal and that world-record 109 goals scored.
Meola has none of the above, although if he keeps playing long enough he might get the record for goals allowed.
In that event, he could perhaps endorse a new line of shoes--”Air Meola,” about the size of the gap he usually leaves between himself and the near post.
In the future, someone in Oneonta with some knowledge of the game should read these releases before they’re sent out.
The new Hall of Fame, incidentally, can be checked out at http//:www.soccerhall.org.
JUDY, JUDY, JUDY
She’s won a world championship. She’s won an Olympic gold medal. She’s been at the forefront of her sport for a dozen years.
So why on earth, in promoting her appearance Thursday night on “The Late Late Show” with Craig Kilborn, did TV Guide refer to her as Judy Foudy?
Because it’s TV Guide and, as far as soccer is concerned, it has yet to get anything correct. And while we’re at it, someone should tell Kilborn that George Best is Irish, not English, as he said. There is a difference.
Julie Foudy was too polite to correct him. Perhaps Judy Foudy might have.
QUICK PASSES
By winning the Mexican league championship, the “Red Devils” of Toluca qualified for the 1999 CONCACAF Champions Cup, to be played in September/October in the U.S., possibly in Los Angeles. . . . The winner of the Champions Cup will represent the region in the first FIFA World Club Championship, which soccer’s ruling body last week announced would be staged in Brazil in January, although European clubs already are complaining about the timing of the event. . . . Guatemala will become the first Central American country to host the finals of a FIFA tournament when the FIFA Futsal (five-a-side) World Championship is played there in November 2000.
The draw for the 1999 FIFA Under-17 World Championship will take place on Monday in Auckland, New Zealand. The United States, Mexico and Jamaica are the CONCACAF teams to have qualified for the Nov. 10-27 tournament in New Zealand. . . . The U.S. team begins its preparation for the world championship with a game against England’s under-17 national team on June 27 in Tampa, Fla., as the second match of an MLS doubleheader also featuring the Mutiny against the Galaxy.
