Tampa Bay Times from St. Petersburg, Florida • 37

11 BASEBALL: Eckersley, Clear, Guidry, Gossage head the American League all-star pitching squad: 4-C PLAYERS: The first installment of a special series on sports health in the United States: 5-C FOOTBALL: Vince Ferragamo returns to Los Angeles Rams with chance to earn $1.1 -million: 6-C Fishing report, 2-C Tennis, 7-C Golf, 7-C Classified ads, 7-C section FRIDAY, JULY 9, 1982 S3 ST. PETERSBURG TIMES J' 4 MIS Rowdies force coach out; Al Miller will replace him Dec. 1977: Jago hired from Millwall F.C. English League of the second division. Finished indoor exhibition season with 6-2 record and compiled highly successful 1 8-1 2 mark in his first outdoor season in 1 978.

Aug. 23, 1978: Host Rowdies beat Fort Lauderdale Strikers in 2-1 mini-game shootout to advance to Soccer Bowl '78. Aug. 27, 1978: Cosmos hand Jago and Rowdies 3-1 defeat in the championship game. Sept.

2, 1979: Host Rowdies nip San Diego 1 -0 in mini-game to advance to Soccer Bowl '79, capping another successful outdoor campaign with 1 9-1 1 regular-season mark. Sept. 3, 1979: Vancouver Whitecaps beat Rowdies 2-1 for the league championship. March 2, 1980: Host Rowdies defeat Memphis Rogues 1 0-4 in regulation and 1 -0 in tiebreaker to win NASL's first-ever indoor championship. Sept.

7, 1980: Host Rowdies crush San Diego 6-0 to even quarterfinal playoff series at KEY EVENTS one game apiece, but Sockers tie mini-game at 1-1 and then win shootout to eliminate Tampa Bay. Jago called this team, which compiled 1 9-1 3 regular-season mark, his best ever. Aug. 16, 1981: Playing one man down for 66 minutes, host Rowdies defeat Strikers 3-2 and clinch spot in playoffs despite dismal 1 5-1 7 regular-season record. Sept.

9, 1981: After upsetting Vancouver the week before in round one of playoffs, the Rowdies force second-round series with the Cosmos to three-game limit. But season ends with 2-0 loss to host Cosmos. March 8, 1982: After slow start. Rowdies roer into indoor championship series with San Diego, only to lose 9-7 on road and 1 0-5 in the Bayfront Center. July 7, 1982: After dominating first-half action, host Rowdies lose to Chicago Sting 2-1 in shootout and fall to 1 0-1 3.

It turned out to be Jago's swan song as coach. Jago says goodbye to players, 3-C By DAVE SCHEIBER St. Ptwburg Tim Staff Wrhf TAMPA Gordon Jago, who led the Tampa Bay Rowdies to the brink of both glory and disaster in nearly five years as head coach, has been forced out of his job with only nine games remaining in the 1982 North American Soccer League season. Majority owner George Strawbridge simultaneously announced Thursday that veteran NASL coach Al Miller has been hired as a replacement Jago, who still has 18 months left on his contract, will stay with the Rowdies in an undefined front office role entitled executive administrative assistant. In the meantime, assistant coach Kevin Keelan will coach the Rowdies Saturday night in their road match against the San Diego Sockers.

Miller, a former head coach of the Philadelphia Atoms, the Dallas Tornado and Calgary Boomers, intends to resign as co-owner of a Dallas-based oil research firm and officially join the Rowdies Monday. "I've enjoyed 4V4 seasons with the Rowdies and 20 years as a coach and this is the first time I've ever had a problem," said Jago, forcing a smile. "But I'm very lucky. I've been to two Soccer Bowls and had an indoor championship, so I've no complaints. The only regret I have is the disappointment that I didn't finish the season." THE MOVES WERE announced Thursday in a hastily arranged noon press conference one day after Tampa Bay's 2-1 shootout loss to the Chicago Sting.

The defeat was the latest chapter in a two-year downward spiral by the Rowdies. In that time, Tampa Bay suffered its first losing outdoor season ever at 15-17 in 1981 and Jago has offered to resign three times once last year and twice this May. Fans have become increasingly angry and apathetic over the continued poor play of the Rowdies and the number of trades involving popular players. And average attendance has plummeted steadily, dropping from 28,500 per game in 1980 to barely 20,000 per game. A meager crowd of 12,865 showed up Wednesday the second smallest home gathering for Tampa Bay since 1978.

The latest loss dropped the Rowdies to a mark of 10-13 and cast shadows on their chances of qualifying for the playoffs in late August But Jago stressed that his decision to step down as head coach had been made prior to the Chicago game Wednesday. "WIN OR LOSE, I went into the game knowing it would be my last as coach of the Rowdies," he said. "None of the players knew, only myself and a handful of people within the club. I was hoping and praying it could end on a good note, but the disappointment was that it didn't" Jago acknowledged that he had been intending to resign at the end of the 1982 campaign regardless of Tampa Bay's finish. But following his decision to stay with the club in May, he badly wanted to finish this season out as head coach.

That was not the wish of Strawbridge, who flew in from Philadelphia last week and held long soul-searching meetings with Jago Monday and Tuesday. -A "Gordon has done a superb job," said Strawbridge, who spoke briefly at the press conference before dashing off to the airport to catch a flight home. "His accomplishments have indeed been outstanding. Anybody who has been a Rowdie, always, to a large extent remains a Rowdie. I feel very fortunate that Gordon has agreed to remain with the club in an administrative capacity to assist us in our efforts to continue to build the franchise." See JAGO.

3-C St. Petersburg Tim FRED VICTORIN The Tampa Bay Rowdies won't have the Gordon Jago look anymore. Germany, Italy claw way Into World Cup finals Cup leaders, 2-C CompHd from AP. UP! wirw "Vtr SPORTS EDITOR V. -I HUBERT miZELL Rossi's magic is bringing smiles to the lips of Italians MADRID, Spain West Germany battled its way back from a 3-1 deficit to beat France in an unprecedented sudden-death showdown in Seville to move to the World Cup final against Italy, which parlayed Paolo Rossi's two goals into a 2-0 victory over Poland in Barcelona.

Thursday's results made certain that the World Cup will have its second three-time champion. The West Germans, World Cup winners in 1954 and 1974, looked to be dead and buried when they trailed by two goals with 17 minutes left in the extra period. But the Germans fought back with the fifth goal of the tournament by captain Karl-Heinz Rummeniggee, who had sat out regulation time with a thigh injury, and pulled level at 3-3 on a goal by Klaus Fischer. In a pulsating game in the evening heat of Seville, West Germany and France played 120 minutes before the West Germans won the penalty shootout five goals to four when goalkeeper Harald Schumacher saved Maxime Bossis' shot after each side had missed once during the first series of five kicks. It marked the first time in World Cup history thtt a penalty shootout was employed to break a deadlock in a semifinal.

REGULATION PLAY ended at 1-1 and it appeared France was headed for its first berth in the finals in the 30-minute overtime, taking a 3-1 lead on goals by Marius Tresor in the 92nd minute and Alain Giresse in the 98th. But West Germany, staving off its first defeat by a European opponent in 33 games, struck back before a crowd of 70,000 fans. Inspired by Rummenigge, the West Germans scored in the 102nd minute and Klaus Fischer evened it seven minutes later on a spectacular overhead kick, forcing the penalty shootout. West Germany took a 1-0 lead in the 18th minute on Pierre Littbarski's goal. But France tied it nine minutes later when captain Michel Platini scored on a penalty kick.

The score remained tied until after regulation. Rossi, who scored all three of Italy's goals in a 3-2 upset of Brazil, scored in each half and now leads the tournament in scoring with five goals. He first struck in the 22nd minute and his second goal, in the 73rd minute, killed any hope Poland had of evening the game. "After the first goal, I already thought that we were in into a shootout On the sixth penalty kick, the French finally died a most ghastly World Cup death. So, it's Italy-West Germany.

AS RECENTLY as April, Rossi was an Italian outcast still paying penance for his role in a 1980 match-fixing scheme that shook the nation by its sporting throat Suddenly, he was granted parole from the soccer drydock. Rossi's three-year ban was chiseled to two just in time for him to become the heart of Italy's adventure in the World Cup. Even before Thursday's semifinal with Poland, the Italian newspaper Corriere dello Sport was on the streets with a headline predicting, "Paolo will defy the Iron Curtain." It referred to Poland's politics as well as to its hairy-chested soccer defense. Confidence reigns. Flag-waving Italians among the 70,000 at Barcelona's handsome Nou Camp Stadium chanted "Rossi, Rossi" with a verve that would match any "Reggie, Reggie" ever shouted in an American baseball park.

Tambourines banged throughout the afternoon, giving the enormous stadium a Hari Krishna-kind of sound. While Brazilians beat their sambas, the Italians work similarly with their tambourines. See MIZELL. 3-C BARCELONA, Spain There's such magic in Paolo Rossi's feet, a bootmaker in his home city of Turin is offering the 25-year-old soccer player shoes for life. A winery near Rome will bottle 1,000 magnums of vintage Rossi Champagne to honor the darting, dark-haired wonder of Italy's ascendency to the World Cup finals.

Three days after his hat trick headed Brazil's so-called unbeatables 3-2, Rossi scored both goals Thursday in Italy's 2-0 elimination of Poland. THE NAME Paolo Rossi is on smiling Italian lips everywhere. Only one challenge remains, Sunday's final in Madrid against West Germany. Should Rossi trigger Italy's first World Cup championship in 44 years, his notoriety may soon rival Michaelangelo's and Leonardo da Vinci's. Or even Sophia Loren's.

One goal off Rossi's foot and another off his head destroyed a Polish team notably punch shy. With its finest scorer, Zbigniew Boniek benchridden with an overabundance of World Cup fouls. As dazzling as Rossi was against the Poles, the otherwise dull game didn't approach the throbbing excitement of a Thursday night semifinal that sent the West Germans on to Madrid. In Seville, on Spain's Southern coast, France led 3-1 in overtime but played shabby defense to blow it and be forced AP Paolo Rossi heads ball into the net from a kneeling position. See WORLD CUP.

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