The Los Angeles Times from Los Angeles, California • Page 79

WEDNESDAY, JULY 9, 1997 C3 LOS ANGELES TIMES This Sport to Soon Say, 'We Got Next' MLS All -Star Game Soccer: Women's World Cup in 1999 expected to be a springboard for a professional league. WHAT: Second MLS All-Star game. WnC; Western Conference vs. Eastern Conference. WHERE: Giants Stadium, East Rutherford, N.J.

WHEN: 4:30 p.m. POT. TV: ESPN. WESTERN CONFERENCE EASTERN CONFERENCE By GRAHAMEL JONES TIMES STAFF WRITER NEW YORK-The logo for the 1999 FIFA Women's World Championship was unveiled Tuesday at the Palace hotel and the organizers were hoping that a World Cup would work its magic again in this country. The event kicked off a two-year campaign to make what is being referred to as the Women's World GOALKEEPER Mark Oodd (USA), Dallas.

DEFENDERS Richard Gough (Scotland), Kansas City; Marcelo Balboa (USA), Colorado; Diego So-. nora (Mexico), Dallas. MIDFIELDERS PreKi (Yugoslavia), Kansas City; Mauricio Clen-fuegos (El Salvador), Galaxy; Chris 'Henderson (USA) Colorado; Alain Sutter (Switzerland), Dallas. FORWARDS Dante Washington (USA), Dallas; Vltalis "Digital" Taka- wira (Zimbabwe), Kansas City; Dam-lan (Mexico), Dallas. COACH Ron Newman, Kansas City.

ASSISTANT Glenn Myernlck, Colorado. i a WOMEN'S if Cup as successful as the 1994 World Cup, which attracted 3.5 million fans. And if it is, a women's pro-f i a 1 league will follow, just as Major League Soccej. did after World Cup '94. "I think the i m.

r- ALBELLO Allsport some kind of league structure." One Word for These All-Stars: 'Awesome' says of women's soccer: "We need paved the way, and it makes it a lot easier for women's professional soccer," he said. "You've got investors, sponsors and networks who might be very, very skeptical of a women's soccer league, but if in fact the WNBA holds on and is successful, which I hope they are, then you remove that skepticism. "Clearly, we don't have the resources that the NBA and NBC have, so if we were out there in front of them, we'd have to do it at a much slower pace and it would be much harder to accomplish. "I pray they are successful. Put it another way, if they don't succeed, I don't know how we can.

If the power and money of the NBA and NBC can't make women's basketball go, it's going to be a long, hard pull for women's professional soccer." Donna de Varona, the former Olympic gold-medal swimmer and founder and first president of the Women's Sports Foundation, is chair of the 1999 world championship organizing committee. "After 25 years in the trenches fighting for equity for women's sports, it's just so exciting to be part of this team and to be still alive when the future looks so bright for women's sports," she said. Seventy-five countries are expected to try to qualify for USA '99, time's right, the sport's right and the country's right for a successful women's championship," U.S. Soccer President Alan Rothenberg replied when asked if he could achieve in 1999 what he achieved in 1994. "The country loves big, glamorous international events, and I think we'll make sure they understand this is one of them.

"I think that there will be a lot of people who want to prove that a major women's sports event like this can hold its own and, in fact, be very successful. So I think we'll be able to do it." The 16-nation tournament, tentatively scheduled for June 20-July 9, 1999, will feature 32 games 12 first-round double-headers, four quarterfinals, two semifinals and a doubleheader featuring the third-place and championship games. Twenty-two communities submitted bids to host matches and the number last week was reduced to 12 stadiums in nine communities: The Coliseum in Los Angeles and the Rose Bowl in Pasadena; Legion Field in Birmingham, Foxboro Stadium in Foxboro, Ericsson Stadium in Charlotte, N.C.; Soldier Field in Chicago; Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J.; Civic Stadium in Portland, Spartan Stadium in San Jose; Stanford Stadium in Palo Alto; and RFK Stadium in Washington and Jack Kent Cooke Stadiums in Raljon, outside Washington. This fall, five to eight of the stadiums will be selected as venues. The third Women's World Championship is being viewed as a potential "breakthrough" event for women's sports.

The first, in China 1 LOS ANGELES 2662 LACY ST. 1 FREE I admission! Bfoi 6pm M-Th I Vi PRICE ADMISSION After 6pm M-Tn Sat. $2 ADMISSION I Sunday STOiP-O (213) 227-6829 MS Lunch HI Pttd GOALKEEPER Walter Zenga (Italy), New England. DEFENDERS Jeff Agoos (USA), Washington; Alex! Lalas (USA), New England; Eddie Pope (USA), Washington MIDFIELDERS Roberto Dona-donl (Italy), New YorkNew Jersey; Carlos Valderrama (Colombia), Tampa Bay; Robert Warzycha (Poland), Columbus; John Harkes (USA), Washington. FORWARDS Marco Etcheverry (Bolivia), Washington; Raul Diaz Arce (El Salvador), Washington; Jaime Moreno (Bolivia), Washington.

COACH Bruce Arena, Washing-tori; ASSISTANT Thomas Rongen, New England. "I guess you knew me pretty well as a player," he told Newman, "and since we've never beaten you the Wizards), you must know me pretty well as a coach." Arena will have a starting lineup that includes half a dozen of his D.C. United players, led by the potent attack formation of Jaime Moreno, Raul Diaz Arce and Marco Etcheverry. Newman will counter with an attack depleted by the loss to injury of Eric Wynalda but bolstered by the call-up of Cobi Jones, one of three Galaxy players on the West roster. The others are play-maker Mauricio Cienfuegos and goalkeeper Jorge Campos.

The teams feature many of the best U.S. players as well as an array of foreip stars whose unfamiliarity with the all-star concept has added a novel twist to the event "It's fascinating to see what the All-Star game has turned into just in our mere two years of history," Doug Logan, the league's commissioner, said Tuesday. "Last year, we had a fantastic, 3-2 game and it was almost as though it was scripted, with Tab Ramos and Giovanni Sa-varesi of the hometown MetroStars scoring two of the goals. "It was a spectacular game. When I walked into the locker room afterward and stood in front of Colombia's Carlos Valderrama and Bolivia's Marco Etcheverry, who were sitting there just completely spent and exhausted, I felt like saying, 'You don't seem to understand what an All-Star game is all about in the United States.

It's a little muscle-flexing and smiling for the cameras and then you go out there and fool "But last year was a dead-serious game and we expect the same this year. Mauricio Cienfuegos actually approached Galaxy General Manager Danny Villanueva and asked if he could be held out of the friendly against Chivas of Guadalajara at Soldier Field In Chicago on Sunday so that he could be in top form Wednesday. So that's how important the players are taking this game." fa mm wed 9h llli. 1 .1 i-1 (VlVIIIH, Oxnanl.GA (jilvcrCjly.CA l'uwl(-iin. CA 8IH-792-9IH1 19.

but as in the past, it will be the five women's soccer powers that dominate: world champion Norway, Sweden, Germany, China and the United States. Major League Soccer Commissioner Doug Logan on Tuesday was appointed the first member of a newly formed advisory board for the women's world championship and immediately pledged the league's support. "We are going to do our utmost to make sure that it is the singular best women's sports event that ever takes place on the face of the earth," he said, taking hyperbole to new heights. All of which begs a question. Can WMLS be far behind? Soccm Note The Miami MLS expansion team, which will begin play In 1998, will be called the Miami Fusion F.C.

The New YorkNew Jersey Metrostars traded U.S. 1996 Olympic team forward A.J. Wood to the Columbus Crew for former U.S. national team defender Brian Bits. Dan Flynn, who headed the Chicago venue for World Cup '94, has been named head of the newly former U.S.

Soccer Properties, which will manage marketing activities for the federation The 1998 MLS All-Star game will be played at the Citrus Bowl in Orlando, Fla. and be co-hosted by the city and the Disney corporaUon. The 1 match will be played Aug. 2. MLS donated $10,000 to the New York City Parks Department to help children's soccer in the city.

5 -CfS SCHEDULED TO START National team star Mia Hamm (9) in 1991, was won by the United States but had little international impact. The second, in Sweden in 1995, caused a ripple of interest. But it was the huge crowds at the women's soccer games at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics that broke the ice and the fact that the U.S. team won the gold medal. Two of the gold medalists were in New York on Tuesday, midfielder Mia Hamm and goalkeeper Briana Scurry.

Hamm said U.S. Soccer is intent on making the tournament a success. "I think you're going to see it marketed all over the place," she said. "Prior to '94, the whole thing was trying to get across to the American public how big soccer is in the world. I think we did that.

Now, we're trying to bring that kind of fever and knowledge to the women's side. "They organizers want to make this a legitimate World Cup. They're saying that whether it's men playing or women playing, this is for real. And that's exciting to see." Hamm, 27, is one of only a handful of players who won both the first women's world championship and the first women's Olympic gold medal. But if such U.S.

successes are to be repeated, she said, a pro league is a necessity. "I think the time is definitely, if not today, then in the very near future," she said. "Because for us to continue to be successful internationally, we need some kind of league structure." Rothenberg would like to see that come about after the world championship, not before. He said he is not worried that the Women's NBA in the meantime might corner the women's sports market. "To me, if they the WNBA can do it succeed, then they will have One fears' Airlime Not Valid Ml Any Othtr Offer Van Nny, CA 8I11-71KM(K9 Monlrluir.

CA WW-621-4411 SAT I THE FIRST-PLACE SAN FRANCISCO GIANTS VISIT DODGER STADIUM FOR THE FINAL TIME THIS SEASON. DON'T MISS THE EXCITEMENT AS THE N.L.'S TOP ALL-STAR VOTE-GETTER MIKE Soccer: West Coach Newman bowled over by lineups for tonight's MLS All-Star game. By GRAHAMEL JONES TIMES STAFF WRITER NEW YORK-During his 30 years of beating the drum for soccer in the United States, Ron Newman has seen a lot and heard a lot more. But the Hall of Fame coach, as known for his one-liners as for the winning teams he builds, said Tuesday he had not seen anything like the talent assembled for tonight's Major League Soccer All-Star game at Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, N. J.

"Your team is awesome," Newman told Bruce Arena at a luncheon Tuesday, "but mine is awesomer." Newman will coach the Western Conference squad in the 4:30 PDT game, seeking to avenge the 3-2 defeat that the Eastern Conference Imposed on the West last year in front of 78,416 at the same stadium. Tonight's crowd will be considerably smaller. For one thing, it's a Wednesday night as opposed to a Sunday afternoon. For another, there is no doubleheadcr featuring world champion Brazil playing against a world all-star team as there was last July 14. And rain is forecast.

None of this bothers Newman, coach of the Kansas City Wizards. But having Newman on the opposing bench tonight might bother Arena, coach of defending MLS champion Washington D.C. United. Arena's team leads the league with a 13-4 record this season, but when United played the Wizards recently, it was trounced, 6-1. Last season, the Wizards (then known as the Wiz) defeated D.C.

United three times-5-1, 3-2 and 4-2. i- Reflecting on those results Tuesday, Arena recalled that more than 20 years ago Newman had considered drafting him out of Cornell to play for the Dallas Tornado, but didn't. McHugh to Coach ABL'sStingRays Maura McHugh, who coached women's basketball at Oklahoma and Arizona State for 13 years, is expected to be named coach of the American Basketball League's Long Beach StingRays today. McHugh was 142-70 at Oklahoma in the 1980s and most recently was 84-84 in six seasons at Arizona State, resigning in 1993. The StingRays, the ABL's first expansion team, play a 44 -game season beginning in October, with Long Beach State's Pyramid their home court.

In May, the team was given the league's first draft choice and it picked Chicago native Yolanda Griffith, a European star in recent seasons. -EARLGUSTKEY here tin Parly NEVER Ends! BOIO EXCirtNO NESDAY IS 1 huwd no mm MMm in 7 mm a ts 7350 couwAiia canton mm-m SUN-IHUMS tS-lM MMtf -4aa OmmcA lOttCST flwwtar NO Noon to 7 I )L. WGfl PIAZZA LEADS THE DODGERS AGAINST BARRY BONDS AND THE GIANTS. Wind ShriP Store SffEGEi'TOB sta C5 3 Mm i SUNDAY. 1:05: 'WX? lit? -ML.

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