Chicago Tribune from Chicago, Illinois • Page 41

Chicago Tribune, Sunday, May 31, 1998 Section 3 11 SOCCER U.S. 0, SCOTLAND 0 INSIDE MAJOR LEAGUE SOCCER 3-year odyssey ends for Hermosillo, MLS Guns still silenced, U.S. off to France 4 just two goals, both against a feeble Kuwait team. All-time leading scorer Eric Wynalda, who made his 100th international appearance Saturday, is still recuperating from recent arthroscopic knee surgery. The venerable Roy Wegerle is 34 and has had nine operations on his right knee.

And Arlington Heights native Brian McBride has not played for the last two games. The most relevant statistic, however, may be their combined scoring over the last nine matches: one, by McBride against Austria in April Sampson said Wynalda will start when the U.S. opens against Germany on June 15 if he is up to par. Wynalda said he will be. "There's no doubt in my mind," he said.

"I had a great chance today, and it Just barely missed. Next time I have one of those, hopefully I'll convert" Scotland, which will face Brazil in the World Cup kickoff match June 10, played conservatively for much of the first half but showed a stinginess around the goal that limited the U.S. chances. Wegerle launched a blistering close-range shot from the right side in the 20th minute that angled up too sharply and glanced off the crossbar. Wynalda's opportunity came in the 73rd minute, when he narrowly missed bending a ball in from the right baseline.

Scoring specialist Preki Radosavljevic, who appears consigned to a bench role, had a hard attempt thwarted by Scottish goalkeeper Jim Leigh-ton's diving save. Scottish forward Jim Gallacher looked as if he would jimmy open By Bonnie DeSimone Tribune Staff Writer WASHINGTON Cannon fire echoed long and loud as the U.S. national soccer team was introduced at its final pre-World Cup game Saturday: a 22-man salute designed to pack the team off to battle in style. The team, however, proceeded 'to snoot blanks for 90 minutes in a scoreless draw with Scotland before 46,037 at muggy RFK Stadium. And while coach Steve Sampson could find some comfort in zeros the U.S.

defense has now reeled off four straight shut-iouts he conceded that the troops iwill invade France with the forward position still unsettled and the gunpowder lying dormant in Jhe wrong end of the barrel. "I'd be more concerned if we weren't creating scoring Sampson said. "It's just a matter of those individuals being a little more composed and controlled in front of the goal." The match to light the fuse will have to come from the players who dressed Saturday. Sampson Said he will go with what he has. That means the roster he named itwo weeks ago, which includes only three pure forwards and omits Roy Lassiter, who has scored in six of seven games since being traded to defending Major League Soccer champion D.C.

United. Sampson had recently raised the possibility of leaving third-string goalkeeper Juergen Sommer home and bringing Lassiter on board. In the three games advertised as World Cup tuneups over the last three weeks, the U.S. has managed axy traded Jorge Campos to the, Fire in January, it was partly because they were tired of having Campos for only a portion of the season because of his commitments to his Mexican League team. Hermosillo's situation will be the same, but Galaxy General Manager Danny Villanueva sees no problems.

"I'm not afraid of the situation," he said. "We have some experience with these types of situa-' tions. "I think the thing here that' is very comforting is that we have a proven offensive machine that can score a lot of goals." Consolation prize: The San Jose' Clash, who tried to land Hermosillo, -settled instead for former Mexican national team standout Francisco Uribe. Uribe, a 31-year-old forward," replaced Juan Pablo Rodriguez. MLS signed Rodriguez last month, but voided the deal when Rodriguez arrived with an injured leg.

"While I'm sorry to lose Juan Pablo, I'm excited that we have; been able to replace him with a player who had national team expe- rience, a player like Francisco who. can still play at a very high level," Clash coach Brian Quinn said. Uribe, who spent this past season with Veracruz in the Mexican First Divison, is expected to be in the lineup when the Clash face the Fire, at Soldier Field June 11. Wanted coach: New England Revo-' lution coach Thomas Rongren is a. finalist for a coaching position with a team from the United Arab Emirates, a source within the team told the Boston Globe.

Rongren is under contract to the Revolution through next seasoa By Bob Foltman Tribune Staff Writer Like every player acquisition in Major League Soccer, the Carlos Hermosillo deal, finalized Wednesday, took a lot of patience. About three years' worth. The league had been trying to sign Hermosillo since its inception, but his salary was a big drawback. Things finally came together Wednesday. "A series of fortuitous circumstances came together in the last 48 hours," MLS Commissioner Doug Logan said.

Those circumstances involved some wheeling, dealing and last-minute negotiations by Deputy Commissioner Sunil Gulati. Gulati was in Acapulco this week for the Mexican League player draft. He was looking for MLS, not necessarily Hermosillo. In Mexico, Hermosillo was thought to be transferring from Cruz Azul to Guadalajara Chivas. In fact, Cruz Azul purchased another player to take Her-mosillo's place.

But even though Cruz Azul and Chivas agreed to a transfer fee, Chivas and Hermosillo couldn't agree to terms. "Cruz Azul was under pressure," Gulati said. "If Cruz Azul hadn't signed the deal with us, no one would have taken Hermosillo." But the league was unable to take on Hermosillo's salary itself, so it needed a third team, from the Mexican League, to enter the deal At 12:30 p.m. Wednesday, about a half-hour before the deadline for Mexican players to change teams, Nexaca, Cruz Azul and MLS agreed to the deal. A transfer fee of $2.5 million was rumored to be the payment from MLS, but Gulati said that figure is a large overstatement.

"We couldn't have done this deal without having a team for Carlos to play for in Mexico," Gulati said. It was said that when the Gal 1 I vfC' 1 Midfielder Ernie Stewart (right) of the Christian Dailly during Saturday's pre the deadlock on a 30-yard breakaway in the 59th minute, but his shot went straight into the arms of U.S. goalkeeper Kasey Keller. Playmaker Claudio Reyna (strained groin) and defensive midfielder Brian Maisonneuve (sore ankle) both scratched themselves from the lineup during warmups. "Unfortunately, I haven't been able to put together what I con past the first round.

"Germany is the best team in Europe and maybe the best in the world." Fire captain Peter Nowak agreed. "Germany is the strongest team mentally," Nowak said. "The mental part is very important in the tournament." Nowak played in the qualifying phase for Poland, which was in the same group as England and Italy. Constant change: Fire coach Bob Bradley started his 11th lineup in as many games Saturday. Roman Kosecki started on the bench with Frank Klopas returning to the lineup as a forward alongside former Galaxy Ante Razov.

Getting minutes: Three mem the secorid. Four minutes into the second half, Frank Klopas took a loose ball and fed former Galaxy Ante Razov, who broke in and beat Kevin Hartman to tie it. The shootout victory earned the 1: la -wist a I AP photo U.S. collides with Scotland's World Cup match in Washington. sider the most likely starting lineup in these three games before France," Sampson said.

McBride, who suffered a concussion two weeks ago that kept him out of the Kuwait match, was ready to go Saturday. But Sampson said he wanted to give both Wegerle and Wynalda long looks and simply ran out of minutes for McBride. U.S. team bers of the Fire were part of the U.S. Project 40's latest outing, a 5-0 loss in Montreal.

Josh Wolff, Brian Bates and Diego Gutierrez all played in the match. Gutierrez, who is rehabbing from knee surgery, played 90 minutes. Not now: The Fire had hoped to sign former Chicago Power and Sting standout Michael Richardson, who played last season for the Milwaukee Wave in NPSL indoor league. Richardson has a severely pulled groin, however, and was told to rest for at least a month, putting any signing on hold. Richardson led the Wave to the NPSL championship this year.

Local flavor: Saturday's referee was Buffalo Grove native Rich Grady. Fire one point in the standings and moved them into sole possession of second place in the Western Conference with 16 points, one ahead of San Jose, which lost 4-1 to Columbus Saturday. FIRE 2, GALAXY 1 Oddly enough, L.A. has a new nemesis INSIDE THE FIRE Klopas not impressed with The Perfect Father's Day Gift You to You EinTrackm Custom fit golf clubs There is no better gift to get for Father's Day than a set of custom maJe golf clubs from Pintracker. Titanium heads, Graphite shafts, your choice of grips, and all custom fit to your swing, height, and playing ability.

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Before leaving for Saturday's game, most of the Fire watched the U.S. National Team's last World Cup friendly, a 0-0 draw against Scotland. "I wasn't very impressed," said Frank Klopas, who is the fifth all-time leading scorer in National Team history with 13 goals in 45 matches. "I don't know if it was the weather but there weren't many guys moving off the ball." The team will begin World Cup play June 15 against Germany. "I think it's going to be very tough," Klopas said of the U.S.

team's chances of advancing The goal was the sixth for Cienfuegos and the fastest the Fire allowed a goal this season. The Fire regained their composure toward the end of the first half and came out strong to start AMOCO By Bob Foltman Tribune Staff Writer PASADENA, his team was handed its first loss of the season 10 days ago in Chicago, Los Angeles Galaxy coach Octavio Zambrano vowed things would be different the next time his team met the Fire. He was right, but the result was the same. After withstanding a first-half assault and falling down a goal in the first minutes, the Fire rallied for a 2-1 shootout victory Saturday night at the Rose Bowl in front of 28,241. The victory was the fourth in a row for the Fire (6-5), while Los Angeles fell to 10-2.

The Fire outscored the Galaxy 3-1 in the shootout with Peter Nowak earning the deciding goal. Fire goalkeeper Zach Thornton made a nice save on Mauricio Cienfuegos on the previous attempt. It was Cienfuegos that put the Galaxy on the board in the game's third minute. The play started with a long Galaxy throw-in. Fire defender Lubos Kubik tried to clear it, but Cienfuegos chested down the clearing pass, then dribbled past both Jesse Marsch and Richie Kotschau and beat Thornton to the far post.

U.S.5, NEW ZEALAND 0 Keller's 2 goals help extend women's streak Associated Press WASHINGTON Debbie Keller scored twice and set up another goal as the United States women's team routed New Zealand 5-0 Saturday in an exhibition game, extending its winning streak to nine. Cindy Parlow, Lori Fair and Tiffeny Milbrett also scored for the Americans (13-1-1), preparing for the 1999 Women's World Cup. The U.S. team's only loss of the year was 4-1 to Norway on March 19 at Lagos, Portugal. Parlow got her 16th international goal in the sixth minute off a pass from Joy Fawcett, and Keller scored off a Milbrett pass in the 15th.

Three minutes later, Keller scored on 20-yard shot off a scramble. Fair got her goal off a pass from Keller in the 54th minute and Milbrett scored off an TM rciui(nn(3nrn America's Automotive Supercenter LOOK FOR OUR AD TODAY'S i iOMICS li linn 3irjO: TION Mia)IMMIMII Si pro Bi)l0 A Jm I um2iWM The Pep Boys spadea ad effective May 17 through May 23, 1998, incorrectly advertised Rear Strut Installation at $30.00 each. This should read "Front Strut Installation at $30.00 There is an additional charge for Rear Strut Installation. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause. PEP BOYS ASK ABOUT OUR LOW PRICE GUARAMll i assist from Fair in the 77th.

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