The Springfield News-Leader from Springfield, Missouri • Page 24

News-Leader -4eSunday, July 17, 1994 1 MMMBHBMMMHiHMMi a real kick to have Italy, Brazil in finals 1 1 I Title showdown between soccer giants a I fitting conclusion to exciting World Cup. To win, Italy must apply some of the principles used by Sweden in the semifinals, but forgo crawling into a defensive shell, as the Swedes did. Italy's midfield, led by Dino Baggio, Nicola Berti and Demetrio Albertinl, can play with anyone. It can offset some of Brazil's elegant short passing schemes and turn the flow the other way. Then Baggio, Pierluigi Casiraghi and Giuseppe Signori can apply the finish.

That probably is the plan for Italy, which will miss suspended Ales-sandro Costacurta, its best defender in this tournament, and hopes veteran Franco Baresi can return to the defense after arthroscopic knee surgery during the first round. crown. Today at the Rose Bowl where football champions have been decided they will settle who owns global soccer. "It will be a great classic of international football, a clash of two three-time champions," Brazil coach Carlos Alberto Parrelra said. "Finally, the world will have a four-time champion." What more could the first World Cup staged in the United States ask? A sensational tournament capped by the most attractive matchup.

Brazil won the last of its three World Cup PASADENA, Calif. In the World Cup, it simply doesn't get any better than this. Romario vs. Roberto. Soccer dynasty Brazil vs.

soccer dynasty Italy. South America vs. Europe. And more. So much more.

"Maybe this is the way it was meant to be," Italy coach Arrigo Sacchi said. "We have in the final two great soccer nations." They are two nations seeking an unprecedented fourth World Cup Hall Owners to be honored Soccer here to stay or fizzle? The sport has gained a lot of needed attention in the United States. titles in 1970 led by Pele, the greatest player soccer has seen. Italy won its third in 1982, and is seeking to become the first European team to win a World Cup held in the Western Hemispshere. "Our people have waited too long for another World Cup," said Romario, whose superb scoring touch has guided Brazil into its first final since its last championship.

"We have come to give the World Cup back to them." Romario is the most dynamic of Brazil's cast of stars. His counterpart is Roberto Baggio, the 1993 player of the year and, in the last three games, an unstoppable force for the Azzurri. Baggio, who has a hamstring vw I Another jdriverdies lin Bolivar I i WiUard driver suffers heart attack while competing I Friday night. i i From Our Staff and Wire Services Auto Racing BOLIVAR A southwest Mis souri race car driver suffered a heart attack and died while competing at Speedway U.S.A. Friday night, authorities said.

4 VI II1UU1U nuoiutuig fin the late-model stock division Former St. LOUIS KswkS owner Ben Kerner was known as an innovator and promoter. His team won the NBA title in 1958. World Cup What: Championship game Who: Brazil vs. Italy When: 2:30 p.m.

today Where: Rose Bowl, Pasadena, Calif. TV: KSPR (ABC) Channel 33. problem, was thrust into the role played 12 years ago by Paolo Rossi, whose scoring exploits carried Italy to the crown. "Paolo Rossi was my idol, and I celebrated Italy's victory in 1982 rallying in the streets with an Italian flag," Baggio said. "I hope to give Italian fans the same chance." The Associated Press hands-on effect in the shaping of pro football as we know it today with his work on forming the AFL.

Hunt helped negotiate the AFL-NFL merger in the late 1960s and is credited with helping name the "Super" Bowl. Football isn't Hunt's only interest. He was a founding investor in the Chicago Bulls of the NBA and was involved in the development of both the North American Soccer League and World Team Tennis. But it's football in Kansas City where he's best known. Yet even in Kansas City, Hunt transcends simply the Chiefs.

"When Lamar brought pro football to Kansas City, that helped us keep baseball here when Charlie Finley wanted to move (the Athletics)," Grigsby said. "People (soon) found out on a national level that Kansas City was a major-league town." Ben Kerner Excitement was the name of the game when Kerner had the Hawks in St. Louis. Blattner, who broadcast the first 800 Hawk games in St Louis, said Kerner was "ahead of his time" as a sports owner. "He had a flair for the dramatic, along with great skills in putting together a team and winning," Blattner said.

"His idea was to cause tremendous excitement He gave (sports-writers) something to write about all the time. He assembled players not only with great talent, but who are characters. And he was the biggest character of all." Kerner also was a pioneer in other ways. "He felt players should be paid more, get better meal money, the schedules should be better," Blattner said. "All the other owners more or less looked to him for guidance." Broeg said the Hawks were perfect medicine for a down sports time in St Louis.

The city had just lost the St. Louis Browns basebaU team, the Cardinals were struggling and St Louis University had dropped football. And when the Hawks won the championship in 1958, led by Bob Pettit and Cliff Hagan, the town went bonkers. "It was as though the Cardinals had won the World Series," Blattner said. "It was a great and exciting time for the people of St.

Louis." 'n If 3 The plan for Brazil is simple: "Brazil will attack," coach Carlos Alberto Parreira said. "That is the only way we play soccer." No one attacks like Brazil. Ro-mario's searing runs down the middle and Bebeto's forays from the wing wear down defenses. Midfielder Zinho and defenders Jorginho and Mazinho create open space pr the forwards with their ball control and quick moves. But few teams defend like Brazil, either.

Because they have the balfto much and do so much with C-the Brazilians' goal area rareljCtis penetrated. They have outshot'Bp-ponents 10442 and their 0.5 goals against average is the lowest of ally team to get out of the first round. Sweden icesi third place The Associated Press Sweden 4, Bulgaria (T PASADENA, Calif. -Swe- den, the land of the Olympic hockey champion, showed it knows something about filling a slightly bigger net. Coming off an ugly semifinal loss to Brazil in which it never ventured downfield, the Swedes presented a brilliant attack Saturday in rout-, ing Bulgaria 4-0 for third place at the World Cup.

It was their finest soccer showing since finishing second to Bra- zil in the 1958 tournament. 5" "It almost felt like every fensive move, we were getting a goal-scoring opportunity," said Henrik Larsson, who capitalized on one of those chances as Sweden took the scoring lead for the month-S long event with 15 goals. Tomas Brolin, named to the tournament all-star team theJ previous day, showed, whyJJ with a goal and two sensation- al assists. in the opening rounds. More fun.

The passions of soccer sometimes produce inexplicable violence among fans, but this tournament was serene. Fans behaved themselves so well only about 400 arrests among the 3.5 miUion people that law-enforcement authorities congratulated FWA and said they usually have more trouble with basketball and football crowds. I More success from the home team. Coached by a Spanish-speaking Yugoslav named Bora Milutino vie and made up of college star such as Alexi Lalas, passport AmeV icans such as Thomas Dooley and Roy Wegerle and U.S. veterans wfi4 had to go to Europe to make a living such as John Harkes, the U.S.

tealU used a strong defense to advance the second round for the first ttmie) since 1930. It also scored one of the biggest upsets in Cup history when it beat Colombia, a pre-tournament favorite, 2-1, before 93,194 fans at the Rose Bowl. The spectacle of so many of the" world's people dancing, chanting and passionately following their teams around the United States attracted attention. But that big win for the USA and its other success got America talking a different kind of roundball. "This has awakened the public.

It's a hot subject people are talking about the World Cup," said Alan I. Rothenberg, chairman of World. Cup USA '94. "There is at least at atmosphere where a broader audj ence is possible." jj America loves America. Bo America also loves the underdog and the superstar, as well as a litti bit of scandal and mystery.

ThiS World Cup provided it all. I Established stars showed whM people paid to see them play. Rd-; berto Baggio, the Italian striker5 with the braided ponytail and Bud-i dhist beliefs, caught fire as his team foundered and almost single-han-J dedly pushed the Azzurri into the; finals with five goals in three games. German forward Juergen' Klinsman had five goals on gravity-', defying shots, and the Brazilian duo of Romario and Bebeto never let; opposing defenses rest. when his car slowed and brushed slightly against the retaining wall, spokeswoman Debbie Hand- I A small fire broke out, but an "accident crew 2 put it out before it reached the cockpit, Handley said.

Biellier, 45, was taken to 'Citizens Memorial Hospi-tal, where he pro-Enounced dead. Blelllar The hospital Jlisted cardiac arrest as cause of Jdeath, an emergency room clerk 2id. Biellier's wife said he had a histo-ry of heart trouble, Handley said. "It's sad, but he died doing what made him happy," said Shirley Biel-0ier, Ron Biellier's mother. The death was the second in a Aittle more than a month at the Srack.

An Oklahoma racer was killed in June when his car Jslammed into a retaining wall. 1 Biellier is survived by his wife, Shirley; his mother, Wilma Biellier; Jwo brothers, Don and Darrell, all of and a sister, Marcy Dunn, Houston, Texas. Funeral services will be at 10 a.m. Tuesday in Greenlawn Funeral 3 tome North. Free agent Keenan meets with Detroit The Associated Press Hockey 19- lilrt' 1 f.

i il.if Continued from 1C Cardinals into one of baseball's most successful franchises, on and off the field. They won world championships in 1964, 1967 and 1982. Kauffman, who died in 1993 at the age of 76, owned the Kansas City Royals from day one when the franchise was born in 1969. Owner of Marion Laboratories, a pharmaceutical firm, his leadership and backing helped the Royals win a world title in 1985. Kerner brought professional basketball to Missouri when he bought the Milwaukee Hawks and moved them to St.

Louis in 1953. Five years later the Hawks beat the favored Boston Celtics in the NBA finals. His teams were known for enthusiastic play and he was known as a showman and promoter. Kerner lives in St. Louis.

"They made us a big-league state with all the national exposure we've been able to get through their efforts in keep major sports in the state of Missouri," said Bill Grigsby, a longtime sportscaster from Kansas City. It's only fitting the four go into the John Q. Hammons Missouri Sports HaU of Fame together in ceremonies Monday at University Plaza Holiday Inn. Their contributions, said Hall of Fame executive director Med Park, "laid the groundwork in so many positive ways for college and high school sports in the state." August A. Busch Jr.

When Busch bought the Cardinals in 1953, he had no sports experience and was practically unknown in the St. Louis community. That changed in a hurry as, through the Cardinals, Busch became one of St. Louis' most famous people. "When he bought the Cardi nals, it was an all-together new adventure for him," said Bud Blattner, who knew Busch through his work on Hawks Busch games and baseball's original game of the week.

"He bought the Cardinals and he couldn't go anywhere without being recognized." Bob Broeg, longtime sports editor of the St Louis Post-Dispatch, said Busch became bigger than life through the Cardinals. "Gussie was a driving force. He became a legend through baseball, much more than through the brewery and what he did for the brewery was remarkable," Broeg said. Broeg said Busch paid $1.1 million to buy the struggling franchise from Fred Saigh and $2.5 million a year later to refurbish "run-down and rusty" Sportsman's Park. His enthusiasm to bring a winner to St Louis was evident from the beginning, Broeg said, with money no object.

"But at that juncture, of course, there was no free agency. And the Giants weren't going to sell Willie Mays for a million bucks and the Dodgers weren't going to sell Gil Hodges for $600,000," Broeg said. Busch's backing did pay ofj by 1964 with the first of three world championships and five National League pennants under his ownership. Busch and the brewery also were major civic figures in St. Louis.

The brewery contributed $5 million toward the new stadium, which opened in 1966 and was the trigger of the downtown's The Associated Press PASADENA, Calif. Heat and high scores. Big crowds and bigger upsets. Drugs and death. New stars and new teams emerge.

Past idols and two ex-champions exit early with hardly a goodbye. BiUions of dollars for tickets and T-shirts. TV ratings high enough to make an ad executive do lunch. And chants of "USA! USA!" at a soccer game? All have been part of the first World Cup held in the United States. It's been a festival for the world's most popular sport and finally has people talking seriously about soccer becoming part of America's sports mainstream.

"I'm tired of the wait. Our time has come!" said Hank Steinbrecher, executive director of U.S. Soccer. "We have players, quality players. We have created stars.

We are creating fans. The stadiums are full. "In this sport, in this country, our time has come." Steinbrecher is a marketing man who has played, coached and administered soccer for decades in a country where it has been considered a second-class sport. He's seen soccermania strike before, only to fizzle out after a year or two. But as the 15th World Cup draws to a close with a titanic match of Brazil vs.

Italy today at a sold-out Rose Bowl, there are strong signs that this time the interest may be real and lasting. Certainly, people doubted when FIFA, soccer's governing body, awarded its championship the most-lucrative and most-watched single sports event in the world to the United States on July 4, 1988. It was seen as a run for the bucks, a last attempt to tap the world's richest market. FIFA, however, also elicited promises that the United States would commit itself to soccer. It wanted a strong home team and, in the aftermath, a first-class professional league, something that disappeared from the United States in mid-1980s.

It got at least the first two parts of its quest World Cup USA '94 has been the most successful soccer championship ever, on just about any basis you'd care to examine: More people. A record 3.6 million fans jammed stadiums from Foxboro, to Stanford, from Pontiac, for Orlando, Fla. The previous record was 2.5 miUion in Italy in 1990. More TV. ABC and ESPN reaped unexpectedly high ratings throughout the tournament, including the most-watched soccer match in U.S.

television history, the 1-0 victory by Brazil over the United States on the Fourth of July. That match drew national ratings of 10.5, about what a baseball playoff game gets. Overall, the ratings were around 4.5, or roughly equal to that for an exclusive telecast of an NBA game, such as those on Christmas Day. More money. Pre-tournament forecasts had the World Cup pumping $4 billion into the economies of the nine host cities and surveys as the later rounds began found those projections to be on the money.

More action. Dismayed by games in Italy four years ago that were sleep-inducing, FIFA made several minor changes in the rules to make winning more important and open up offenses. Scoring was up, shots were up, the time the ball actually was in play rose almost 10 percent from four years ago, and only two 0-0 ties the dread of Italia '90 were recorded this time Hall Induction WHAT: John Q. Hammons Hall of Fame inductions ceremony. WHEN: 6:30 p.m.

Monday. WHERE; University Plaza Holiday Inn. TICKETS: $50 per person. Call 417-889-3100. rebirth.

Ewing Kauffman Like Busch, Kauffman was a successful businessman out of the public eye when he launched the Royals. And like Busch, he rescued baseball for a city that had lost a team a couple of years earlier when the Athletics moved to Oakland. "There's no question that we might be without a team in Kansas City had it not been for Ewing," Grigsby said. "He suffered through some painful (financial) losses but stayed in because he had deep pockets." Just before his death last year, Kauffman tried to ensure the Royals would always remain in Kansas City. He appointed a committee to run the team after his Kauffman death with instructions to find a buyer who would keep the team there.

Unlike Busch, who enjoyed the limelight through the Cardinals, Kauffman pretty much stayed in the background as his Royals enjoyed their success. That didn't mean he was afraid to make bold decisions. Blattner, who broadcast Royals' games for seven years, recalled Kauffman's idea of a baseball academy in the early 1970s. "He felt you could take someone with good coordination, 20-20 eyesight and good speed and make them into a ballplayer," Blattner said, referring to the academy concept. "That didn't work, of course, because there are certain God-given talents that cannot be manufactured.

"But at the same time he was a visionary." Lamar Hunt Hunt's contributions go well beyond simply the Chiefs, Kansas City and Missouri. He had a Mil. 11,11 llll Ml, IJ 1, Lj vi WINDSOR, Ontario One day lifter declaring himself a free agent nn the National Hockey League marketplace, Mike Keenan met with Representatives from the Red Wings organization in downtown Detroit discuss what Is believed to be the 3oint position of general manager nd coach. Keenan confirmed on Saturday Jhat he and his lawyer, Rob Campbell, sat down with Mike and Mar-Jan Ditch, the owners of the Red and Jay Belfield, the team's thief legal counsel, on Saturday afternoon at the Ditch's corporate headquarters. Although rumored to le headed to Detroit, Keenan did not "Appear pleased with the result of the Meeting and called a deal "most definitely not done." He did acknowledge, however, 'jthat a second meeting has been planned for early next week.

"My options right now have to be Completely open," said Keenan, who stunned many in New York on Friday when he held a hastily called 3iews conference in Toronto to announce that the Rangers had Ireached his contract and he no longer was in their employ. "I don't have a job.".