The San Francisco Examiner from San Francisco, California • 52

P-6 Monday, February 13, 1999 SAN FRANCISCO EXAMINER RATTO from D-l Kit' Canada star scores twice in upset of us. women By Dwight Chapin EXAMMER SEMOR WnTER SAN JOSE Charmaine Hooper kept trying to say she wasn't a hero. "All these players are great," she said. "I did not win this game. We all won it to- til fouled.

"That was just a gift," said the ever-modest Hooper, who put the ball over the head of the Americans' backup goalkeeper, Tracy Ducar, who had just replaced starter Brianna Scurry. Six minutes later, Hooper connected on the game-winner, after she found herself alone on the right side after U.S. defender Kate So-brero slipped and fell, and she beat Ducar again. Hooper shrugged that one off, too. "I think it was the shoes," she said, raising her foot so high she almoBt toppled over.

Any way you cut it, however, this was a surprising win, considering that the U.S. team is one of the world's deepest and most cohesive, while the world stars a collection of players from the other World Cup teams were together for only a couple of days before this match. "You never want to lose," U.S. coach Tony DiCicco said. "We let them have a little opening and opportunities to take the game away from us and they did.

This means we cannot let up. We have to keep working. There won't be any easy games (in the World Cup)." U.S. star player Mia Hamm agreed. "We made a couple of mistakes, and we didn't finish some an arm and a leg to keep U.S.

player her with a severe cut over her left eyebrow and what was initially diagnosed as a fractured left cheekbone. "We saw her at halftime and she did not look good," Hamm said. But the U.S. contingent did what it could despite the loss of Akers and the game. They know what lies ahead in All times Pacific; group designations in parentheses That Raiders big deal really isn't their development curve? In short, what in the name of Bam Bam Bigelow is going on here? As usual, the Raiders are keeping their own counsel here.

They have secrets to protect, you see, even if nobody else seems terribly interested in finding out what those secrets might be. We will be told in the coming days how Gannon, and not Jeff George, is the real key to the kingdom, Gannon will say all the right things in all the right ways, and well all nod, thinking that they must know something we don't. They must, right? This doesn't make sense otherwise. So let's see just where what we think we see might not be there at all, in hope of deducing the truth amid all the quizzical looks. Four years isn't four years, and $16 million isn't $16 million.

That seems pretty likely, especially since George's contract of $27.5 million over five years ended up being closer to $10 million over two. Thus, what seems like an extraordinary commitment to Gannon is more likely a stopgap commitment until something better comes along. Say, Cade McNown (or, if Carmen Policy would return Al's calls in a parallel universe, Tim Couch) in the upcoming draft. Gannon, alone among the available free agents, was the only one who could move more than the width of a chair to evade a rush, thereby making him indispensable to the Raiders in the same way that, say, Steve Young would be to the 49ers. Of course, we don't expect you to buy that, but we're groping here just like you are.

There was another team, to date undisclosed, that was waving three years and $12 million at him. This seems unlikely, since he has never been more than a backup or spot starter, but the only way such a contract, even a shortened one, would make this kind of sense is if someone else were lusting after Gannon the way the Raiders were. Al is permitting coach Jon Gruden to have his way here as a way of saying, "OK, this is your guy, you get him, but if he goes down, you go with him." Seems like an expensive lesson, and it requires us to believe that Davis would willingly risk wasting another season so that Gruden can't say he didn't get a fair shot in Oakland. But having allowed him to change the offense and having allowed him to win the interdepartmental argument over George, it only makes sense that he would give Gruden his head on this as well. Zaniest of all, the Raiders could be gambling that there will be no other market for George, and he'll have to come back with his helmet in hand at a properly discounted price the Raiders would determine.

This one really begs the question, though, since George's agent, Leigh Steinberg, wasn't exactly conciliatory in his post mortem of the Gannon deal. It also assumes that George, having been tossed on the bone-yard so cavalierly, would want to exert one more erg of personal energy on behalf of the Silver and Brackish, and that seems almost otherworldly in its absurdi- ty. So maybe this is as it seems. The Oakland Raiders, 16 years since their last Super Bowl appearance, persistent January noncombatant and owners of the most resistible ticket in the entire National Football League, have hitched their wagon to Rich Gannon, and paid him like a better-than-average starting quarterback to cement their opinion. Makes you beg for that other shoe to materialize, doesn't it? FIRST ROUND June 10, San Jose (D) China vs.

Sweden, 5 m. (C) Japan vs. Canada, 7:30 p.m. June 19, East Rutherford, N.J. (A) U.S.

vs. Denmark, noon (B) Brazil vs. Mexico, 2:30 p.m. June 20, Pasadena (B) Germany vs. Italy, 4 p.m.

(A) North Korea vs. Nigeria, 6:30 p.m. June 20, Foxboro, Mass. (D) Australia vs. Ghana, 10:30 a.m.

(C) Norway vs. Russia, 1 p.m. June 23, Landover, Md. (C) Norway vs. Canada, 3 p.m.

(D) Australia vs. Sweden, 5:30 p.m. June 23, Portland (C) Japan vs. Russia, 6 p.m. (D) China vs.

Ghana, 8:30 p.m. June 24, Chicago (B) Brazil vs. Italy. 3 p.m. (A) U.S.

vs. Nigeria, 5:30 p.m. June 24, Portland (A) N. Korea vs. Denmark, 6 p.m.

(B) Germany vs. Mexico, 6:30 p.m. June 26, East Rutherford (C) Canada vs Russia, 9 a.m. (D) China vs. Australia, 1 1 :30 a.m.

June 26, Chicago (D) Ghana vs. Sweden, 2 p.m. meet a Group team in the tournament semifinals July 4 at Stanford Stadium. Spartan Stadium's first-round games will pit China against Sweden and Japan against Canada. A World all-star fim Sure Wui, feit, iues chances," she said.

"It was a real game a game people really cared about. There was some hard tackling. But we have to get our dominance, our edge, back." The U.S. squad won't be helped in that by the potential loss of longtime ace midfielder Michelle Akers, who exited the game in the first half after a collision that left And Mexican team defender Laurie Hill said, "Group of Death ouch! They are challenging us with this draw. It's going to be very tough, but we'll see what we can do." Organizers made a switch in groups that changed the lineup for the first-round double-header June 19 at Spartan Stadium.

China originally was announced as the top-seeded team in Group and Norway, the defending champion, as the top-seeded team in Group D. But Norway was moved to head up Group and China to lead Group D. In the original lineup, Norway would have played in San Jose. "The decision was made for local marketing reasons by the Women's World Cup organizing committee, based on the tremendous Chinese population in northern California and the interest we received from different Chinese organizations to bring the team to this venue," said Steve Vander-pool, vice president of communications for the Women's World Cup. The U.S.

team, after its meeting with Denmark, will face Nigeria June 24 at Soldier Field in Chicago and North Korea June 27 at Fox-boro Stadium in Massachusetts. If it remains on course, it would SOCCER A call for FIFA president reiterates stand on mens World Cup FROM EXAMINER STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS FIFA president Sepp Blatter repeated his call for the World Cup to be played every two years instead of four, but deflected questions Sunday about whether the Women's World Cup should follow a similar course. Blatter, speaking at a news con- Actual Client with non-surgical THR 1 J- skin graft hair replacement Try THR for 30 days RISK FREEI The only nonsurgical alternative with NO TAPE, NO CLIPS and NO DAILY MAINTENANCE. Offer ends Feb. 28, 1999 Special trade-in for HCM clients.

650.742.1010 925.295.9626 7 Convenient Offices! imarjE 1 1 If IP.V hi gether." The fact remains, however, that Hooper, a member of Sunday's icon IUET7T the Canadian national team who was a college standout at North Carolina State, scored the two goals for the world all-star team Sunday night at Spartan Stadium as they upset the U.S. women's national team, 2-1, before a crowd of 15,367. Both of Hooper's scores 'came in the second half, after the vaunted U.S. women who will almost certainly be favored to win the Women's World Cup when it is contested throughout the United States this summer had taken a 1-0 halftime team on a goal by former Stanford star Julie Foudy. Hooper's first strike came on a free kick at 54:09, after she was WORLD CUP from D-l U.S.

embarks into the unknown ther, but off what I saw of (Nigerian defender) Mercy Akide tonight (on the all-star team) they'll be very athletic and fast" Akide said, "We are a young team, fast and strong. We are growing and will continue to play and give a good fight. We won't be afraid of the U.S. They are ladies just like us." U.S. forward Tiffeny Milbrett seemed worried about the unfamil-iarity of some opponents.

"Personally, I'm a little scared of the unknown teams," she said. "You don't know how they are going to play, really, and often those types of teams are scrappy teams. And scrappy teams' strengths tend to match up against our weaknesses pretty well." Sunday's draw set up four groups of four teams each in the 16-team field for the third Women's World Cup. Group headed by Germany, also will include Brazil, Mexico and Rob Examiner Exclusively in a APRANOl LYNN BEACH Mia Hamm from the ball Sunday. June and July.

"I think you can tell by the intensity of this game that everyone is getting fired up," said defender Brandi Chastain. "It's only going to catch fire as we get closer to the tournament. This is not the Pro Bowl in Hawaii. This is an intense match, and no one is taking it lightly." (C) Norway vs. Japan, 4:30 p.m.

June 27, Landover (B) Germany vs. Brazil, 10:30 a.m. (A) Nigeria vs. Denmark, 1 p.m. June 27, Foxboro (B) Mexico vs.

Italy, 1:30 p.m. (A) U.S. vs. North Korea, 4 p.m. QUARTERFINALS June 30, San Jose Group winner vs.

Group second place, 5 p.m. Group winner vs. Group second place, 7:30 p.m. July 1, Landover Group A winner vs. Group second place, 4 p.m.

Group winner vs. Group A second place, 6:30 p.m. SEMIFINALS, July 4 Stanford: Winners ot Landover quarterfinals, 1:30 p.m. Foxboro: Winners of San Jose quarterfinals, 4:30 p.m. FINALS, July 10, Pasadena Third-place game, 10:30 a.m.

Championship, 1 p.m. quarterfinal double-header will be played at Spartan Stadium on June 30. The Associated Press contributed to this report. The FIFA president pointed out that female referees will be used in the Women's World Cup, to be held in seven U.S. cities from June 19-July 10.

"I think women will pay more respect to their gender in the game," said Blatter, who added that more women's referees must be trained. "There will be so many women's matches in the future that we'll need the same number of women's officials as men's officials." Clash open with loss SAN DIEGO Despite dominating much of Sunday afternoon's Major League Soccer preseason match with the Colorado Rapids, the San Jose Clash couldn't put the ball in the net and lost, 1-0, at Southwestern College. The Clash outehot the Rapids 11-6, including an 8-1 advantage during the first half. But Clash coach Brian Quinn pulled all but four of his starters by the 60th minute, and Colorado took advantage. Former Clash forward Paul Bravo beat San Jose goalkeeper Joe Cannon in the 67th minute to the ball and fed Marquis White for an empty-netter.

"I thought we played reasonably well in spots, especially in the first half," Quinn said. San Jose trains through the week in San Diego, again playing Colorado on Wednesday and Friday against the A-League San Diego Flash. The Clash then train for two weeks in Toluca, Mexico. "Brazil and Italy are really tough teams. I'm glad we won't have to deal with them until later." Tiffeny Milbrett Italy.

Group topped by 1995 World Cup champion Norway, has Japan, Canada and Russia, while Group led by China, has Australia, Ghana and Sweden. People are already calling Group "The Group of Death." "If we make it through our group, that's who we'd have to play next," Hamm said. "Brazil and Italy are really tough teams," Milbrett said. "I'm glad we won't have to deal with them until later." Morse Columnist The Examiner. two more years ference in The City a few hours before the draw for this summer's Women's World Cup, said holding the men's event every two years would strengthen national teams.

With players frequently crossing national boundaries to play club soccer, Blatter said, the importance of the national teams is being diluted. Holding the World Cup more frequently could help address that problem, he added. Blatter's suggestion has been attacked by many other soccer officials worldwide, but the head of FIFA the world governing body for soccer said new ideas should not be rejected just because they would lead to change. "It's like when Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone," said Blatter, who plans to report to FIFA8 executive committee on March 11-12 about the proposal. "People said, We don't need it because we already have the When asked about the Women's World Cup also going to a two-year schedule, Blatter did not answer directly.

"I think it will be easier to have a Women's World Cup every two years than a men's World Cup every two years," he said with a laugh. Blatter also said he favors experimenting with two referees in soccer matches, though only if such an experiment could take place over a full season. Trying it in only one competition would not be enough time to assess such a trial, he said. How to reach the Sports Department ScorM, tree (CityLkie) (415510408) 808-5000 1 (press 6000, touch-tone phone only) Milling ddrt: Sports Department San Francisco Eaminef P.O. Box 7260 San Francisco, CA 94120.