Osiander Knows Firsthand How Tough Olympics Can Be

The one person who knows better than anyone else the uphill road facing the U.S. men’s Olympic team this summer is Los Angeles Galaxy Coach Lothar Osiander, who coached the American team in Seoul in 1988 and in Barcelona in 1992.

Asked what advice he would give current Olympic Coach Bruce Arena, whose U.S. team has to play Argentina, Portugal and Tunisia in the first round, Osiander laughed.

“I’d tell him to pack it in,� he said.

In Seoul eight years ago, Osiander’s team tied Argentina, 1-1, and South Korea, 0-0, then lost to the eventual gold medalist, the Soviet Union, 4-2. In Barcelona four years later, his squad lost to Italy, 2-1, defeated Kuwait, 3-1, and tied Poland, 2-2.

“Compared to ‘92, it’s about the same,� Osiander replied when asked how tough the U.S. group is. “Poland was solid and so is Portugal. Italy and Argentina are about at the same level. It’s going to be very hard to get to the second round.

“And Tunisia is unpredictable. They play so unpredictably, you don’t know what to do with them. It’s a difficult draw for us.�

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Trouble is brewing between Major League Soccer and the U.S. national teams.

Already, there have been clashes between the Olympic team and MLS clubs over the availability of players. The national team, which opens its season May 26 against Scotland in New Britain, Conn., also is demanding that its players be freed, even if it means that they miss MLS games.

Eddie Firmani, coach of the New York/New Jersey MetroStars, does not like allowing his Olympic players, who include Damian Silvera, Miles Joseph, A.J. Wood and Zach Thornton, to train and travel with the Olympic squad.

“The situation is useless,� he said. “I don’t see the players from Monday to Friday and it just can’t work like that. Now, I’m just going to reconsider leaving them down there [at the Olympic training camp in Washington, D.C.]. They come back here tired and I can’t use them.�

Arena, the Olympic men’s coach, said Firmani and the other MLS coaches have no grounds for complaint.

“If that’s what he says, he’s way out of line,� Arena said. “They [MLS teams] knew even before they drafted those players [what their availability was going to be]. We’ve bent over backward to give them those players on an unusual number of occasions, when the policy was that that wasn’t going to happen.

“If he’s so upset about it, he hasn’t seen anything yet. In the next few months, he’s going to see [Olympic squad players] even fewer days than he has so far.�

The U.S. plays Australia on Sunday and Ireland on May 25 and June 1, in addition to games against the Long Island Rough Riders and Atlanta Ruckus today and May 27.

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Trying to forestall a similar conflict over player release at the time of U.S. Cup ’96 next month, Steve Sampson, the U.S. national team coach, has said flatly that MLS players will be expected to be with the U.S. team full-time.

The four-nation tournament featuring the United States, Mexico, Bolivia and Ireland will be played June 8-16 at four sites, including a June 16 United States-Mexico game at the Rose Bowl.

“The league understands the significance [of the tournament], not only as preparation for [World Cup ‘98] qualifying but also that for the [U.S. Soccer] Federation this is a big money maker,� Sampson told Soccer America magazine.

“The players will get a lot of pressure from their coaches and general managers for leaving, but I hope to have them five days prior to our first match against Ireland [June 9 at Foxboro Stadium, near Boston].

“And I want the players to stay with me throughout U.S. Cup. They will not play for their MLS teams during that period of time.�

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From a D.C. United advertisement in the Washington Post: “To be a true soccer fan, you have to despise your nearest rivals. That’s easy. Ours are from New York.�

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Two MLS clubs with British-born coaches, the Kansas City Wiz and Colorado Rapids, have turned--guess where--for help to bolster their teams.

Ron Newman brought former Scottish national team striker Mo Johnston to strengthen Kansas City’s offense, and Bob Houghton signed former English national team goalkeeper Chris Woods to strengthen Colorado’s defense.

To make way for Woods, the Rapids put Morocco’s World Cup ’94 goalkeeper, Khalil Azmi, on waivers.

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A recent 6-4 victory by Kansas City over Columbus established seven league records.

“I thought we were in the NBA for a minute,� said Newman, adding to his growing collection of quips.

When an earlier Kansas City game, at San Jose, went to a record 16 rounds of shootout per team, he said, “I thought we were going to miss our plane. And we don’t leave until tomorrow.�

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No Nicaragua trip is in store for the U.S. national team this fall. That possibility disappeared Saturday when Guatemala beat Nicaragua, 2-1, in Guatemala City in World Cup ’98 qualifying play.

Guatemala, which also won the first leg, in Nicaragua, 1-0, advances to the next round, a four-nation group also featuring the United States, Costa Rica and Trinidad & Tobago.

The home-and-home round-robin series begins in September.

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Soccer Notes

Forward and No. 1 draft pick Brian McBride of the Columbus Crew and midfielder Martin Vasquez of the Tampa Bay Mutiny have been named to the U.S. roster for the May 26 game against Scotland at the Yale Bowl. Vasquez has played 10 games for Mexico and his eligibility for the American team is therefore being contested. . . . Goalkeeper Mary Harvey of the 1991 world champion and current U.S. Olympic team, and Renato Copobianco, assistant coach for the Mutiny, were married in La Jolla on May 4.

Goals by Jason De Vos, Martin Nash and Niall Thompson gave Canada a 3-0 victory over Jamaica at the CONCACAF Olympic qualifying tournament in Edmonton on Friday. Also playing there are Mexico, El Salvador, Costa Rica and Trinidad & Tobago. Two goals by Cuauhtemoc Blanco and one by Manuel Abundis earned Mexico a 3-0 victory over El Salvador on Saturday. . . . All three U.S. national team goalkeepers were in the news recently, for good reasons and bad. Former UCLA star Brad Friedel won the Turkish Cup with his club, Galatasaray. In England, Juergen Sommer’s Premier League team, Queens Park Rangers, was relegated to the first division and Kasey Keller’s first division team, Millwall, was relegated to the second division. Sommer and Keller are both likely to move to new clubs.

Defender Alexi Lalas of the New England Revolution and U.S. national team, did a stint with his acoustic guitar at Boston’s Hard Rock Cafe. . . . The MetroStars drew more fans for their first game, 46,826, than the defunct New York Cosmos drew for Franz Beckenbauer’s NASL debut, 45,288. . . . Ademir, a star for the Brazilian team that lost the 1950 World Cup final to Uruguay, has died of cancer at the age of 73 in Rio De Janeiro. Ademir scored 31 goals for the Brazilian national team, sixth on the all-time list behind Pele, Zico, Jairzinho, Rivelino and Tostao.