WEDNESDAY,APRIL17,2002
SPORTS
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN = 7B
Teams prepare for World Cup
The Associated Press
DUBLIN, Ireland — Brad Friedel will start in goal over Kasey Keller when the United States plays Ireland tonight in the Americans' last warmup before deciding on their World Cup roster.
Keller is 6-1 this year for the United States, while Friedel has started just once, a 1-0 loss at Italy in February.
Part of the reason Keller has seen more time with the national team is that he spent most of the season on the bench at Tottenham Hotspur while Friedel was the regular goalie for Premier League rival Blackburn, which is trying to avoid relegation to Division One.
"You've got to show loyalty to your club because they pay your wages," Friedel said.
Keller, who started the first two games for the Americans at the 1998 World Cup, has started four straight games for Spurs, putting him back into contention to be the U.S. starter this year.
Cup June 5 against Portugal.
The Americans open the World
U. S. coach Bruce Arena said Keller probably would replace Friedel in the second half of Wednesday's game at Lansdowne Road.
Arena will have nearly all his top players available for the first time since World Cup qualifying last year.
While the Americans are 8-2 this year, they lost both games in Europe, including a 4-2 defeat last month to Germany in which the U.S. team was outhustled and pushed around.
"We got spanked pretty good in Germany," Arena said. "We have to clean up that sloppy play."
U. S. captain Claudio Reyna, who missed the Germany game because of a hamstring injury, is back on the roster. Defender David Regis strained a knee in practice Monday night and Arena brought in Greg Vanney as a late addition.
Ireland coach Mick McCarthy said yesterday he would start Robbie Keane and Damien Duff at forward. The Irish, unbeaten in their last 10 home games and
heading for the World Cup finals as well, are missing captain Roy Keane, out another month because of a torn hamstring.
"The Irish have a great team spirit and they don't have a weak spot," said Friedel, who plays with Duff at Blackburn. "Damien is a real emerging star for them."
The United States, which plays exhibition games at home against Uruguay, Jamaica and the Netherlands before heading to the World Cup, is 13th in the latest FIFA rankings, five places above Ireland.
"Are you trying to tell me that means we're better than them?" Arena said yesterday. "Those rankings mean very little most of the time, and absolutely nothing on game day."
Twenty-eight other exhibition games are scheduled today, including Argentina at Germany, Paraguay at England, Brazil at Portugal, Uruguay at Italy and Russia at France. Bulgaria plays Mexico at East Rutherford, N.J.
In Copenhagen, Denmark's Soccer Federation said it received
a bomb threat ahead of today's game against Israel, to be played amid tight security.
A short anonymous letter received late Monday warned that "a huge explosion" would take place at the stadium if the Denmark-Israel match is played, federation representative Lars Berendt said.
The letter, written in Danish, also stated that "both spectators and the Danish World Cup players will be in danger" and ended with the words "Free Palestine."
Police and soccer officials said they were taking the threat seriously but pointed out that extra security measures already were in place with at least two major anti-Israel demonstrations scheduled in Copenhagen ahead of the game.
"We see this as a threat and all bomb threats are always taken very seriously," police spokesman Flemming Steen Munch said yesterday. "But it won't make us take any further security measures; we're already at the level needed."
Hughes anticipates victories on, off ice
The Associated Press
NEWHAVEN, Conn. — Sarah Hughes isn't through. Not even close.
After winning the Olympic gold medal at age 16, Hughes is looking ahead to more triumphs — on and off the ice. While the setting for her return to competitive skating, at Tuesday's Hershey's Kisses Figure Skating Challenge, wasn't exactly a stage for historic performances, it was the right first step back for her.
"I'm eager to go back into that mode and see if it is a little different than six weeks ago," Hughes said before the team event. "It will be great to be going back to a more competitive atmosphere, with the six-minute warmup and there will be judges there."
Although Hughes still hasn't
officially declared she will remain Olympic-eligible, she and coach Robin Wagner are planning to return to serious practice in June, once Hughes is finished with the Champions on Ice tour. Both admit there is so much more to accomplish.
Hughes often speaks about maintaining a well-rounded life in which she attends high school, hangs with her friends and is involved in a variety of areas.
She recently went to the White House and spoke with President Bush. Her life has been a whirlwind of appearances and touring since Salt Lake City, but she hasn't tired of it.
"Skating has not always been the only interest in my life," she said. "For right now, for this moment, it is my own main concern, but I have so many other
interests and things I like to do and want to do in my life.
"My life was like a merry-go-round. Originally I thought I would go to the Olympics and have a nice experience and say I was an Olympian. Then maybe I'd do the world championships and just go back to school and maybe do a couple of shows here or there."
"That definitely is not like it has been. I've only been to school a couple days since I won. I actually miss seeing all my friends and I'm sure I'll have to spend a lot of extra time in school later in the year."
Wagner believes the time Hughes spends in school and with her peers is extremely valuable. The coach also thinks Hughes has matured rapidly.
"She has learned what her responsibility is to her sport and
herself and to others," Wagner said. "She intends to use this as an opportunity to really reach beyond the world of figure skating."
First, however, there is the world of figure skating, where Hughes is the reigning queen. Although Michelle Kwan has six U.S. titles and four crownies
— Hughes has won neither event
— the Olympic gold medal has
lifted Hughes to a previously
unimagined level.
Hughes already has experienced the hype and hoopla that accompanies being a celebrity. The more she achieves in the next few years, the wilder things could become.
"I always wondered what it would be like to have people wanting me, requesting me, and all of a sudden here I was," she said with a laugh.
The Associated Press
Man pays $10,000 for chewed gum
TUCSON, Ariz. — So why did Curt Mueller pay $10,000 for a piece of chewed bubble gum?
Mueller, owner of a sports medicine company and winner of an auction for a wad of gum chewed by Luis Gonzalez of the Arizona Diamondbacks, had two goals in mind.
He wanted publicity to sell his own competing gum. And he wanted to donate the cash to a high school for scholarships.
Gonzalez, 32, won last year's All-Star home run derby, had 57 homers and 142 RBIs and delivered the winning hit in Game 7 to clinch the World Series for the Diamondbacks.
"I'm doing pretty well with the cheap stuff," Gonzalez said with a laugh in a three-way conversation with Mueller and disc jockey Johnjay Van Es of Tucson radio station KRQ.
Monday night, Gonzalez had two hits and four runs batted in against the St. Louis Cardinals to improve to .259 for the season, with three home runs and nine RBIs.
Before talking on-air with Mueller, Gonzo told Van Es that everywhere he goes now, "people ask me if I've got bubble gum."
When Mueller talked to Gonzalez yesterday, he added a third reason. He wanted to help the outfielder with his hitting by having him switch brands of gum.
Mueller said he couldn't take all the calls coming in about his winning bid.
"Dammedest thing I've ever seen." Mueller said.
He said he decided to get into the used gum acquisition business while reading a newspaper in Jamaica last week "about this guy chewing some gum and throwing it away." Mueller learned that Jason Gabbert, owner of a sports memorabilia store in Wood
Lake, Minn., and Van Es were jointly auctioning Gonzalez's chewed gum.
Gabbert said he got the gum through a security guard during a March 7 spring training game in Tucson after Gonzalez had tossed it in the dirt, and decided to auction it off with the proceeds to go to a nearby high school.
When the gum's authenticity was questioned, Gonzo agreed to gnaw another piece of gum in front of television cameras, seal it in a plastic bottle and have it delivered to Van Es.
Mueller's check to Lakeview High School in southwestern Minnesota was sent to KRQ yesterday to be forwarded to the school, with the gum — and Gonzo's original wad — to be sent to Mueller.
"Those are going to be in my office in a glass case," he said.
Mueller said he was pleased to make a donation to a high school for student scholarships that also would be a contribution to a customer. The high school uses his company's medical supplies, he said.
Principal David Fjeldheim said officials at Lakeview, a 183-student school, likely will create an endowment fund providing two scholarships annually.
"We will probably end up looking at the qualities that Luis Gonzalez portrays so well
— very nice guy, trustworthy and honest, excellent attitude on the courts and the field," Fieldheim said.
One would be awarded in Gonzalez's name and the other in Mueller's, he said.
Mueller said he would have gone up to $50,000.
"I thought, like, I had some cash in my pocket and I knew what to do with it," he said. For years, his company has given money to the NFL Trainers Association for scholarships for children, he said.
"This is just another way of doing it."
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Celebrate
Earth Week:
April
15-21
"Protect our
Today
Thursday
10:30 A.M. Regionalist Room in the Kansas Union-author and activist Derrick Jensen presents a workshop on Interspecies communication.
1 PM & 2:15 PM, Regionalist Room-Derrick Jensen presents workshops on nature writing.
7 PM, Kansas Room in the Kansas Union-Derrick Jensen speaks on environmental and social justice, book signing will follow.
11 AM-3 PM, Earth Day Fair. Kansas Union Lobby
Thursday
What a great day to enjoy the environment!
Saturday
9 AM, Burcham Park (3rd & Indiana)-Tour De Fat "A Ballyhoo of Bikes and Beer
11 AM, Mass St.-Earth Day Parade
12 PM, Watson Park (7th & Kentucky) Activities in the park including info., kids activities, speakers, music, drum circle and belly dancers
home" Sunny 12PM.P
STUDENT SENATE University of South Carolina Association Envirom
12 PM. Protest of South Lawrence Trafficway, meet at the Douglas County Courthouse (12th & Mass) @ noon and march through Haskell on 31st Street. Protest will last 4PM on 31st Street.
Sunrise Terrace Apartments
- Two,Three, & Four Bedroom w/
Two Story, and Two baths
- Two Story, and Two baths
- On Site Laundry
- Some with w/d's
- Digital Cable Ready
- Balcony / Decks w/ view
The blue buildings on the hill (Past Tanglewood Apts) With path to Chi Omega Fountain No pets 951 Arkansas, Buildings H-P 841-5797
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