Section B · Page 4
The University Daily Kansan
Wednesday, December 2, 1998
Commentary
Soccer season ends; rumors fly
One of the best games in anyone's recent memory took place last Wednesday. It was on The Deuce, and of course, I was in a car, halfway to Milwaukee, during its broadcast. Oh, the injustice.
For those of you who didn't see it, I'm talking about last Wednesday's Champions League game between Manchester United and Barcelona, which ended in a 3-3 draw at the Nou Camp in Barcelona.
The draw knocked Barcelona out of the tournament and that could spell trouble for coach Louis Van Gaal. This year is the Catalonian club's centenary, and they desperately wanted to win the European Cup in celebration. Even though Van Gaal led the team
to first place in last year's league play as well as victory in the Spanish Cup, two years of abject failure in Europe bode poorly for his future at a club with as much ambition as Barcelona.
Major League Soccer is in the off-season, and rumors are abound. There is one coaching vacancy, and it is the highest-profile job in the league, that of DC United, Kevin
Sam Pierron
rayne, United's general manager, is reportedly considering foreign coaches, an option that he says is only the case because Bruce Arena left such a good foundation before his appointment to the US National Team.
It seems that Wizards' coach Ron Newman will not be fired, as it seemed at the end of the year. He has one year remaining on his contract and wants to see it out. The Wizards
have offered ex-Revolution and Mutiny coach Thomas Rongen the job of "Technical Director" for the 1999 season, to be followed by the head coaching slot in 2000, according to an interview with Rongen in the Washington Post.
Rongen, who hails from the Netherlands, has lived in the United States for 20 years and is an interesting candidate. His 1996 Tampa Bay Mutiny team was the best in the league until the very end, when Marco Etcheverry got into shape and DC United began their ascent to fame by besting the Mutiny in the Eastern Conference finals.
On the basis of that success, the Revolution hired him away for the 1997 season. In two years in New England, Rongen has been unable to build a consistent winner, and highly questionable player acquisition and handling have been the order of the day.
While this does not bode well for any future career with the Wizards, one commentator from New England offered some good reasoning as to why Rongen succeeded with Tampa, failed with the Revs and could be a success in another locale.
In Tampa, Rongen made player personnel decisions in tandem with the general manager, Farookh Quraishi, who played along with Rongen in the old North American Soccer League. In New England, he was given free reign, as Revolution General Manager Brian O'Donovan, while an outstanding business manager, knows little about soccer.
Perhaps when he has to make decisions
along with another person knowledgeable in the ways of soccer, the thinking goes, Rongen can concentrate on coaching and be more effective. Sounds good to me.
Whoever the coach may be, the Wizards have already completed one trade and a few more are in the rumor mill. The trade gave defender Matt McKeon to the Colorado Rapids for left-sided mid fielder Chris Henderson. Henderson is coming off shoulder surgery, and McKeon had an off-year, relegated to the bench for the last few weeks of the season.
The real question is how to fit Henderson into the Wizards' crowded left side of midfield, and the answer could be a trade of Mark Chung. Chung is a Miami native and has made no secret of his desire to play for the Fusion. He is coming off a poor season, and Miami needs a left-sided mid fielder.
While the Fusion do not necessarily have anyone immediately available to trade, they are "owed" a player by the league, and may trade rights for that future signing to the Wizards in exchange for Chung. Major League Soccer certainly works in mysterious ways.
Finally, the Wizards bid adieu to forward Paul Rideout after one year with the club. Rideout did not accept the contract that was offered him for next year, and will return to China, where he played in 1996-97. While he never really clicked as a member of the team, he is a classy individual and a true professional whose presence will be missed.
As always, for questions, comments, etc., email spierron@ukans.edu.
Pierron is an Olathe senior in political science and international studies.
Sailing race mixes dangers, adrenaline
Bone-weary sailors head to New Zealand for second leg of race
The Associated Press
The next 6,884 miles will be harrowing.
Those who dare to challenge the oceans solo say the first 7,000 miles of the Around Alone sailing race were exhausting.
Fifteen sailors and their crews are in Cape Town, South Africa, this week, wrapping up weeks of repairs and restocking their 40- to 60-foot boats.
On Saturday, they head to Auckland, New Zealand, for the second leg of the four-part, nine-month race.
It's not for nothing they call it the Roaring Forties — below 40 degrees south latitude.
This section runs through a roiling stretch of water where the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific oceans merge. Aside from the tip of South America, there is no land to interrupt the free flow of wind.
Mike Golding of Britain won the first leg by just 21/2 hours, smashing the speed record from Charleston, S.C., to Cape Town. He arrived Oct. 31 after 34 days, 18 hours, 54 minutes and 44 seconds at sea.
The second- and third-place finishers — isabelle Ausfisser and Marc Thierclin, both of France — also broke the mark set by
Autissier in 1994, the last time this race was held.
Jean-Pierre Moulaine of France won the Class II category, for boats up to 50 feet long, followed by Michael Garside of Britain and Brad Van Liew of Santa Monica, Calif.
Other racers took up to 62 days to reach Cape Town, with the last, Fedor Konioukhov of Russia, arriving just hours before the disqualification deadline Nov. 28. It was not clear Tuesday night if he would finish his repairs in time to leave with the other boats Saturday.
"This leg was exhausting for everyone, both physically and psychologically. It put all of us, both boats and skippers, through the wringer. Being so close to each other pushed each of us to our utmost." Autissier said.
If the first leg was a tactical chess match, where racers gambled on the right moment to skirt the mid-Atlantic doldrums and head east toward Africa, the second leg will be a roller-coaster ride.
"The first boat to make it into the strong westerlies should have a big advantage," race director Mark Schrader said Monday.
Sailors who get ahead of high pressure systems will be surfing down 40-foot waves with the smallest sails in their arsenal, praying the heavy gauge metal shrouds
He also noted that crash helmets were among the many safety items issued. "On 380-plus mile days, the motion and the noise is incredible," he said.
"This leg was exhausting for everyone, both physically and psychologically. It put all of us ... through the wringer. Being so close to each other pushed each of us to our utmost."
holding up their seven-story masts
don't crumple under the onlaught.
Isabelle Autissier Second place winner of Around Alone
Isabelle Autissier
Those who get stuck behind low pressure systems will have the same ice seas smashing into them.
This time, she is reinforcing her lines, bringing a smaller main sail, packing lots of spare parts and adding a heater — to ward off the bitter cold from the constant storms.
The three Americans include the 30-year-old Van Liew, Robin Davie,
47, of Charleston, and George
The Around Alone competitors this year range from age 30 to 64 and are a veritable United Nations of the sea: three each from France, Britain and the United States, two from Russia and one apiece from Italy, Australia, South Africa and Japan. Autissier is the only woman.
Autissier knows all about those seas. A rogue wave flipped and demasted her 60-foot yacht on this leg in 1994, ending her quest to win the around-the-world race after she had beaten others by five days on the first leg. An Australian rescue helicopter saved her life.
Stricker, 62, a native of Newport, Kv.
All the sailors emerged from the first leg with astonishing tales of courage and willpower.
Viktor Yazykov of Russia made headlines by performing surgery on his infected elbow, using e-mail instructions from a Boston doctor.
Autissier had to scale her 85-foot mast to fix a broken halyard, the line that keeps the sails up. Davie broke his rudder midway, and then ran out of food as he approached Cape Town. Thiercelin's mainsail ripped into shreds in a gale. Konioukhov's water ballast system failed, leaving him unable to move upwind and at times thousands of miles behind his competitors.
And nearly everyone's autopilot steering system broke down at some point, so the racers could barely sleep two hours at a time.
Even Konioukhov, who has climbed Mount Everest and skied to both noles, was daunted.
"On this race the danger is for two months — and that is just leg one," he said in Cape Town. "Compared to Everest, this is very difficult."
World Cup races deliver four wins to Austrian team
The Associated Press
MAMMOTH MOUNTAIN, Calif. — Howitzers welcomed World Cup ski racers to this California resort yesterday as workers tried to clear mountain drifts from a 2-foot snowfall overnight.
The guns could well have been a 21-gun salute for the powerful Austrian women's team, which swept two downhills and a super-G last weekend at Lake Louise, Alberta.
Austrian women have won four of the six races so far and, with this resort featuring a super-G and a slalom this week, there is every reason to think the "Power Team" can add to its laurels.
A year ago, it was the German team that swept all before it and, even though two-time World Cup overall champion Katja Seizinger is out with a knee injury, the remaining members aren't quite ready to hand all the laurels to Austria.
Gerg was third in the super-G behind Austrian Alexandra Meissnitzer and teammates Martina Ertl and Regina Haeusel each had fourths in the downhills won both days by Renate
"Mammoth Mountain is a very good slope for me, steep and difficult," said Hilde Gerg, third the last two years in the overall standings and with a victory, a second, a third and a fifth from previous visits here
Goetschl. While not victories, those placements are giving the Germans hope early in the season.
"I think we can come more and more and get better," Gerg said.
"Last year, I was third in the overall, and you think this year you can perhaps be second or even first, but it's not easy. You have to look at how the other girls are skiing. Alexandra Meissnitzer is skiing very well at the moment. But it's a long season, and we will see."
Although the German women have been very good in the 1990s, last year was a dream season for them said Gerg, who added a gold medal in slalom and a bronze in the combined in the Olympics at Nagano, Japan.
"What happened happened. The success I've had, nobody can take it from me. It's mine," she said. "But we also want to continue to ski well. We want to say it wasn't only one season.
"It's very nice to have it, but now it's not going to be so easy. But I think it's good to have to fight; it isn't so bad if it's not always so easy."
Gerg admits that some of Germany's early problems can be blamed on Seizinger's absence.
"Every girl is skiing for herself, but on the team it's not so easy to tell who is the leader," she said. "With Katja it was always easy; if she said something, that meant it was right."
Butler needs one victory for junior college title
The Associated Press
A year after going 4-5, Butler County Community College is one victory away from winning its second National Junior College Athletic Association football title.
The Grizzlies, 11-0 and ranked No. 2 in the NJCAA, meet Ricks (Idaho) on Friday in the Real Dairy Bowl at Pocatello, Idaho. Ricks is 10-0 and ranked No. 1.
Two other Kansas schools will make bowl appearances Saturday.
Garden City (8-3) will travel to Mesa, Ariz., (7-3) for the Valley of the Sun Bowl, and Coffeville (6-3) will play Northeastern Oklahoma A&M (8-3) in the Red River Bowl at Bedford, Texas.
Butler County also won the NJCAA championship — which does not include two-year schools from California — in 1981.
"We're doing the same things we did last year, only we have more experienced players," said coach James Shibest, voted the
Jayhawk Conference's Coach of the Year in two of his three seasons at Butler County. "We know what this last game means and we know that we have our work cut out for us.
"We're going to play a big and physical team, and we're doing it at their place."
Garden City bid for a national championship last season but lost to Trinity Valley, Texas, in the Red River Bowl.
"We fell short of what we wanted to accomplish this season, but I feel good about the way the players rallied back when they were faced with adversity," said coach Jim Gush.
Coffeyville has been to more bowls than any other Kansas juco team, running up an 11-9-2 record.
"We feel like the bowls are a reward for what we do during the season, but we also know what we've done doesn't mean a lot now," Ravens coach Skip Foster said. "You're starting all over, and it's a one-game season."