January 4, 2006

Bad math: Bruce Arena opens camp today in Carson with a 28-man roster of almost exclusively MLS-based players fighting for World Cup spots. Competition figures to be fierce. Arena already has said he expects half his 23-man World Cup roster to come from players based in Europe, and early indications are that number should be closer to 15. That leaves eight spots for MLS players, and of those four figure to be locks: Landon Donovan, Steve Ralston, Pablo Mastroeni and Eddie Johnson. That means the remaining 24 players in camp this month are essentially fighting for four spots. If three-time World Cup veteran Eddie Pope can stay healthy and MLS MVP Taylor Twellman makes the team, as many expect, that lowers the math to 22 players for two spots. The good news for local soccer fans is that players, you'd presume, won't be lollygagging it in the Jan. 22 friendly against Canada at USD's Torero Stadium.

Put a cap on it: The murmurs of a salary cap in European club soccer are growing louder again as British sports minister Richard Caborn said last week he will push for one with UEFA, the continent's powerful soccer body. "There's no point in English football earning 1.4 billion pounds ($2.4 billion) from television contracts when most of it goes on players' wages," Caborn told English newspaper Daily Express. "We need to have restrictions on salaries and controls on agents." Caborn is chairman of the European sports ministers and says he hopes to have some sort of plan by June. The big European clubs are all for it and have suggested the cap be set at 70 percent of their annual income. What they may be less agreeable to is Caborn's other suggestion: that the 30 percent they would save be used to significantly lower ticket prices. "We all want to confront the issue of the amounts of money going into salaries," Caborn said. "But equally we want to ensure that it is fair across the board, that it is the same for Manchester United as it is for Barcelona and that can only be achieved on a European level."

Inter-esting idea: The ingenious idea of having Mexican clubs play meaningful matches in the States instead of an endless stream of friendlies enters its third year this week. It's called InterLiga, a mini-tournament to determine the Mexican entries in the Copa Libertadores – the South American club championship that includes Mexican teams but not Major League Soccer. Instead of merely taking the Apertura and Clausura champs from Mexico's split seasons, the Mexican federation and Soccer United Marketing (MLS' marketing arm) devised an eight-team tournament. The 2006 edition begins tomorrow in Houston and moves to La Joya, Texas – a town just miles from the Mexican border that is 97 percent Hispanic – on Thursday and Pizza Hut Park outside Dallas over the weekend. The final three dates are Jan. 10, 11 and 15 at The Home Depot Center in Carson. The teams are divided into two groups, with the top two in each advancing to the Jan. 15 semifinals. Since two teams get berths in the Copa Libertadores, there's no need for a final. Group A has Monterrey, Morelia, Pachuca and Veracruz. Chivas, Cruz Azul, Necaxa and Tigres are in Group B.

ONLY IN SOCCER

Universidad de Chile last week. The final straw? It wasn't the wrenching loss to rival Universidad Catolica. It was that one of the team's supporter clubs demanded he go and printed his home phone number on its Web site so fans could personally voice their displeasure. The supporter club, called "The Ones from Below," issued a survey that said 83 percent of respondents wanted Pinto out. "We're going to have to look for another coach, which is something we weren't thinking of doing," Universidad de Chile president Lino Diaz said. "We wanted to avoid this." The Ones from Below responded with this message on its Web site: "Justice has been done. Goodbye Mr. Pinto."

BEST BETS

Today: English Premier League: Tottenham at Manchester City, noon (Fox Soccer Channel)

Sunday: Italian Serie A: Ascoli at Lazio, 8 a.m. (Fox Soccer Channel)

Sunday: Argentine league: San Lorenzo at River Plate, 5 p.m. (Fox Soccer Channel)

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