Conference trucks::football;1

    Might as well get this topic going.
    
    I'll be going to the Ireland games at Foxboro coming up. In fact, we
    have a group of 24 for the Portugal game Sunday, and a smaller group
    for the Itlay match on Thursday. 
    
    Can anyoneprovide which players are likely to make the trip for Ireland? 
    We missed TGA last time Jack and the Lads were around, and I hope he, 
    along with most of the regulars will be in the squad. 
    
    Any news about the Italian and Portugese teams? I would guess that
    Itlay is in a "rebuilding" stage, with a new coach, and it wouldn't
    surprise me to see some younger, less famous players in the team, just
    to see what they can do.
    
    Portugal seem to be an "up and coming" team with lots of talented
    younger players. 
    
    This should be an interesting tournament.    
    
    
    Tom

    I hear Ireland are sending over an U-19 team also to play US select
    teams and that they will be playing in Boston. Anyone have details ?
    
    I think Ireland will have to improve on the 2-0 performance against
    a supposedly depleted Albanian team, if they are going to make an
    impact in this tournament.
    
    Cheers,
    Keith.

    Roy Wegerle and Thomas Dooley (who plays in the Bundesliga) were both
    named to the 22 man squad for the U.S. Cup '92.  Both will be making
    their US debuts on Saturday versus Ireland in Washington D.C.  The U.S.
    team will also be playing Portugal, June 2nd in Chicago and Italy on
    June 6th (also in Chicago).
    
    The rest of the squad:
    
    Goalkeepers - Tony Meola, Kasey Keller, Mark Dodd
    
    Defenders - Desmond Armstrong, Marcelo Balboa, Fernando Clavijo, John
                Doyle, Zak Ibsen, Janusz Michallik
    
    Midfielders - John Harkes, Tab Ramos, Marc Chung, Chris Henderson,
                  Dominic Kinnear, Hugo Perez, Brian Quinn
    
    Forwards - Ernie Stewart, Bruce Murray
    
    
    Steve

    So "Big Roy" finally decided which shirt to wear if he wants to play in
    a World Cup.... Even *I* could have told him he wasn't going to crack
    the England or Germany first 11 and it looks unlikely that South Africa
    would take one of the 3 African spots (if they are even competing). Are
    there any other countries he could play for? Gee, it's too bad he didn't 
    figure this out earlier, as we could have used him up front in Italia '90.
    
    Haven't heard much on Dooley, so it should be interesting to see how
    the US does aganst first-rate teams. Then again, Portugal and Italy in
    particular have been notorious for "mailing in" the result, so it's
    hard to say how seriously they will take this competition. With Sacchi
    as the new Italian coach, I would think that he might be bringing in a
    few new players, and these guys will be anxious to prove that they
    belong.
    
    Personally, I don't care who wins, I'm just looking to see some well
    played, entertaining games, with a few goals scored for good measure.
    My tickets came in the mail yesterday, and Mr Wicks, me and 2 others
    will be in the 11th row on the Irteland side for Italy - Ireland. For
    Portugal - Ireland we've got 24 of us, and we'll be further up in the
    top tier in midfield on the Portugal side. Anyone want to meet up
    before/after the games?
    
    Tom
    
    PS - Bob, was that you playing on the wing for the Internationals the
    other night? I was the sweeper-back for the WhiteFish, #22.  

    Here's a stunner...

    In game #1 of this tournament:

        		USA: 3   	Ireland: 1
    
    Game 2:

    			Italy: 0 	Portugal: 0

    Can someone pinch me! I think I'm still dreaming!
    
    USA: 1	Portugal: 0
    
    Anyone care to comment on the game?
    
    Nick
    

    WOW!
    
    I though the win over Ireland was something, and would have settled for
    that.... Didn't see the game, does anyone have some more details?
                                  
    I'm outa here in a bit...Going over to Foxboro for Italy-Ireland
    
    Tom

    I am probably among the few who Yanks who watched the match, rather than the
    Bulls-Trailblazers playoff game.   The US dominated play the entire
    game.  Wegerle and Dooley added a dimension to the team that will
    certainly pay big dividends in the future.  Sportschannel named Tab
    Ramos as Player of the Match, and it was his play in the midfield and
    the combinations that he worked with Wegerle and others that was truly
    a key to the victory.  
    
    The US should actually have won at least 3-0.  Hugo Perez missed an
    open net shot when he tried to blast it.  A nice easy touch would have
    put the US up  2-0 in the second half.  Late in the second half, Ramos
    sent Dooley into the penalty area with a nice pass, and Dooley just
    missed the far corner with a lovely flick with the outside of his right
    foot that had the keeper beaten.
    
    Portugal did have a player sent off in the second half and late in the
    game did apply some good pressure as they concentrated on offense in a
    desperate attempt to get the equaliser.
    
    All in all a very entertaining match.  Now if we can just beat Italy...
    
    Steve

    
    R.O.I  0   Italy  2
    
    Well if the Americans watched this rubbish you can understand them not
    liking Football.The team in Green running round kicking anything that
    moves and launching the round thing into orbit,and the team in blue
    diving all over the place everytime anything in green came near them.
      
    
    Dave...
    
    

    Dave,
    
    If liking football is proportional to the quality of football served up
    by your national team I'm surprised there is anybody in England still
    intersted in the game.
    
    Your bait is quite tasty to.
    
    		Brian.

    
    
    A second successive defeat for Ireland last night.  It was not a pretty
    sight.  Bonner was responsible for both goals and also got himself sent
    off.  He didn't do his chances of a move to England any good.
    
    Ireland seemed more committed but yet again failed to take some ilt
    edged chances.  The Italians were clinical.  Both sides need to improve
    a lot for the the important business of World Cup qualification next
    year.
    
    Signori scored with an excellent shot following a tapped free kick. 
    Bonner took 2 steps to his left and sold himself.  The wall was also
    badly positioned.  At this level the slightest mistake is punished.
    Houghton, Townsend and Aldridge all had good chances to equalise but
    poor finishing and some adequete goalkeeping by Zenga saved the
    Italians.  Thew second goal was a penalty midway through the second
    half.  Bonner fouled Signori who made a meal of the challenge but it
    WAS a penalty.  The referee followed the letter of the law and sent
    Bonner off.  A little harsh but certainly correct.  Costacurta
    dispatched the penalty.  Italy went to sleep then as the job was done
    and allowed Ireland to dominate the remainder of the game but the
    result was never in doubt.
    
    Gary.

    Italy were the better side, Ireland looked tired and disjointed. The
    pitch was err.. thin and long, not condusive to good flowing attacks.
    
    My little nephew went to this game, I'll talk to him later on this
    weekend to see what he thought of it.
    
    jb.

    
re. last
    
 > The pitch was err.. thin and long, not condusive to good flowing attacks.<
                                      -------------------------------------
    
    
   it should have suited the Irish then !!!
    
   Del.

    Can someone clarify whether Packie has to deliberately take the man out
    for it to be a sending off offence?
    
    			Daith�

    Brutal game. We were terrible. Italy deserved to win. Maybe the players
    were tired after the long season and find it hard to motivate
    themselves for this. If we fail to beat Portugal, then we will suffer
    the ignominy of finishing of finishing last in this tournament.
    However, I wouldn't read to much into it.
    
    What does bother me though, is when I see a player like Denis Irwin
    boot the ball aimlessly forward. He does that for Ireland but doesn't
    do it for Man United. You get the feeling that Dunphy is right -- Jack
    Charlton is not making the best of his players. I'd like to see us make
    better use of the ball, we have the players that are well capable of
    it. Another worrying factor is Packie's form. He is not playing well
    and is sorely in need of some first team practice. He make a mistake
    for the penalty and was harshly punished -- I doubt if he even touched
    your man. 
    
    The pitch looked narrow all right, but what I couldn't get over was the
    ads for sponsors that kept coming out over the P.A. every few minutes.
    You could hear them quite clearly on the TV: 
    
    "Gilette are the proud sponsors of the US Cup - Gilette - the best a
    man can get"
    
    "Remember, soccer fans, for all you do, this Bud is for you" 
    
    etc.
    
    Speaking of ads, the best part of the TV coverage, was the ad for
    Corona after the match. "A Good barman -- not a great barman"
    
    Jimmy

================================================================================
>Note 220.14                   "U.S. Cup" Tournament                     14 of 15
>CRAIC::DFALLON "For a lie to become a rumour, It mus" 4 lines   5-JUN-1992 11:07
                           -< Clarification request >-
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>    Can someone clarify whether Packie has to deliberately take the man out
>   for it to be a sending off offence?
    
>    			Daith�
    
    
    Under newest FIFA rules, if there is a clean Breakaway (i.e. nobody in front
    of the attacking player except the goalie - and no defender off to the side
    closing in on the angle), ANY infraction, even outside of the penalty
    area, is a sending off offense.
    
    So, if the defensive player even pulls at the attacker's shirt from
    behind, he gets a red card!  I guess there were just too many cases of
    take downs outside of the penalty area to stop breakaway goals.  If its
    outside of the penalty area, the restart is a direct kick - so the only
    incentive to fair play was to give add the red card.
    
    Regards,
    		Jeff-the-new-ref
    
    P.S.  I've thought about it.  If there is any doubt as whether it's a
    true breakaway, and the defender isn't violent, I might instead give a
    yellow card for unsportsmanlike conduct.

    I played truant to go see the game....well, I took 4 hrs of vacation
    (5% of the yearly total for us US wage slaves)...and went with my 9
    year old football playing daughter and one her friends. They had a
    ball, and so did I.
    
    The game was brutal, with lots of fouls (Irish 2 to 1 over the
    Italians, much to my surprise), lots of off-the-ball nattering between
    the Irish forwards and Zenga, and lots of Oscar quality acting (Zenga
    again). My overall comment was that both sides were bothered by the
    undersized field (100 x 50 yds instead of 120 x 60), and were crammed
    too tight. Both teams also looked like they were on cruise control for
    most of the game, and I couldn't help wondering if they weren't using
    this game as a warmup for events later this summer in Sweden.
    
    One interesting byproduct of the short field was that the goalies could
    use their punts as pseudo free kicks to their forwards in the other
    goalie box! On one occasion that I remember, the goalies traded punts
    with noone else touching the ball. Make the field 10 yards shorter and
    Zenga has a big enough foot to score! They've got to rip out those
    seats as Foxboro and get up to regulation size. More space = less
    pressure = better passing game = better football.
    
    Bonner's sending-off was deserved, but the Italian forward gets best
    supporting actor award for the dive. You had the feeling that he was
    going down if Bonner hit him with anything more than halitosis. In my
    humble opinion, Bonner was a little quit with the foul. There was an
    Irish fullback coming in from the side very quickly, and Bonner's
    forcing the Italian to take the step to the inside to get around him
    might just have given the fullback the half-step he needed to make the
    challenge. As an aside, was anyone at the game surprised by the amount
    of time it took to get the penalty kick taken? The ref actually allowed
    Charlton to sub in his reserve 'keeper before the shot was execxuted.
    It seemed like everything stopped for 5 minutes while the ensuing chaos
    was sorted out. I fully expected the Irish to put a field player in the
    net for the kick and then sub in a 'keeper on a normal stoppage. You
    refs out there.....aren't you supposed to sub only on throwins and goal
    kicks? I thought subs on free kicks and corners were a no-no.
    
    Finally, anyone got any opinions on the quality of the off-side calling
    by the linemen? Sitting way up on the half-way line, I had a great view
    of the field, and I thought the linesman close to the posh side of the
    field was really hard on the Irish forwards in the first half. I saw 3
    calls where the Irish forward was dead even with the defence when the
    ball arrived and they were blown for it. 
    
    The weather was gorgeous, can't think of a better way to spend a summer
    afternoon. Even though it wasn't the best international football I've
    seen, it has a baseball game beaten hands down. But then, I'm English,
    so I'm biased......
    
    
    Regards, 
    ALan

    Was I the only won who thought it was a decent, entertaining game? 
    
    Our seats were in the 11th row, right off the penalty area of the goal
    Italy attacked in the first half. They were putting more pressure on
    the net and had a few decent chances. Judging by this game, the cautious 
    "Catennacio" style is a thing of the past. Italy was making a lot of runs, 
    using give-and-go, and occasionally one-touch passing.

    A lot of Italy's more familiar names were missing. Roberto Baggio didn't 
    play and Toto Schilacci didn't even make the trip. With the relative 
    unknowns fighting for a spot on the Azzuri, they definitely looked like 
    the better team. Guiseppe Signori scored the first goal on an indirect 
    free kick from about 30 yards out. I had never heard of him, but he was 
    all over the pitch for Italy and looks like quite a player. I couldn't 
    tell for sure if Signori was diving or if Bonner tripped him, but no
    doubt it was correct, if not harsh for the automatic red card. There was 
    some confusion as to whether they could sub without the ball going over 
    the end line. The eventually did allow them to bring on the new goalie, 
    but he couldn't do much to stop the penalty. We were debating the same
    thing about substituting. I always thought the play had to be finished,
    with the ball crossing the end line or sideline. Surely a goalie has 
    received a red on a similar play in the past. What do they do then?
    Maybe Jeff-the-ref can explain. 

    I wasn't impressed with Ireland, who were playing their traditional 
    longball style, with the keeper or a defender hoofing the ball upfield, 
    hoping one of their guys gets to it first. Ireland were offside the whole 
    game, 10 times in the first half alone. Niall Quinn was pretty useless 
    from what I could tell. Every time he got near the ball in a decent 
    potential scoring position, he either lost it, fouled someone or made a 
    stupid pass. Aldridge had a good game though, and he barely missed 
    what would have been a spectacular sliding goal in the second half.

    Both teams made a lot of subs, so it was a little hard to keep track of 
    everyone (especially for the public-address announcer!) The game got a 
    little chippy in the second half, and the ref must have given out 4 or 5 
    yellow cards. Someone was speculating that FIFA are looking for "srtict" 
    refs for the 1994 World Cup, so this guy wasn't going to let any 
    border-line stuff go.

    All in all, it was everything I had hoped for: Beautiful weather, an 
    entertaining game, a couple of goals and a lot of chances and good plays, 
    and a good atmosphere in the crowd. Not much more you could ask for.  
    
    About the pitch, yes, it is too narrow at 60 yards. As for the length,
    I don't know why, but there was about an extra 5-10 yards behind the
    net that they could have used. The grass area there is at least 120 x
    60, which is still a little small.
    
    Tom 

	re .17

>	 Ever seen a goalie with a chance of scoring?

	It's happened. If memory serves correctly, one example is
	Peter Shilton for Leicester City against Southampton.

	Tony

Sacchi, the new Italian manager, is a firm believer in zone.
Catenaccio is a thing of the past, at least as long as he's
in charge.  He is also pissing a lot of people off with his
choices for players.  You have to be willing to play in his
"new" vision of a team (and since he worked for AC Milan,
a lot of the players come from there) or you're out.

This zone thing seemed exceedingly effective at drawing the
Irish lads offsides, but things did get confused a couple of times
and it was good to know that there is still somebody of the caliber
of Franco Baresi to sort things out.

I was surprised he did not play Baggio yesterday, since
the game was not a do or die type of game, and the crowd
really wanted to see him play.  I was also a little
annoyed he did not even have Crippa on the bench.  He's a
terrific young defender and I'd love to see more of him.  Overall
however, the team was very technical and young.  Italy should be a
power in '94 *and* '98, if they manage to qualify in the meantime.

Mancini was useless.  He's terrific for Samp, but he does not
seem to amount to much when he's playing for the national side.

Signori played a good game, possibly he was very motivated to show 
that he belonged.  I believe he plays for Foggia, a serie 'B' 
team.  Very impressive youngster (and a good actor too).

I think the referee engendered the Italian acting.  He did not
let the game flow and at the beginning called some really minor
infractions (in situations where the advantage was clearly
applicable) and the players started to take advantage of it.

I enjoyed the game.  I thought that a professional foul such
as the one Bonner did, called for a booking, not a sending
off, but I guess I was wrong....I wondered about why he
was going out.

Overall, a worthwhile afternoon, and a good chance to see live
football.

F.

    re .17
    
    	You can give a card after a foul, i.e. the foul stops play, or you
    can let a play continue and at the next stoppage, give the card. In
    the second case, the restart is based on why play stopped (vs. based on
    the foul).
    
    	So, if the ref stopped play for the break away foul (auto send
    off), then restart would be a direct (or penalty) kick.  I believe that
    since a penalty kick was given, the ref must have blown the ball "dead"
    with the foul.  If so, in my opinion, the goalie would have to go off,
    and could NOT be sub'd for until the next goal kick, free kick (ie from
    the halfway line) or their throw-in. (Of course, there would be one
    less person on the field due to the send off).  [Since that is not
    what happened it supports the theory that I'm not ready to ref world
    cup matches!!]
    
    
    	On the other hand, if the goalie tackled the attacker, but he still
    kept his balance, and the advantage clause was involked, and the goal
    was then scored, that does not "wipe out" the foul itself.  i.e.
    although neither a penalty nor direct kick can be given after involking 
    the advantage(so the ref better be careful when saying "play on") , the
    ref still can give the card.
    
    	Think of the adding insult to injury, when a break away scores the
    goal, AND the goalie or sweeper is sent off.
    
    
    Regarding the offsides comment in .17, you said that the attackers
    were even when the ball arrived. Unfortunately, off sides is called based
    on where they were when the ball was passed to them.  So when the ball
    was passed if they were in an offside position, AND seeking to gain an
    advantage (note both things must be true), then even if the defenders
    caught up by the time the ball arrived to stop a break, the attack will
    be whistled dead.
    
    	It's a tough rule to enforce, especially when there's only one ref!
    Everytime there's a kick passed midfield, I have to look up and
    immediately determine if there's two defenders even with or behind the 
    attacking team.
    
    	Regards,
    			Jeff-the-new-ref

    
    
    Errrr....Jeff, you are an official ref and all that, but I believe you
    may be misinterpreting the offsides rule.  Whether a player *intends*
    to gain an advantage by his position is (according to my reading of the
    rules) irrelevant.  The key is whether he is having an effect on the
    play which is to his advantage.  So you could, for instance, have a
    player who is minding his own business trying to tie his shorts and be
    in an offsides position.  If because of his position, his team gains an
    advantage (say, the goalie is concerned with the "lone blue jersey on
    the left" and pays less attention to where the ball is being played)
    then he is offsides.  On the other hand, if he's tying his shoes near
    the corner and has no effect on anybody, then he's OK.  I don't think
    his intent enters into it, I believe it's just the effect.
    
    F.
    (BTW, smashing good job on the game against the Canadians today).
    

    Do I take it that if an attacker is clean through and a keeper goes
    for the ball and hopelessly mistimes it, that no 'intent' to take the
    man need be established? He's off?
    
    		Daith�  

    No, for the keeper, or any player for that matter to be sent off the
    foul must be intentional in the eyes of the ref.  The problem for the
    ref is deciding between intentional and unintentional.
    
    		Brian.

    re .22
    
     The offsides rule (and I quote from memory) says,
    
    	"... and is seeking to gain an advantage ..."  The ref has a tough
    job determining the intent.  If the play does get an advantage, i.e.
    gets a pass from another forward, then offsides is easy to call.  It's
    when the player isn't QUITE in the play that it's tough.  For example
    in the US/Canada game the sidelines complained about an attacker in
    front of the goalie who, though out of the play, was trying to distract
    the goalie (i.e. seeking to gain an advantage).  I'd have called it
    offsides if I had seen it!
    
    	In some situations, I've seen a player who was in an offsides
    position, LEAVE THE PITCH, just to impress on the ref that they were
    NOT trying to gain an advantage!
    
    	By the way, intent IS a part of the game.  For example, it is a
    STRIKING FOUL if a player strikes OR ATTEMPTS TO strike another player.
    This is why it didn't matter last week at Foxboro if the goalie hit the
    breakaway player or not!  If the goalie really did dive at the attacker
    in an attempt to stop him from his breakaway, then the sendoff was
    correct.  The replays trying to show no contact were irrelevant.
    
    			Jeff-the-new-ref
    
    P.S.  I had a great time.  Glad you enjoyed the game. 

    Who won on Saturday and Sunday?
    
    Tom

    Ireland won 2-0 v Portugal
    

    
    	USA          1-1  Italy   (26000 Chicago, don't know who scored)
    
        Portugal     0-2  Ireland (41000 Foxboro)
                          Staunton from a corner
                          Coyne with a great diving header
    
    So the USA (well done) are the winners ... they also got the most
    valuable player award (Harte ??). Tony Meola was presented with the 
    trophy after yesterday's Portugal - Ireland match. Ireland (at last)
    showed some good form against a skillful Portugese team, entertaining
    game... 
    
    I hear that one of yesterday's linesman (don't know which one) is a 
    referee in the local Junior amateur league (Baystate Divs I & II)

    I thought it was quite remarkable that the US won 5 of 6 poins against
    this group. Granted, they may not have been taking it as seriously
    (Jack Charlton referred to it as a working vacation more than once).
    Still, this gives the US a lot of confidence that they CAN play with
    the big boys. I thought the US's goal for 1994 (making the second
    round) was a little unrealistic, but not now.
    
    Roy Wegrele and Thomas Dooley have given the Yanks a new demesnion of
    class that was soerely missing. Harkes has turned into a pretty decent
    player as well. The more players they have playing in the top European
    leagues, the better prepared they will be for the national team, and
    more importantly the better chance soccer has at becoming a permanent
    fixture on the American sporting scene. 
    
    Next year the same type of tournament is planned with England and
    Germany as definites, and they still have to work out the details with
    Italy. The sooner they start construction to widen the Foxboro field,
    the better...  
    
    Tom

    Long note alert,
    
    In between interruptions from people who stop by and say "so you're
    back then" I am in another window feveriously working on a full
    500-line article that will detail the full events surrounding Ireland's
    U.S tour which I had the great privilege of following for only a few
    thousand dollars of my own money (:==:)
    
    Highlights for those of you who can't wait are:
    1) Why people in Irish pubs in the U.S appear to have been born in
       Guildford or Reading
    2) Roberto Baggio waving at Tom
    3) The massed chants of "Aldo, Aldo, Aldo" that confused the Portuguese
       causing them to let in two goals
    4) The truth about the game played against the Canadians at Concord
       Prison with Jeff-the-Ref in charge.
    5) The Guinness in Washington and Boston.
    
    Full team listings and a completely unbiased report on THE GREAT ALDO.
    
    Coming soon ...
    
    regards,
    
    Andrew.D.wicks

    I can hardly wait.... Yes, it IS true, Roberto Baggio DID wave at me
    from the bus... (Why do I feel like Cunno if I tell this story? :-) 
    
    Great to see you again, Mr. Wicks. Some good footie and some good times
    at the matches.  
    
    Tom

    
    Well done to the US for winning this tournament; it should at least
    generate a bit more interest in the World Cup since nothing succeeds
    like success.
    
    A word of warning, though. I was in Australia a few of years ago
    when they played a triangular tournament with Brazil and the then world
    champions, Argentina. The Aussies stuffed Argentina 4-1 in Sydney and
    seem to immediately assume that this meant they were now up there with
    the best. Two years later Argentina contested the World Cup final and
    Australia? - well, they didn't quite manage to qualify.
    
    jeff

    My point exactly. No doubt it's a nice feather in the cap to beat teams
    like this, but in a friendly it doesn't really mean all that much. I
    thought it was much more significant that they won the CONCACAF
    tournament and beat Mexico 3-0 last year. That was a tournament that
    mattered and Mexico are no mugs.
    
    So the question remains as to whether the US can manage 3-4 points in 
    the World Cup against a very strong team (Italy, Brazil, Argentina, etc) a
    strong team (Paraguay, Czech. Belgium, etc.) and a medium strength team
    (Columbia, Scotland, Portugal, etc.) Before I would have said "no
    way," but now there is a chance that they could. 
    
    It should be interesting to see if any more Americans sign on with
    European clubs this fall.
    
    Tom

    One thing that irked me watching the matches on tv here in Ireland was
    the constant advertising announcements during play over the stadium
    p.a.. This is probably acceptable during "native" American sports with 
    their frequent breaks but I would find this more than annoying during
    W.C. 94.

I found the ads barely hearable at the stadium;  they really could not
be heard over the Irish folks behind us.

I bet they may have been designed for TV, and that's why they came across
so clearly there.

F.

Well the U.S Cup 92 started with the U.S vs Ireland game in Washington D.C
10 days ago on May 30 and following my motto of "if the game is within 2000 
miles" I headed to Atlanta airport on the Friday night for a flight up to 
Washington arriving at my hotel a mere 20 minutes before the bar closed 
- time for 2 Samuel Adams though.

Awakening in the late morning of May 30th I soon determined that it was 
P*****G it down with rain outside and regretted the omission of a sweater 
and a coat from my luggage. Having already decided to head 40 or so miles
North to Baltimore for some sight-seeing I set off with the happy abiding
memories of other such awful days to watch football (most of them at 
Selhurst Park for some reason).

Anyway by 5pm when I arrived back in D.C it was raining even harder, I was
wet and cold and I didn't actually know how to get to RFK Stadium and from 
what I had been told it wasn't in an area of town where you stopped to ask 
directions! At the point at which I could see the Stadium across the river
(Potomac?) the bridge was one-way the wrong way and by the time I got to 
the next bridge I couldn't see the stadium. Reaching the Capitol I realised
I had gone too far so I turned around and retraced my steps and finally 
spotted a sign that took up, down and across streets helpfully named 7 or E
until I finally located the stadium. 

Because I was still early I managed to find a parking space right next to 
the stadium thus saving me from another wet 1/2 mile walk and searched for
an open gate. For some reason they only opened 2 (out of 8) gates so I had 
to walk around to get in and immediately purchased the souvenier match 
programmes (see Gary I didn't forget you)and headed off in search of some 
coffee to warm me up and a place to sit out of the rain - there was no way 
I was sitting in my booked seat which appeared to be under a foot of water.

Unfortunately under U.S law they don't serve warm drinks at 
baseball/american football so I settled for a Coke (it being more alcoholic
than Budweiser) and a hotdog and found an empty seat in the back of the 
first tier to sit down and peruse my programme - lots of adverts, lots of 
colour and tons of information about the U.S team but only a squad listing
for the irish (without numbers) and a picture of the Irish team from the 
1990 World Cup including of course THE GREAT ALDO.

Following some pre-match music from some marine band the teams came out
and we had the national anthems sung by two very wet singers from each 
nation and then finally a very mumbled team announcement which I'm sure 
noone caught but did not include THE GREAT ALDO.

Eventually I discovered the line-up to be
Gerry Peyton (Everton)
Chris Morris (Celtic), Mick McCarthy (Millwall), Kevin Moran (Blackburn)
Steve Staunton (Aston Villa) 
Andy Townsend (Chelsea), Paul McGrath (Aston Villa), Roy Keane (Notts For)
Terry Phelan (Wimbledon), Ray Houghton (LIVERPOOL F.A CUP WINNERS 1992)
Niall Quinn (Man City)
Subs: Oh about 8 including THE GREAT ALDO.
So Ireland were either playing 4-5-1 or 5-4-1 a very attacking outlook. 

The weather was getting worse and many in the 31,000 and something crowd 
were getting wet - me I'd beat them to it I was already soaked.

The first half was fairly non-descript - McGrath wasn't sure whether he was 
in the back-four or midfield; Quinn looked like a lost Bambi somewhere up 
front and the midfield all seemed to wanted to play in the part of the 
field without puddles. The U.S had the better of the chances without really
looking like scoring though Peyton did seem to encourage them by dropping
the ball or not coming for crosses etc ...

During the second-half players came and went often without being announced
Tommy Coyne (Celtic), Dennis Irwin (the Mancs), Alan Mcoughlin (Portsmouth)
and David Kelly (Newcastle) were spotted by me but not THE GREAT ALDO who 
in an incident towards the end of the game whilst warming up on the 
touchline ran onto the field to collect the ball and kick it to an Irish 
player only to be told off by the linesman - did this man not know that 
this was the GREAT ALDO winner of countless league and cup medals and 
scorer of hundreds of goals - clearly one can but speculate at how Cunno
would have dealt with this unforgiveable act by the linesman.

So what actually happened in the second-half well it got wetter McCarthy 
scored a good header from a corner kick and as they did last year the Irish
decided to sit on it and as last year this proved fatal. the arrival of 
Dooley and Wegerle (the U.S's newly acquired German and South African)
certainly perked things up in midfield and up front. The last goal was by
far the best with a back heel from Wegerle settling up [side-note is this
the first time that two Blackburn Rovers players have played in the same
international??]. Actually the U.S could have had even more with Ramos 
missing one sitter and I think Dooley missing another.

So the U.S won 3-1 and I trooped out of the stadium and having actually asked
a policeman for directions I found myself driving up the Main Street of 
Washington towards Connecticut Av past the White House where I could see George 
tuned in to SportsChannel and saying to Barbara - "Phew lucky win - we 
wouldn't have stood a chance if they had played THE GREAT ALDO"

Not by chance my hotel was in North West Washington and to get there you 
had to go past a place called "Ireland's Four Provinces" which has at least
one major advantage in that they serve their Guiness WARM. With a live band 
some hot food and a large crowd of people who had been to the game it was
a great night following the less than great day and the guy who was sitting 
next to me had been born in Guildford.

After a good nights sleep and a hot bath (yes in that order) it was back to
Atlanta for 48 hours before .... and now read on

96
============================================================================

    Note 220.36 (i.e. previous reply) has my vote for best story of the
    year. Some way or the other I would like to compile stories like that
    in an unofficial book entitled: "Football - We live it".
    
    If interested, mail me and let's do something.
        
    Cheers
    �JF?

	Agreed, JF	Good note, Mr.Wicks

	Just one little comment though re:

>>  [side-note is this the first time that two Blackburn Rovers players 
>>   have played in the same international??]. 

Press next unseen if you _don't_ want a history lesson ... ;-)

	In their heyday, a la late 50s early 60's, they had _at least_ 2 English
Internationals plus other _foreigners_ in their first team.  When they were
in the Cup Final of 1960, little Bryan Douglas (right wing) & Ronnie Clayton
(right / wing half, as it used to be in the good old days) both played for their
Country. I think Clayton actually captained England. (?)
	Centre forward was big Derek Dougan (Northern Ireland ?) (shaved his 
head the morning of the Final & slapped in a transfer request) - later to move 
(& nearly destroy) Wolves - who won that particular Final 3-0.
	On the left wing was a certain Allie McLeod - I'm sure all our Scottish
fans will recognise _that_ name. ;-) ;-)
	+ Peter Dobing (later Stoke & England). Matt Wood & Louis Bimpson (Scotland ?) 
	I'm sure there were others - but the old grey cells aren't what they 
used to be...

	For the record, that was _my_ first _appearance_ at Wembley.

Regards
Dave	

	Great write-up Andrew, I,m eagerly awaiting your next episode.
	I'll be interested to hear your version of the Ireland-Italy game.

	I was down in Foxboro for the Ireland-Italy game, travelling about
	10 hours by car from Toronto. There were 13 of us in total. We arrived
	Wednesday evening about 7:00 and headed straight for the nearest
	watering hole next to the hotel. Not being a happening place, we
	headed, based on a tip to the Irish Embassy pub about 15 minutes
	away from the Days Inn. Needless to say we needed to unwind a little
	and ended up closing the place. We somehow managed to stagger back
	to the hotel although how is still a little hazy. One of the guys
	never made it home, he was picked up by one of the locals - I guess
	he was practicing his scoring abilities off the field. Also that
	evening, one of the guys decided to go sleep walking down the hotel
	corridor stark naked - he said he was just going for a piss.

	Thursday morning, we decided to take a little trip to Cape Cod.
	Unfortunately, a little trip is wasn't and we only made it about
	half way up the Cape before we had to turn back since the game
	was scheduled to kickoff at 4:00 that afternoon. 

	The game itelf was played at Foxboro stadium where the New England
	Patriots play football. It's about 45 minutes south of Boston in
	the middle of nowhere. It was great atmosphere, unfortunately we
	were in the Italian section. I ordered my tickets back in April and
	I didn't realize that they were going to segregate the fans - even
	so, one would figure that tickets ordered under the name McCann would
	be more Irish than Italian. I also have the opinion that the game 
	was terrible particularly the Irish. They looked as if they played
	with only 3 players - Packie Bonner punting the ball up filed with
	Niall Quinn nodding the ball down to John Aldridge who was more 
	often than not offside. The Irish midfield was non existant and even
	when they did touch the ball, their skill level was terrible. The
	Italians were a little crisper but they were disappointing as well.
	Signori was their most dangerous player, scoring off the free kick
	and always looking dangerous although I was disappionted with his
	sportsmanship taking a dive like he did on the penalty.

	After the game we headed back to our hotel and decided to spend a 
	quiet evening at the hotel. The quiet evening turned into all 13
	of us in one room with a bathtub full of beers and serveral bottles
	of scotch. The next morning was a struggle to get out of bed. 
	However, the guys wanted to do some shopping and we also had to
	get ready for our own game vs fellow Deccies in Acton.

	Thats all for now...to be continued

Jim

    Good to catch up with you Jim. I scanned the area across the stadium
    and was looking for the Blue Mancs away top, but... 
       
    I ended up going to work Thursday morning, and I finally got out of
    there about 12:30 after putting out a few fires. Probably shouldn't
    have gone in at all, in retrospect. I headed over to the Holiday Inn,
    where I met up with Andrew, my Dutch firend Jelle who I used to play with 
    on a local team before joining DEC, and an Colin Ive, a Spurs supporter 
    who was over here for work. (He even knows some of you lot...small world).
    By this time, we were waisting valuable drinking time, so we leapt into
    the car and headed for Foxboro. We stopped to get some beer and
    samwidges and parked in a lot well down the road from the stadium, an
    easy exit to the highway. 
    
    We quaffed a few as we chatted about farious fitba-related topics, like
    travel plans for the 1994 World Cup. Andrew is about halfway between
    Orlando and Washington, so it would be a long drive no matter what. It
    would be a longer trip for him "if Wales qualify..." but I don't know
    if you'll need ot worry about that :-)  Jelle is also planning on
    taking a month off and going ot as many games as possible, or just
    getting tickets to Holland's matches. Colin told about skinheads at
    Spurs/Mancs matches, and how he got knocked cold by a bottle to the
    head. OW!
    
    When we headed toward the stadium we passed lots of fans from both
    teams. The Irish were singing "Ole, Ole, Ole" etc. but a group of
    Italian fans were singing some song and the only words I could really
    make out were soemthing like "Forza Italia. Irlanda vafanculo!" which
    isn't exactly wishing the best of luck to our green-clad brethren!
    
    We were in a mostly Irish section, and even though I was wearing an
    Azzuri shirt, I didn't feel uncomfortable at all. Our seats were on the
    11th row, so we had a great view. The Italian top brass were milling
    around as the players warmed up. They all had on these sharp-looking
    suits, the latest fashions out of Milan. One guy was carrying around a
    briefcase and Andrew had lots of suggestions as to what could be in
    there. By contrast to the stylish Italians, Big Jack looked like the 
    rumpled professor in a tweed suit.
    
    Wasn't a bad game, reasonably entertaining. We were close enough that
    we could hear the players yelling. One Irish fan with a loud foghorn
    voice kept getting on the ref/linesman, calling him everything from a
    w*nk*r to a stoopid eejit/daft b*st*rd at every opportunity. You could
    probably hear this guy from 50 yards away. I already put in a lot of
    game report stuff in aprevious note, so I won't get into that again here.
    
    Afterwards when we were walking back, a guy in a Celtic shirt cam up to
    me, noticing my Italian shirt, saying "Well done, the pizza man. A fair
    result cause we were craaaaap! Yez were the be'ur side on the day." In
    the parking lot we had a few more beers as we waited for traffic to go.
    When we saw the Italian bus go by, I gave it a wave. Roberto Baggio was
    sittling about in the middle, and looked out the window and waved back.
    I recognized the pony-tail. Since I was the only one wearing the Italy
    shirt, and there were no other cars near us, I know he was wavig at me.
    So there's my "Cunno story" about Baggio's wave. No, I didn't burn any 
    incense or create a shrine in my apartment or rush right out any buy a
    blue sarif and a tambourine so I can be a Baggio-Krishna, but at least 
    I still think he's a hell of a player.... 
    
    I'll put in another note about the Portugal-Ireland game later.
    
    Tom

    Encouraged by the favourable response to Part 1 of "War and Peace" (:==:)
    here is part II which just covers the Italy game - sorry it's taking so
    long but things are kind of crazy here this week. Anyway compare it
    with Tom's version to see if we have our story straight. Assuming our 
    machines don't crash (we appear to be in the middle of a storm here) 
    I intend to try and finish Part III - "The Canadians" before I go home 
    tonight!
    
    Regards,
    
    Andrew.D.Wicks

Part II - The Ireland vs Italy game
===================================

Having spent less than 72 hours in Atlanta - long enough to collect my 
mail, wash my clothes and make sure that I still had a job - it was time
to head back down I-285 to the airport for a flight to Boston to rejoin
U.S Cup 92 (I didn't even have time to watch the tape of the Italy vs 
Portugal game).

Well we got on the plane and we sat there and it started to p**s-down with 
rain and we sat there, and they welcomed us aboard, and we sat there and
they announced we would be a little late taking off (what a shock) and we
sat there and then they announced that we couldn't push-back because a 
plane had broken down behind us - sure enough they was a plane stuck across
our back. Well eventually they pushed it out of the way and we pushed back 
and finally moved down the taxi-way and the captain wlecomed us aboard and
announced that we were number 15 for take-off and that because of the 
weather they were not letting planes take-off as fast as normal so it would
be "some-time" before we took off but that Delta appreciated our custom and 
would be giving us complimentary headsets - not complimentary beer you note
but b****y headsets. So 2 hours late we took off, a mere 15 minutes before
we were supposed to land in Boston.

Despite having been to Boston lots of times before I still got lost coming
out of the airport, missing the airport exit I went past terminals A, B, C, 
D and terminals A ... and then spotted the exit sign and went out towards 
the tunnel into Boston where they wanted $1 to use it. It was by now too
late to stop in Boston for a beer or two in an Irish pub I knew so I headed
straight due west on the toll road where they relieved me of a further 
$2.10 for the privilege of driving on their roads and eventually at 
some time post 10pm I arrived in Marlboro at my hotel. The restaurant was 
closed, I didn't feel like heading out searching for a Macdonalds so I gave
up and decided to hit the hotel bar for several Sam Adams (they didn't have 
guinness) where there appeared to be lots of people watching something
called the NBA playoff or something! - I couldn't persuade them to turn
over to SportsCHannel to watch the U.S vs Portugal game (which was the one
that had the 10,000 attendance due to being in the same city as the 
basketball game) - had these people no dedication. Anyway someone called 
Michael Jordan scored almost as many points as THE GREAT ALDO scored goals
for Tranmere last season. 

Waking late in the morning I breakfasted at Macdonalds and returned to the 
hotel to await the arrival of Tom Hill and more importantly the tickets!
Eventually I was called by someone with a distinct English accent who said 
that he was down in the lobby and waiting for Tom (this was to become a 
frequent occurrence and "Waiting for Tom" will now become an Olympic 
sport).

 Down in the lobby I met Colin Ives who turned out to be just-passing 
through Boston from DEC PARK II in Reading, which by a small coincidence
is where I worked for 6 years. It turns out that we hadn't sat that far
away from each other all that time and here we were meeting for the first
time in a hotel lobby in the U.S! With him was Jelle a dutch friend of 
Tom's and we sat down to "Wait for Tom" (only Joking Tom).

Well Tom got there and appeared to the trained eye to be wearing an Italian
football shirt - had this man no shame! Having extracted the tickets from 
his possession we all piled into one car and headed 30 or so miles south
to Foxboro which is in the middle-of-nowhere. If you can imagine a football
stadium built in the middle of the Yorkshire moors you get the picture of
how isolated the place is. It has as many people have said a very small 
pitch at least 7 yards too narrow (I think it's long enough). We stopped
at a liquor store to acquire some Guinness, Sam Adams etc and paid our
$10 for parking and opened the beers. Apparently Mass has some law about 
public-drinking so we disguised our bottles by wrapping them in brown paper
so I guess we looked like real-winos. So if you here any jokes about 
the Englishman, the Welshman, the Dutchman and an American let us know!

Game-time approached so we walked towards the stadium, found our seats in 
row 11 down by the touchline on the 18-yard line and awaited the arrival
of the teams for the pre-match warm-up. Ireland emerged first and did the
usual kick the ball to each other, kick the ball into the crowd routine
except for two players whose warm-up consist of standing around talking to
each other and drinking Gatorade. Good news was that THE GREAT ALDO was seen
running and shooting and warming-up so it looked as if we were to see the
greatest living footballer play in the U.S finally - Tom was so excited 
(:==:). Italy trooped out enmasse in a regimental format and proceeded to
loosen up in a circle, run up and down the field and perform what looked
like an extremely rigourous warm-up routine. They were accompanied by at
least 3 guys in sharp dressed suits and one guy who carried a briefcase
out there and all the way back. Suggestions as to his identity ranged from
Bagggio's agent to their hitman to their accountant who was attempting
to bribe the referee or the Irish team or both.

When the teams came out on the field for real it became clear that not only
had the Italians left Toto at home but that both Vialli and Baggio weren't
playing - obviously they were afraid to be compared unfavourably to the
GREAT ALDO who was obviously in the starting line-up and the chants of
"Aldo, Aldo, Aldo" and "We are not worthy" began from Row 11.

The Irish team was
Bonner (Celtic)
Irwin (the MANCS), Mccarthy (millwall), O'leary (the ARSE), Staunton (a. villa)
Townsend (Chelsea), Houghton (LIVERPOOL F.A CUP WINNERS 92)
Mcgrath (a. villa), McGoldrick (c. Palace)
Quinn (Man City) AND ........ THE GREAT ALDO (TRANMERE ROVERS)
Subs: loads

So 5 changes from the team that lost to the U.S and we entered the first 
long phase of the game known as sing every national anthem - we had the
Irish one, the Italian one, the American one (this is compulsory in the
U.S even at funerals I think!!!) but not I repeat not the Welsh one so
I had to do that myself. Then we had the announcements, the celebrity 
kick-off - some guy who played in the U.S Cup in 1930 - no honest and then
at about 3.15pm the real kick-off - be warned for WC 1994 to allow extra
time on your VCR tapes.

How can I summarise the game given all that's been said, well I thought it
was good but then I haven't seen much real football lately. Quinn was
clearly crap and both he and THE GREAT ALDO were offside almost every 
minute and sometimes more than that! the linesman was called Dilvido 
DiPlacido now I don't know about you but that sounds decidely Italian
to me (sorry for that outburst of "Sun reader"ism). There were lots of 
run-ins between Zenga in the Italian goal and some entusiatic challenges
from Quinn and THE GREAT ALDO which resulted in Zenga getting a black-eye,
Zenga lying down on the floor in agony after one and the getting up
quickly when he realised that the ref was playing on and Ireland were 
attacking! and finally an amazing punch that we say on the big-screen where
Zenga punched Quinn in the head - obviously the ref and linesman weren't 
watching the T.V.

The two goalies traded goal-kicks a lot but i'm still not sure that the 
pitch looked that short. ireland's midfield seemed a lot more firm than
it did in Washington - the 4-4-2 formation was clearly more suited to their
style fo play and McGrath, Houghton, and Townsend are all good players
but Mcgoldrick seemed a little lost and one can only speculate at what
a world-class midfield Ireland potentially have on paper if not on the 
field when you consider that Roy keane was out injured and Alan Mcoughlin
was on the bench and of course John Sheridan and THE GREAT RONNIE WHELAN
(x League medals, y F.A Cup medals etc ) hadn't made the trip - it is a 
pity that Ireland don't have that strength in depth at the back (look at
the ages of Mcarthy, Moran, O'leary) or up front.

Italy had turned out a good young team with only Baresi and Zenga over 30
but they still played some good football and kept getting caught out by
the narrow field. With Donadoni suspended, Baggio and Vialli on the bench
and some other players either on the bench or at home it is fair to say 
that they was enough promise shown for th future to suggest that Italians
will not only qualify for 94 but will go a long way if not all the way.

The referee was very strict booking anyone in a green jersey and a few in 
blue in a game that wasn't by any stretch of the imagination dirty, is the
number of bookings an important factor in the ref selection process for
WC 94 (will Jeff-the-Ref get the final ???)

In about the 17th minute O'leary was called for a foul on the edge of the 
box near us and the Irish wall lined up and the Italians stood around the 
ball and I remember turning to Tom and saying "it's going in the top-left
hand corner" - unfortunatley Bonner hadn't heard me and stood off his line
in the middle of his goal for some reason whilst Signori planted it neatly
in the top-left hand corner. The celebrations lasted at least a minute with 
the Italian players dashing to the far corner flag to have sex with it or
something.

The main incident in the second-half was of course the penalty in the 66th
minute where Signori in the fine tradition of what you can see at Old 
Trafford every other Saturday threw himself bodily at Bonner, rolled 4 
times towards the TV camera and then writhed near-death until the 14
Trainers came on with the magic sponge and the briefcase. The Ref decided
that Bonner had to go and there then followed at least 3 minutes whilst the
ref obviously unsure of the rules was advised of them by the remaining 21
players and all the Italian training staff. Eventually he relented and Peyton
came on (replacing an outfield player of course) and Costacurta put the 
penalty away - which required more intercourse with the other corner-flag.
[I don't remember what jeff-the-ref said but I thought he was wrong and
should have made an outfield player go in goal for the kick]

Down to 10 men and with only 20 minutes left Ireland seemed to have settled
for the defeat and Italy for the 2-0 victory. The rest of the game was 
interrupted by substitutions all over the place often unannounced and 
sometimes with the wrong players being announced
(let's hope they get that right in 94) so I thinK I saw Coyne (celtic),
Kelly (newcastle), Mcoughlin (Portsmouth) and Phelan (Wombles) coming
to replace god knows who but most of row 11 was shocked by the substitution
of THE GREAT ALDO. 

This prompted Italy to bring on Vialli but not Baggio as time ticked away 
to Ireland's first two-game losing streak since 1986 - when of course they
were beaten by WALES (I can mention that can't I Gary??.

Having seen THE GREAT ALDO play and in Tom's case having gone down to the 
touchline so as to photograph the great one up close, with our souvenier
programmes and tee-shirts we headed back to the car-park to drink more
beer, discuss the game and football in general - Jelle being convinced
that this was Holland's year for the Euro Championship.

However the best was yet to come....
Almost an hour after the game some police bikes went past, some stretch 
limos with diplomatic plates, some police cars and also the Italian team
coach.

Tom (in his Italian shirt) waved at the coach and behind the darkened 
windows we could see a figure with a pony-tail wave back - yes it's true
and we have four independent drunk witnesses to prove it

ROBERT BAGGIO WAVED AT TOM HILL...

All the way back to Marlboro Tom was clearly not quite himself and one
can only wonder at what his wife said when he stumbled home that night
mumbling incoherently

ROBERT BAGGIO WAVED AT ME....

(:==:)
now read on ...

And what you ask does one do between Thursday and Sunday in Boston when
there is no football being played - well here it is ...

    I promise that Part IV - the Ireland vs Potugal game will be tomorrow
    and will be the FINAL part - honest
    
    Regards,
    
    Andrew.D.Wicks
    
Part III - The Canadians
========================

Following a good lie-in on Friday morning and lunch at Macdonalds I went
all the way out to Salem where in the past the locals held witch-trials
for people suspected of supporting Luton or something like that, apparently
these were stopped when Ronald Reagan became President at the request of
David Evans MP for Transvaal West and apparently it is now legal under
the constitution to support Luton - and they call this a democracy.

It was quite an interesting day-out and there were some fiendish tortures
such as making the accused sit through the entire Red Star Belgrade vs
Marseille European Cup Final  - but I digress ... - anyway I had to get
back for a event that whilst not actually part of U.S Cup 92 should have 
been namely the U.S Noters vs Canadians football game.

Unfortunately I hadn't allowed for the heavy traffic on I-95 and the 
torrential downpour of rain - not just cats and dogs stuff but small deer
and even Bison. Surely the game would be called off and we could go 
directly to the pub... and I turned up at about 6.10pm for a 6pm game.

As you might remember this game was arranged by Tom Hill who unfortunately
couldn't make the game and so I didn't actually know anyone there. When
I arrived at the pitch - next to Concord prison! It didn't take long to
figure out that they were actually going to play (drat) and that the 
sinister figure in all-black was the legendary JEFF-THE-REF. So I walked
up and introduced myself to him and he seemed a nice guy - despite the
fact he was the ref. He even wore glasses so we couldn't use the obvious jokes
... and of course he had his FIFA badge on his shirt so it was clear that
this wasn't your run-of-the-mill Neil Midgely but someone really important.

Next Jim came over and introduced himself and he didn't look anything like
what Canadians are supposed to look like - you know Lumberjack shirts, 
Grizzly Adams beards and a fetish for Moose - sorry Jim - but I did hear
a number of Sheep jokes! Actually since Jim had a deep dark secret in that
he was born in Reading (It's a small world after all) and the rest of the
Canadian side appeared to have been born in either Scotland or Ireland
(North and South) my racial stereotype still holds.

The Canadians were wearing a fairly snazzy White shirt with jagged blue and 
red splodges on it but nothing as bad as you see in the English first 
division these days so we were playing in a motley collection of grey and 
white and blue. I dashed back to the car to change and emerged in a Cardiff
Rubgy outfit (blue/black hoops) with a white Atlanta Olympics 1996 T-shirt
over the top. we had about 13 players each side so substitutions were 
freeform when people got tired - the match was going to be 35 minutes
each way - what that long did Jeff have no mercy.?

I started at right back and thankfully didn't see much of the ball! I came
off for a rest after what seemed like 2 hours but was probably only 10 
minutes. ON the sideline of course you weren't moving round so you got
colder and wetter - it was still raining slightly and beginning to get
dark.

The field if I can I digress - okay thank you - was a full-size field
(well it looked bigger than Foxboro) just off the Main Route 2 in Concord
and behind the goal at one end a guy in tractor was mowing a field !!
(a bit like Carrow Road if you've been there) - it turned out later he
was an inmate at the local prison!! it was in really good condition, proper
goals and nets.

Eventually I came back on this time at left back where unfortunately I saw
more of the ball and also the back Of Jim's brother who continually
sped past me goalward! We were playing I believe a non-conformist 3-3-4
formation with only one centre-half whereas the Canadians were playing an 
attacking 4-2-4 formation. Thankfully half-time came and we could rest
but there wa no half-time cup of tea and biccies - wasn't Tom supposed
to be arranging this?

I didn't see much of the game when I was playing obviously but when I had a 
rest in the second-half it seemed to be of really good quality - not
too dirty. Obviously most of the players play together either for the 
Canadians or the soon-to-be-legendary Whitefish so it wsn't like 22 
strangers.

We scored first through Dan (I Think he has an Irish grannie - tell Jack)
which only served to annoy the Canadians who proceeded to score 4 and
we all began to look hopefully toward Jeff-the-ref to end the game.

Right at the end one of the Canadians put the ball into his own net to
make the final score 4-2 in what he claimed was an act of mercy but that
i'm sure the rest of his team haven't let him forget about. Jeff 
immediately blew the whistle to end his first international match without
any booking or sendings-off though personally I'm sure all those times
that the ball went past me the player was clearly offside (:==:) both teams
shook hands and it was definitely an enjoyable game and then the big 
discussion began about where to go for a beer. 

Eventually JEFF-THE-REF used his red card to send everyone to the Boxboro
Host at the junction on I-495, confident I set off ahead of the rest to get
petrol and then sat in the car park for 10 minutes until a convoy turned
up led by Jeff - surely this doesn't happen after Liverpool vs Manc games?
I guess there about 20 of us and the poor waitress didn't know what hit her
as we proceeded to take over the bar area and order beers at a good rate.

They had BASS on draught so I was happy and the conversation centred on
football of course, today's game, the Irish games, etc  and magically the
beers continued to arrive. I don't (surprisingly) remember much of the
discussion though I do remember that Big Roy told some awful jokes and
there was much discussion about use of the "team condom" - see Jim's note 
for more about that. It was a realy good evening and they talked me into
coming to watch them play in Boston on the Saturday. We all said goodbye
I headed back to the hotel - the Canadians headed back to their hotel to
drink more beer and other decadent acts (see Jim's note).


Saturday
========

Awakening very late on Saturday and slightly the worse for wear I killed an 
hour in a shopping mall and then headed into Boston in search of the field 
where the Canadians were going to play a local Irish Village pub team.
Naturally the directions weren't 100% brilliant and I ended up in Harvard
or somewhere. I retraced my steps and eventually found the right turning 
where I then proceeded to drive straight past the field and then had to 
try and find my way back which I eventually did.

The game was played on a park in the middle of a housing estate where both
the corners of the fields were also part of two baseball fields and thus
comprised of sand. Large areas of one half and the centre-field were also
apparently disguised as swimming pools and was definitely not as good
as the field in Concord.

Because I wasn't playing I actually had a chance to stand and watch the 
Canadians play. It's an over-30s side and I thought they were really good.

The main thing was a the great sense of humour amongst the team. Whenever one
of them broke forward and put in a shot that missed spectacularly cries
of "have a shot next time Jimmy" or "nice cross" went up and the player who
had scored the own-goal against us the previous day appeared to be reminded
of it frequently. 

I don't remember the order of the goals but the Canadians won 5-1 I think 
with the honarary Canadian Dan getting the last with a header that THE
GREAT ALDO would have been proud of and my favourite memory of the game
was in the second-half when Big Roy I think came back-on before he expected
to and played in defence for a minute until he finished his cigarette!.

After the came it turned out that mysteriously they were large quantities of 
beer in the cars which had to be drunk so we all stayed around to watch the
following game between another Irish Village team and some other side who
unfortunately could only turn out 7 men. Not surprisingly the 7 outplayed
the 11 and only lost 5-3.

Eventually the beer ran out and the second game finished so we retired to
the Irish Village pub down the street where thay had kindly put some food
on for us and there was Guiness on draught - so I had a few and like the
previous night the discussion centred around football. Eventually at about
11pm I decided that I really had to get back to my hotel so as to be able
to go to the Portugal game so I bade farewell to all 13 of the Canadians
who I'd come to know really well in only 24 hours - Dan was still there
being interviewed for Canadian citizenship I think - and i'm sure that
they stayed there for a quite a few more hours drinking after i'd left.
hopefully Jim can provide the full set of gory details.

Jim it was great to meet you, hope you come down for next year's games
please say hello to all the guys for me and you never know one day
I might make it to Canada!

.... and now read on

           <<< TRUCKS::DISK$USER72:[NOTES$LIBRARY]FOOTBALL.NOTE;1 >>>
                                 -< FOOTBALL >-
================================================================================
Note 220.41                   "U.S. Cup" Tournament                     41 of 42
AIMTEC::WICKS_A "DEC Mail Works for ME sometimes"     217 lines  11-Jun-92 21:27
                        -< Part II - Ireland vs Italy >-
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
< THE GREAT ALDO were offside almost every 
< minute and sometimes more than that! the linesman was called Dilvido 
< DiPlacido now I don't know about you but that sounds decidely Italian
< to me (sorry for that outburst of "Sun reader"ism). 
    
    The strange thing about this linesman is that Jelle recognised him
    right away. He swore that he had reffed a few games he had played in. 
    He looked a little familiar to me too, but I wasn't absolutey sure. The 
    next day I was back at work and one of the other players from the DEC 
    7/side league said that the linesman was non other than DILVO, a ref who 
    used to do our 7/side games a few years ago, but we GOT RID OF HIM 
    because he was: A) too inconsistent, B) Liked to "even things up" - make 
    calls favoring the losing team, regardless of whether it was the right 
    call, C) Never bothered with injury time, so games were always short - 
    sometimes even shorter than the regulation time! D) Basically s*ck*d the 
    Big One. I think you might be able to guess the obvious nickname we had 
    for this ref.
    
    So there you have it. A man who wasn't good enough to ref in an intramural
    company recreational league gets selected to officaite in the biggest
    international match EVER in this area.   
    
    Go figure
    
    Tom

>  <<< Note 220.20 by GAUSS::FGZ "Federico Genoese-Zerbi -- Flamingo 2D DDX" >>>
>                   -< Catenaccio *is* a thing of the past. >-



    
>    Sacchi, the new Italian manager, is a firm believer in zone.
>    Catenaccio is a thing of the past, at least as long as he's
>    in charge.
    
    F. ,
    
      For the uneducated (like me), could you describe how this 'zone'
    system works ? Also, what us 'Catenaccio' ?
    
    Thanks,
    
    Wayne
    

    "Catenaccio" means chain-link fence (or something like that) in
    Italian. It was a style employed by Italian teams in the '60s
    where emphasis was put on marking your man if your life depended on it.
    This was the primary purpose, and occasionally there might be a counter
    attack. The thinking went that it would be best to win 1-0, but a 0-0
    draw would be acceptable. All this would be better than losing 4-3, or
    drawing 3-3.  
    
    The style got results, but wasn't much fun to watch. From what I saw of
    the current Italy side, they look nothing like the teams that played
    that style, thankfully.
    
    Tom                           

    I was scanning thru this notesfile when I came across this topic. 
    Since my family and I attended both Foxboro games I thought I'd add
    some comments, even if it is a bit after the fact.

    A number of you made remarks about the commercial anouncements during
    the game.  The announcer would read off a product as a sponsor of the
    game while there would be visuals on the score board screen.  While
    somewhat annoying, this was nothing compared to what occured at the 1991 
    USA/Ireland match.  Here complete ads with full audio/visual were run
    during the game.  It was like being inside a giant TV set.  I was
    particularly annoyed with a Duncan Donuts commercial.

    Anyhow, I wrote to Foxboro to complain.  I got a nice letter back from
    the general manager, Brian O'Donovan (the same Brian O'Donovan who
    hosts WGBH's "Celtic Sojourn" radio show on Friday evenings).  He
    tended to agree but pointed out that he had no control over the ads. 
    Boston Soccer staged and marketed the game and as part of the contract
    had rights to the audio-visual presentations.  Boston Soccer in turn
    was controlled by the United States Soccer Federation who had rights to
    the corporate sponsorship.  In the US, soccer is not able to command
    the corporate dollars that other US sports can. So I suspose they had
    to make whatever deals they could ad-wise.  It would be nice though, if
    they could do away with the audio-part of any ads for the 1994 games.

    As for the 1992 games, I enjoyed both.  I'm not a soccer player so
    can't really comment about the level of play.  My two sons (10 and 8)
    do play and they thought it was great.  I did notice a lot of young
    children with their parents at both games.  Since the Italy/Ireland
    game was in the afternoon of a school day, a lot of kids besides ours
    were skipping classes.  Perhaps this generation of players will bring
    US soccer to the level it is in the rest of the world.

    I thought overall that the crowd at both games were very friendly. 
    Fans for each of the teams were pretty much spread throughout the
    stadium. So you got cheers coming from all directions no matter what
    the play.  I did see a couple of fans get a little carried away but
    they were in the minority.  While some people in the crowd definitely
    had ties with one team or the other, I think many people came just for
    the novelty of seeing a live game between world-class players.  I guess
    I should add that we've driven down to Foxboro for three soccer games
    but have never been there for a New England Patriots football game.

    One more incident I'd like to relate.  After the Italy/Ireland game we
    returned to our car to wait for the traffic to clear so we could leave
    the parking lot.  My kids took out their soccer ball and started
    kicking it around.  Not soon after some older guys came over and asked
    if they could play!  Seems they all were originally from Italy and had
    learned to play there.  Some of the footwork they could do was amazing
    (to me anyway), even in dress shoes.  One of the older guys (mid-40s)
    ended up coaching my older son for over half an hour, showing him all
    sorts of useful techniques.  A really enjoyable way to end the day.

    Since the matches at Foxboro, we have been to see the US women play
    against Norway at Tufts.  The US lost but then their team had only
    played together for a short time.  I will say that the graphics on the
    game T-shirts being sold were outstanding (as was the T-shirt last
    year).  That's for any of you who might be into soccer T-shirts.  

    From now on, it looks like our soccer viewing will be limited to the
    kids practices and games. But we also try to catch Futbol Telemundo on
    Sundays. I don't know who the announcer is but he says "SCORRRRREEE!"
    almost as well as the announcer for Boston Bruins hockey (who's name
    escapes me at the moment). 
    

    Rob,
    I've been in touch with the people Boston Soccer -- begging them for a 
    job :-) About the ads, what you said is true, they need to raise money
    however they can. Annoying, yes, but if it is the difference between
    having a couple of world-class internationals every summer and not, I
    don't have a problem with it. I look at it in the same light as when 
    clubs would plaster the names of some sponsor across the chest, so the
    most visible moniker for say, Liverpool was "Crown Paints" or "Candy".
    It wasn't always like that, and I'm sure people were up in arms about
    defacing the "sacred jersey" of their club, but people have grown to
    accept necessary commercialization.
    
    They are in the process of organizing another US Cup for 1993. It looks
    like it will be Germany, England and either Italy or Denmark. It will
    be interesting, because other than Italy, none of those countries has a
    significant ethnic following in the US, so it will be the soccer alone 
    that will be the drawing card.  
    
    Tom

	re .47

>    don't have a problem with it. I look at it in the same light as when 
>    clubs would plaster the names of some sponsor across the chest, so the
>    most visible moniker for say, Liverpool was "Crown Paints" or "Candy".
>    It wasn't always like that, and I'm sure people were up in arms about
>    defacing the "sacred jersey" of their club, but people have grown to
>    accept necessary commercialization.

	If advertizing slogans on players' shirts are a _necessary_
	commercialization, how come they are never seen in U.S.
	professional sports.

	And what team would you like to see the "digital" logo on ? :-)

	Tony

    I dunno if it is "necessary" but people seem to accept that the most
    visible logo/name on a shirt is a sponsor, not the club name. When did
    this  practice come about? I've seen old pictures from the '60s without
    sponsors, but later pictures have logos/sponsors. I would have thought
    that when this idea first came about, there would have been a lot of
    fans upset about the commercialization. Now, it seems that it's just
    another source of revenue.
    
    As for American sports, who knows? They do have smaller visible logos
    of the uniform makers, which is a relatively new thing, but I couldn't
    see a company logo being the main design element of a team's uniform. 
    
    Didn't Wang used to sponsor a team or 2 in Britain a few years ago?
    
    Tom

	re .49

>    Didn't Wang used to sponsor a team or 2 in Britain a few years ago?

	Oxford United.

	Tony