By Paul Kennedy
USA
The U.S. men’s and women’s Olympic rosters will be announced Wednesday, June 19, at 1:00 p.m. EDT.
All rosters must be submitted to the Atlanta organizing committee no later than July 5.
The U.S. men continue their exhibition series with three games June 22-26, mirroring the three first-round games they will play in July.
The U.S. plays South Africa June 22 and El Salvador June 24 in Richmond, Va., and Mexico June 26 in Fenton, Mo.
The U.S. women recently beat the defending USWISL champion Long Island Lady Riders 3-0 in their last match outside of Florida before the Olympics.
Barring any last-minute surprises, the 16-player roster should be headed by the 11 likely starters: goalie Briana Scurry, defenders Carla Overbeck, Brandi Chastain, Joy Fawcett, midfielders Shannon MacMillan, Julie Foudy, Tisha Venturini, Kristine Lilly and strikers Michelle Akers, Tiffeny Milbrett and Mia Hamm.
The other five team members should be veteran goalie Mary Harvey, 1991 Women’s World Cup MVP Carin Gabarra and North Carolina underclassmen Staci Wilson, Cindy Parlow and Tiffeny Roberts.
Only 12 of the 20 players who went to Sweden for last year’s Women’s World Cup should make the ’96 Olympic team.
ARGENTINA
Argentina, the U.S. men’s opponent in the opening game July 20 in Birmingham, has passed up the opportunity to select star Gabriel Batistuta as one of its three wild-card players.
Daniel Passarella, coach of the runner-up to Brazil at the South American Olympic qualifying tournament, instead chose defenders Roberto Sensini (Parma), Jose Chamot (Lazio) and midfielder Diego Simeone (Atletico Madrid).
The Argentine preliminary list:
Goalies: Bossio (Estudiantes), Caballero (Velez Sarsfield).
Defenders: Sensini (Parma, Italy), Chamot (Lazio, Italy), Ayala (Napoli, Italy), Pineda (Huracan), Paz (Banfield), Zanetti (Inter Milan, Italy).
Midfielders: Simeone (Atletico Madrid, Spain), Gallardo (River Plate), Almeyda (River Plate), Bassedas (Velez Sarsfield), Gustavo Lopez (Real Zaragoza, Spain), Veron (Boca Juniors), Morales (Lanus).
Strikers: Ortega (River Plate), Crespo (River Plate), Delgado (Racing Club), Claudio Lopez (Racing Club).
TUNISIA
Of the three opponents the U.S. men’s team will face in the first round of the Olympics, Tunisia is a complete unknown. Portugal and Argentina arrive with reputations as two of the best producers of young soccer talent.
And Tunisia? It barely scraped through qualifying, advancing to the final round when Togo was kicked out for using an ineligible player.
Tunisia does have one of the most respected coaches on the African scene in Pole Henry Kasperczak, who has been busy doing double duty, preparing the Olympic team and leading the national team in World Cup qualifying.
Tunisia advanced to the group stage of France ’98 qualifying in Africa with a convincing 5-1 win on aggregate over Rwanda. Two key members of the Tunisian Olympic team — Riadh Bouazizi and Mehdi Ben Slimane — started both games.
The Tunisian Olympic team recently hosted Japan’s Olympic team for a pair of tuneups. After losing 2-1 in Tunis, the Tunisians recovered to triumph 4-2 in the second game played in Bizerte. Imed Ban Younes led the Tunisians with a pair of goals.
Kasperczak will take the Olympic team to France for a week of training July 7-14 before coming to the United States. It’s scheduled to play French First Division club Le Havre in a friendly July 11 in Puy-en-Velay.
ITALY
Italy’s overage selections are goalie Gianluca Pagliuca (Inter Milan), midfielder Massimo Crippa (Parma) and striker Marco Branca (Inter Milan).
Not on the list is Juventus star Alessandro Del Piero, who helped Italy qualify for Atlanta ’96 but is now with the senior team at Euro ’96.
Coach Cesare Maldini, father of Italian star Paolo, has replaced the injured Francesco Totti with Cosenza’s Crisstano Lucarelli.
The 22 players on Maldini’s short list:
Goalies — Giovanni Buffon (Parma), Gianluca Pagliuca (Inter Milan), Angelo Pagotto (Sampdoria), Alessandro Pistone (Inter Milan),
Defenders — Salvatore Fresi (Inter Milan), Fabio Galante (Atalanta), Alessandro Nesta (Lazio), Christian Panucci (AC Milan), Alessio Tacchinardi (Juventus), Luigi Sartor (Vicenza).
Midfielders — Massimo Ambrosini (AC Milan), Rafaele Ametrano (Udinese), Massimo Brambilla (Parma), Fabio Pecchia (Napoli), Crisstano Luccarelli (Cosenza), Damiano Tommasi (Verona).
Strikers — Nicola Amoruso (Padova), Marco Branca (Inter Milan), Marco Delvecchio (Roma), Domenico Morfeo (Atalanta).
SAUDI ARABIA
Saudi Arabia’s German coach, Ivo Hartman, passed up the opportunity to take World Cup ’94 star Saeed Al-Owairan, choosing Mohamed Al-Khlioui, Fouad Anouar and Hamza Idriss as his three overage picks.
He did take Al-Owairan’s cousin, Khamis, who along with Abid Al-Dossari, forms the heart of the Saudi attack.
SPAIN
Spain has decided not send under-23 players to the Olympics, instead preferring to stick with the team that finished second at the recent European under-23 championship.
Indeed, many observers think the Spanish U-23s are more exciting than the senior team that scraped through to the quarterfinals at Euro ’96.
Among the U-23s stars available for Atlanta ’96: Ivan de la Pena and Oscar Garcia of Barcelona, Raul of Real Madrid, Jordi Lardin of Espanyol, Santi and Roberto of Atletico Madrid and Fernando Morientes of Real Zaragoza.
BRAZIL
Don’t count on World Cup hero Romario returning to the U.S. with Brazil for the Olympics.
Shortly after learning that Brazilian manager Mario Zagallo had chosen strikers Bebeto and Ronaldo in his squad for a warmup against Poland, Romario conceded he would not be traveling to Miami, where Brazil plays its first-round games.
Zagalo included Bebeto and Ronaldo in the squad for the Poland friendly.
Also on the list were Aldair of Roma, Roberto Carlos, recently signed by Real Madrid from Inter Milan, and Juninho of Middlesbrough.
Brazil is launching a concerted campaign to win the Olympic soccer gold medal, the only honor to have eluded the four-time world champion.