Sean Anguiano Idaho Falls, Idaho Why did Dallas give up the rights to Dema Kovalenko to take Lazo Alavanja? Dosen’t Dallas need someone to score? The Burn have Kreis, so is he expected to go or is Alavanja going to play wide? Scott French: Dallas never really had Kovalenko, despite appearances. It was planned from the start that Kovalenko would join Chicago, with its Eastern European communities, but after last year’s Ben Olsen fiasco (the league gave the rookie of the year to the reigning champions), MLS couldn’t just award a player of Kovalenko’s capabilities to the Fire. It was backroom politics a la MLS, with the Burn — a league-owned team, remember — doing the league’s bidding and getting some draft picks for its trouble. Alavanja is hurt, out until the end of March after ankle surgery, so how he’ll fit in with Dallas is unclear. Kreis is slated to play up front, with Pareja in the middle supported by Deering. I don’t expect to see Alavanja make much of an impact until at least late April; when he does, it likely will be on the left. Rick Friday Cabot, Ark. Now that things have died down from WC ’98 and a new coach has been hired, do you think we would still have Steve Sampson as head coach if the players had actually finished their opportunities instead of hitting the woodwork so much? Ridge Mahoney: Not unless the U.S. had gotten past the first round, or at least had looked much more impressive against Germany and Yugoslavia. But blaming the woodwork is like baseball teams moaning about losing one-run games, and an old adage is that bad teams lose one-run games, good teams win them. There’s a shade of luck involved, no question, but one of Sampson’s stated goals for 1998 was better performances against European teams, and one 3-0 win over a pathetic Austria does not overshadow limpid losses to Belgium, Holland, Germany, and Yugoslavia. Neil Vancouver, B.C. How much do FIFA referees get paid per international games? Pete Bailey: Neil, I asked U.S. Soccer’s Director of Officials Esse Baharmast, who worked a pair of games at France ’98, your question. He says that FIFA referees generally receive a flat-rate per diem of $175 per day, plus expenses. For FIFA competitions like the World Cup, FIFA is responsible for paying the officials. For international matches, it is usually the host federation’s responsiblity. For example, the recent U.S.-Germany game in Jacksonville, Fla. featured Mexican referees. They flew in the day before the match, worked the match on Feb. 6 and departed on Feb. 7. U.S. Soccer paid them $175 a day for three days. Ralph Klein Chatsworth, Calif. I have heard that one or two Mexican pro teams have youth or farm teams in the L.A. area. Is that true and what are they? Paul Kennedy: Several Mexican clubs — Guadalajara and Necaxa are two I can think of — have started programs in Los Angeles to begin to identify players. One problem they face, though, is that players who are American citizens of Mexican origin count as foreigners if they tried to sign them to play in Mexico, unless they take out Mexican citizenship under the new Mexican law to attract Mexican-Americans back into Mexico. It is true generally that foreign clubs are taking an active interest in the U.S. market. I know of four French clubs that are looking at players at the under-14 level. Competition is fierce to develop players since transfer fees for players are now so high. If a club spends $1 million on player development abroad, it will pay off it one player makes it big. Tom Hill Boxborough, Mass. In regards to Ridge Mahoney’s response to Adam Miller’s question on MLS merchandising in the Jan. 29 Q&A session, I recently asked [New England GM] Brian O’Donovan about this, and he said the Revolution, of all clubs, sell the most merchandise. At first, I found this hard to imagine, but apparently it’s regarded as a “classic” logo. (To me it looks suspiciously similar to the USA ’94 logo, but that’s neither here nor there.) Also, considering that the Revolution have a proportionately larger fan base than most clubs, and the fact that unlike some clubs, their jerseys, caps, etc. are generally available in retail stores throughout the region, as well as mail order catalogs, it might actually make sense. Brian did go on to say that D.C. also sold a lot of gear, mainly as a function of their success and the natural bandwagon-jumping habits of many Americans. And I would expect Chicago to sell large quantities of merchandise, provided Nike could only manage to get them in stores where people could buy them! Pete Bailey: Tom, thanks for passing on that info. Eric Vormelker Austin, Texas Thanks for the interesting information about MLS merchandise sales in the Jan. 29 Q&A session, but I do have to let you know that I find it a little frustrating, this habit the media has of comparing MLS and the MLS teams to the TOP teams in sports. It’s MUCH more useful and informative for those of us concerned with the survival of the league (and I think that’s still a good chunk of us out here) to know how it compares to the BOTTOM teams in sports. How do the sales figures compare to, say, the bottom twelve teams in the NHL? I know that that also doesn’t necessarily give us a realistic view of the viability of MLS, but it’s certainly more relevant, I think, than comparing the figures to the Dallas Cowboys or Chicago Bulls. Ridge Mahoney: We compared the league, not individual teams, to those high-selling powerhouses, and still the discrepancy is startling. We can’t compare individual MLS teams, since those figures are not confirmed by the league.