Valerie Carroll Teaneck, N.J. With the expansion of the NCAA women’s championship field to 48 teams, I thought that all of the teams deserving of a bid would get one, yet Seton Hall, which defeated perennial power Notre Dame en route to an 11-6-1 record, was overlooked! How did this happen? Dean Caparaz: Thank you for your question, Valerie. While I was also surprised to see that Seton Hall did not earn a spot in the NCAA women’s Division I tournament, I can see why. Despite the upset win over Notre Dame, Seton Hall did not have another good result. What it did have was a string of bad results, including a 0-0 tie at Boston College, a 3-2 loss at West Virginia, a 3-2 loss at Penn (that’s not Penn State, which also beat the Pirates 3-1), and a 1-0 loss to Boston College in the Big East tournament. B.C. is not a bad team, but it is also not an NCAA tournament team this year. I would guess that such a loss could not be overlooked by the NCAA selection committee (but don’t ask me to explain why Indiana, which lost to non-NCAA tournament team Ohio State in the Big Ten tournament and also to San Francisco during the regular season, still got in to the Big Dance). Also, the selection committee may have balked at the team’s strength of schedule, though the Pirates did play Notre Dame, Connecticut, Penn State and Syracuse, which are all in the NCAA tournament. If Seton Hall, Syracuse and B.C. were all bubble teams, Syracuse may have earned its at-large berth with its win over Seton Hall during the regular season. But then the Orangewomen did lose to B.C., as well as unfancied Florida State, and tied Rutgers during the regular season… Seth Shore Los Angeles I was interested in possibly attending the final of the UEFA Champions League. Although the site of the final has not yet been determined, how would one in the U.S. go about securing tickets for the match? Duncan Irving: The final will be in Barcelona. Start by contacting UEFA directly about ticket availability. The phone number is: 011-41-22-994-4444 Next, contact Barcelona’s press office. Then, contact the two competing clubs directly. Most have a travel club that they’ll use. (The SA Yellow Pages features a directory of top international club teams.) Finally, try sports travel agents, who offer package trips. These run in soccer-specific publications or in city papers of the teams concerned. Remember, there is no such thing as a cheap seat and demand will exceed supply many times over. Rai Sadr Storrs, Conn. Is there a salary cap for coaches? If not, how exactly does the salary of a player/coach fit in (in particular for Walter Zenga next year)? It seems that if there is no maximum for coaches’ salaries, any team could go out and buy Roberto Baggio, George Weah, Romario or Alan Shearer as a “coach” and later on say “by the way, he’s gonna be playing in a few games for us too.” Ridge Mahoney: There is no salary cap for coaches in MLS — they are paid by the individual clubs, not the league. However, coaching salaries for league-run teams are close to or at the bottom of the MLS salary scale. MLS granted New England a special dispensation to allow Zenga to coach and play, to prevent your proposed scenario. Part of his salary will apply to the team’s salary cap, with the team paying the balance. The Revs are one of the teams with salary-cap problems, so Zenga might be in the curious position of axing players to make room for player salaries, including his! Garr Isacco Woodbine, Md. Bruce Arena selected four Project-40 players to the U. S. national team for the match against Australia. Do you think that Project-40 has arrived, and do you think this sends a message to high school and college players that Project-40 is the wave of the future? Mike Woitalla: Arena picked two P-40 players, Josh Wolff and Ben Olsen. But he included a number of players just slightly older than the P-40 class. Arena needs to rebuild his team with the best young pros in the nation, that would naturally have him looking at P-40 players, who were invited into the program because they were judged likely to be among the nation’s elite. If a message has sent, it happened during the 1998 MLS season, when several P-40 players — e.g. Joey DiGiamarino, Carlos Parra, Olsen, Wolff — got ample playing time. That must certainly have potential P-40 players encouraged about their chances of getting MLS action. Barry Penner San Jose, Calif. Of the Top 10 scoring leaders listed in Division 1 College soccer [through Nov. 8], which are American citizens and which are foreigners? It would be nice to know which of these players might possibly make an impact on MLS and U.S. Soccer.
- 1. Wojtek Krakowiak (Clemson)
- 2. John Wolyniec (Fordham)
- 3. Nesa Stefanovic (Jacksonville)
- 4. Siggi Eyjolfsson (UNC Greensboro)
- 5. Andrew Mittendorf (Lehigh)
- 6. Heikki Ritvanen (Central Fla.)
- 7. Richie Moller (Towson)
- 8. Bole Acimovic (Jacksonville)
- 9. Chris Albright (Virginia)
- 10. Michael Preis (Cal St. Northridge)