GREAT CROWDS, USUALLY. It took two hours to drive the final two miles to the Los Angeles Coliseum before the 1996 Gold Cup final, where 88,125 fans would watch Mexico beat Brazil and another 5,000 were stranded outside the stadium. Two years later, 91,255 watched Mexico beat the United States in the final at the same stadium, and 6,941 watched on closed-circuit in the adjacent Los Angeles Sports Arena.
The Gold Cup, which crowns the champion of the region comprised of North and Central America and the Caribbean – and invites guests from elsewhere – is always hosted by the United States. That's because this country makes so many teams feel at home – and not just Mexico.
Haiti, Jamaica and Honduras have drawn crowds in Miami as large as they would in their own stadiums. Guatemala and El Salvador get turnstiles spinning in Los Angeles.
This year's seventh edition will be co-hosted by Mexico, as it was in 1993, the only other time when the United States wasn't the exclusive host. And after four winter Gold Cups, it returns to the summer. But even miserable weather didn't keep fans away.
In 1998, flooding in Northern California closed down the trans-bay subway and people were advised to stay off the roads, but 36,240 still showed up for a Mexico-Honduras/USA-Costa Rica doubleheader in Oakland. El Salvador-Brazil drew 55,027 in a Southern California downpour, and 43,754 came out for Brazil-Jamaica in Miami despite tornado sightings.
Not that the Gold Cup in and of itself is so alluring. It's the allegiance of America's immigrants to their teams that creates such phenomenal crowds.
In 2000, the first eight dates, through the quarterfinals, averaged crowds of 32,553. Then Colombia, Peru, Canada and Trinidad & Tobago convened for the final four in Southern California, where none is significantly represented in the populace. The three games averaged 4,143.
TWO SIDES OF A COIN. Canada and South Korea finished second behind Costa Rica in a three-team group during the 2000 Gold Cup. Tied on points, goal difference and goals scored, a coin toss would determine the second-round qualifier.
With a Korean community of about 300,000 in Los Angeles, the organizers were undoubtedly hoping for heads. The Koreans' games had drawn 23,621 and 54,246.
The coin landed on tails. The Canadians beat T&T before 2,841, and 6,127 watched them down Colombia in the final – 85,098 fewer than came out for the previous title game.
THE CANADIAN WAY. ''I don't think we're a soccer power overnight, but we're getting better and better,'' said Canadian defender Mark Watson after his team's 2000 title.
Two years later, the Canadians, having failed to reach the final round of World Cup qualifying, returned to the Gold Cup and proved they have at least mastered the art of winning arbitrary tiebreakers.
They beat Haiti, then lost to World Cup-bound Ecuador, which fell to Haiti. Each score was 2-0. It was a three-way tie in the group from which two would advance. A three-way drawing was held at a club inside the Orange Bowl. Haitian fans packed the club and went wild when Haiti and Canada were drawn into the quarterfinals.
Canada's luck ran out against the United States, which prevailed on penalty kicks after a 0-0 tie in the semifinals.
PRESIDENTIAL APOLOGY. This year, the United States plays in Foxboro, increasing the chances that their own fans won't get drowned out by the opposition's. And if they reach the final, they'll play in Azteca Stadium, where crowds are less hostile than in the L.A. Coliseum. The U.S. anthem was booed at the 1998 final at the Coliseum, and U.S. players had to dodge debris thrown at them by the pro-Mexican crowd.
But the worst crowd trouble occurred in Miami in 2000, when a spectacular 5-3 Peru win over Honduras was marred by a field invasion at the north end zone by Honduran fans. They had already shown their displeasure at a red card to Carlos Alberto Pavon by tossing plastic bottles, water balloons, rocks, glass liquor bottles and aerosol noisemakers onto the field – besides the seat bottoms that had been ripped out and chucked about.
''We must ask for forgiveness from Miami,'' said Honduran President Carlos Flores.
PROLONGED VISIT. In 2002, Cuban midfielder Alfredo Delgado and forward Rey Angel Martinez dodged the tight government security that accompanied their team to the Hilton Hotel in Burbank, Calif., and defected. They flew to Florida and revealed their hopes of landing in MLS.
Instead, they settled for St. Thomas University's NAIA team.
''In Cuba, when you're on the national team, you're on top of the world. Over here, we had to start all over,'' said Martinez.
STRANDED LOSERS ROBBED. Usually, after a big game, players shower, change and board a luxurious bus for a ride to the hotel. But the bus that brought the Trinidadians to their 1996 match against the United States – a 3-2 win for the Americans – left Anaheim Stadium with a cargo of VIPs.
As the players wandered around the parking lot, a police helicopter hit them with a spotlight and ordered them to disperse. They hitched rides with fans to their hotel, where they discovered that a man posing as their team manager had been given access to the team safe and grabbed $21,000 in cash, the money to be used to pay the players.
The impostor also robbed eight rooms of $15,000 of cash and jewelry.
NAME THAT TUNE. Honduran players refused to take the field against Brazil at the 1996 tournament. Not because they were intimidated. They wanted to hear their national anthem first and weren't satisfied with ''Himno Istme±o'' – the Panamanian anthem that was played for them at the Coliseum. With stadium staff unable to locate the proper tune, the players sang ''Tu Bandera es un Lampo de Cielo …'' into a field worker's walkie-talkie, which relayed their voices to a television truck, where a production crew patched the audio into the TV signal for the Honduran audience.
NO RESPECT ALL-AROUND. At least the 1996 Gold Cup didn't discriminate when it came to dishing out the disrespect. Security harassed the fledgling Sam's Army when it tried to bring drums and banners into the stadiums but looked the other way when its troops were bombarded with cups and cans and attacked by more militant counterparts outside the grounds.
Mexican coach Bora Milutinovic was introduced as Miguel Mejia Baron, his predecessor, before a match with Guatemala.
The head of the Guatemalan federation was locked out of his team's locker room because he had no credential – although a Boy Scout group marched freely through the press box and the U.S. locker room.
U.S. Soccer president Alan Rothenberg and secretary general Hank Steinbrecher were locked out of the media/VIP area before the final by a fire marshal, who insisted two others must leave before they entered.
by Soccer America Executive Editor Mike Woitalla