John Mentzer Baltimore Md. What has happened to Desmond Armstrong and the other members of the 1990 World Cup team, such as Bruce Murray, Mike Windischmann and others not currently playing on the national team? Ridge Mahoney: Desmond Armstrong is involved with several business projects in Maryland and North Carolina, and even re-appeared briefly as a television commentator during the World Cup. Bruce Murray works in Atlanta as a golf pro. Mike Windischmann was playing club soccer in New York, and involved in youth coaching. A few other of the ’90 vets: David Vanole is goalkeeper coach at UCLA and also for the U.S. U-20s; John Stollmeyer works in the financial sector; Chris Sullivan, who played for San Jose in 1997, is playing for El Farlito, a Mexican team, in the San Francisco area league. Jimmy Banks is working in youth soccer in Milwaukee. Peter Whealton Rhode Island What World Cup matches did Esse Barharmast ref in addition to the Brazil-Norway match? Pete Bailey: Baharmast, who became the first American official to work more than one match in a World Cup, also reffed the memorable Spain-Nigeria first-round match. After Brazil-Norway, he served as the fourth official in the France-Paraguay second-round clash. Also, where is Alberto “Beto” Naveda (former #10 for New England) playing, and what happened to Darren Sawatzky (former #7 for New England) after he left Dallas? PB: Naveda is currently in Israel, playing for Maccabee Ironi Ashdod. The team is currently eleventh in the Israeli National League. Sawatzky spent this past season in the A-League. He played with the Charleston Battery for much of the year before being traded to the Hershey Wildcats for the stretch run. Hershey was eliminated from the playoffs by the Rochester Rhinos Oct. 3. Michael Diggins San Francisco What is the status of Canada’s soccer development? I noticed their absence in the Gold Cup although they made the final round of WC qualifying. Why is there no participation or cooperation with MLS? It would seem to be in the best interests of U.S. soccer and CONCACAF to help them be competitive. Paul Kennedy: Canada’s lack of direction was evident by its decision to not go to the ’98 Gold Cup even though it did not have to qualify. After Bob Lenarduzzi quit following the end of the Hexagonal, there was no program, therefore no team. The only game the senior team played in ’98 was a 1-0 win over Macedonia this winter. Canada’s U-23 and U-20 teams very very active this summer. Canada’s top young players are all in Europe. For example, Paul Stalteri, who played a season at Clemson and the ’97 summer with Toronto of the A-League, is on the verge of making German club Werder Bremen’s first team. How good are they remains to be seen. The U-20s were slaughtered by the U.S. at the CONCACAF qualifying tournament this past summer in Trinidad & Tobago. On the lack of cooperation with MLS, the answer is simple: Canadian players count as foreigners, so MLS clubs have little interest in signing them. Only one Canadian has been signed since Year 1: Jason Bent of Colorado. Bent, who played at Maryland, became available when he had a bad experience in eastern Germany. Regarding your comment that it would seem to be in the best interests of U.S. soccer and CONCACAF to help Canada be competitive, I see your point regarding CONCACAF, but U.S. soccer? Glenn Auve Arlington, Va. In Ridge Mahoney’s answer regarding adding sponsor logos to MLS replica jerseys [Sept. 4, 1998 Q&A session] he complained about the fact that MLS merchandise is hard to find in sports stores. Certainly this is true, although here in the D.C. area all of the Champs stores have D.C. United jerseys and other merchandise and some for other clubs. I suspect that with the league signing contracts with big retailers like K-Mart that availability will get better. Let’s remember that the league isn’t even three years old yet and it will take time for retailers to catch on and carry MLS stuff. But the league and equipment suppliers also must take a lot of responsibility for this problem. At the beginning of year one I wanted to buy D.C. United merchandise and was thwarted for months by the fact that adidas wasn’t producing any. Furthermore, with the way Nike changes the colors and designs of its teams’ uniforms every season it’s hard for stores to buy these products knowing that any stock left over at the end of the year will be obsolete by the time next year starts. The same goes for D.C. United’s redesign of the logo after last year. I still wear all of my old stuff because it would be too expensive to replace it all just to get the new logo. The league and its suppliers need to get their act together before you go criticizing the stores too much. Ridge Mahoney: Glenn, I pinned the onus on the suppliers and the league, not the stores. The stores buy what sells, but with a new product, they have to be persuaded. With all the clout supposedly wielded by adidas, Nike and the hotshot league marketing staff, a lot more merchandise should be in a lot more stores. It’s funny. The league booms out proudly when they catch counterfeiters, but the irony is, the real stuff isn’t easy to find! I don’t think you’ll see much product in discount stores like K-Mart in the near future, since the stores would have to cut deeply into the $60 or $70 purchase price of most replica jerseys, and the league is very reluctant to lower its wholesale price very much. I don’t know if MLS plans to aggressively market a lot of cheaper product, like the polyester mesh “jerseys” that sell for about half the price of replicas, or T-shirts. And your point about changing teams colors and designs simply reinforces my point — the league and the suppliers know such a change will affect availability of product to the general public, and should plan for it. Your point about the slowness of replica production is a good one, yet of course, I didn’t blame the stores for that. And you still can’t get replica jerseys of the Fire, since the team simply refused Nike’s insistence of the nickname Rhythm and a jersey featuring a cobra-like logo. When I spoke to Randy Bernstein at MLS, he blamed the lack of Fire replicas on the stubborness of the Fire front office. Imagine that! I’d have blamed MLS and Nike for incipient bad taste. As I said, I’d like to see MLS jerseys hanging alongside those of NFL, NBA, MLB teams in major sporting-good stores. And, since future MLS replicas are likely to incorporate the sponsor logos, I’m sure the sponsors would like to see greater exposure, too. I’m anxious to see the response from the general public and marketing executives to sponsor logos on team jerseys, since that’s a revenue stream not yet tapped by the major pro sports leagues. And the league’s youth is a reason, but there’s a lot of WNBA stuff in stores. That’s due to the NBA’s clout, obviously, and that’s the point — it’s a fiercely competitive market, and the league needs to work a lot harder and a lot smarter. One last item: D.C. United is a) a very good team, with classy, sharp, simple uniforms, and b) further ahead of its rivals in marketing merchandise. And I’m convinced many of the original designs — San Jose, Dallas, Kansas City, to name three — were so gauche, they didn’t sell on merit, not because they weren’t available. The original Clash jerseys were simply horrible, and you’d have to want to look like a stack of Lifesavers to wear a Wizards jersey.