Alex Christenson Flint, Mich. Ben Olsen has clearly proven he can play this season with D.C. United. Why hasn’t he been called up for the U-23 national team? Mike Woitalla: Ben Olsen did not accompany the U-23 team on its trip to England because he was getting so much playing time with D.C. United. U-23 coach Clive Charles may have believed that Olsen was profiting more from MLS experience than he would from a U-23 trip of exhibitions — and I would agree with that notion. Olsen will be, in my opinion, very important to the U-23 team’s quest for Olympic qualification. Dennis Brennan Morris Plains, N.J. As a MetroStars season ticket holder since the team’s inception, I’m looking for an outside impartial opinion on Tab Ramos’ worth to this team. He is always touted as America’s most skilled and gifted player. However, I (and this opinion seems to be rampant among fellow Metros fans) have yet to see any real impact that he has on this team. When he was away with the World Cup team this year, the team seem to gel better with Paul Dougherty (who hustled for every minute he was on the pitch) than they do now with Tab for the full 90 minutes. There are games (and its seems like almost every game) where Tab just disappears in the second half. He gives us, the fans, the impression that he is a prima donna. Also, I don’t believe he draws any more fans to the game. Please, can you give us your unbiased opinion on Tab’s worth to the Metros? Ridge Mahoney: Well, Tab may or may not be a prima donna, but he’s always had a tendency to drift in and out of games. This, in itself, is not a great fault. The problem is that, as he ages and gradually slows down, he’s less and less of a factor during those phases when he’s into the game. But remember he was just getting into shape when he scored that great goal last September against Costa Rica, then he got hurt again. He has come off two serious injuries in the past two years, and I don’t think we can render a final verdict on him until next season. The general rule of thumb is that a full recovery takes about the same amount of time as a player missed; he was out from November to late April, and then it was a rush to get him back on the field so he could have a shot at the World Cup. Still, the injuries and ravages of time have taken a great toll, and he’s on the wrong side of 30. The only question is how quickly he slides. Since the Meadowlands will have turf for the rest of ’98, the next month or so will be rather rough. He’s come back twice from long injury layoffs. With some rest and several months to rebuild his body and confidence, he could make a stronger statement in ’99. But he doesn’t tolerate adversity with the resiliency you’d expect from a veteran, and that pyschological flaw has yet to be corrected. P. Clark Boston I recently saw that Michelle Akers won FIFA’s Order of Merit Award (the announcement was buried in the back of the U.S. Soccer web site). From what I understand this is a HUGE award (never given to an American nor a woman and only to legends of the game) and was presented in Paris before the World Cup. What exactly is it and why hasn’t Michelle received more press about it? Duncan Irving: It was an award for outstanding contribution to soccer and handed out at the FIFA Congress this past June 7. She was one of 10 names — Gerd Mueller and Larbi Ben Barek (Morocco/France striker) were the other players to receive the award. The rest were perceived as either political awards (Nelson Mandela) or sweeteners for the FIFA election the following day (Bert Millichip of England, Henry Fok of Hong Kong, Fernand Sastre of France, who died shortly afterward, and the late Guillermo Canedo of Mexico). Without being unduly cynical, the award possibly smacked of tokenism. There was a bitterly contested election the next day which overshadowed all else, and there were matters from the FIFA executive committee that took precedence in the media’s eyes. Oh, and add in the fact that the whole two-day she-bang degenerated into a “Goodbye Joao Havelange — we’ll miss you, so” lachrymose festival, so you might have some idea why the item got buried in the media. That’s no excuse for U.S. Soccer, though. Michael Frick Erie, Pa. I have always been told that the only stupid question is the one you do not ask, so here goes. How, in your opinion, would you describe an overlap? Where would it be correctly used? Who would use it? It sounds stupid, but in trying to teach high school girls, you would like to be on the same page as everyone other coach. You would be surprised, like the offside rule, how many different descriptions are out there. Also, is a wall pass the same as a give and go? This is another one that when brought up among coaches get many very different opinions. Mike Woitalla: Michael, for your second question I refer you to the informative glossary in Paul Gardner’s excellent book, “The Simplest Game”: “Wall-Pass: The give-and-go. So called because in soccer games played by boys in streets, the ball is bounced off a wall rather than passed to a teammate.” As for the “overlap.” Coaches tend to latch on to simple descriptions and create buzzwords out of them — probably in hopes of making their instructions sound clever. Don’t be ashamed of being confused by coaching jargon. When a player sprints from behind her teammate who has the ball, this can be described as an overlap. Outside backs are often described as “overlapping” when they run into the attack with the intention of receiving a pass from the midfielder they sprint past. If all works well, this “overlap” can catch the defending team off guard. Some of the best defenders in the world have been moving into the attack for years, unaware that they are “overlapping.” Creighton Lynes Coventry, England I know that y’all are probably reluctant to comment on the various merits of competing publications. However, I was wondering if there is any kind of consensus there at SA as to which of the following magazines is most worthy of subscribing to: GOAL, Four-Four-Two, or World Soccer? Pete Bailey: Of the three you list, the consensus among the editors here is World Soccer, as it offers a broader spectrum of coverage. However, Four-Four-Two may be better for you if you are looking for a British-specific magazine. One caveat about the latter: it tends to have a lot of “At home with Paul Ince” types of articles, and if you don’t want that, When Saturday Comes is probably a better choice. The last we heard, GOAL had gone out of business.