National Team

NEW YORK -- Bruce Arena, the new coach of the U.S. men's national soccer team, does not have a rebuilding job ahead of him. It is more like buying a new house that is a handyman's special. The foundation is there, but there is much work to be done.The amount of refurbishing needed became obvious last summer at the World Cup in France, where the overrated and underachieving U.S. team lost all three of its first-round games and finished last in the 32-team field.Steve Sampson, whose attempt to integrate younger players into the team blew up in his face, resigned as coach after the debacle.

College lacrosse put its best foot forward yesterday, raising $100,000 at the Price Modern Lacrosse for Leukemia Tournament Invitational at the McDonogh School. The money goes to the Maryland chapter of The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, whose goal is research and providing a better quality of life for those suffering from the disease. "This is the pre-eminent society. Ninety percent of the money goes to research and treatment with less than 10 percent getting lost in administration." said Milford Marchant, co-chairman of the event along with Maryland coach Dave Cottle.

Dante Washington's dream of playing in the 1994 World Cup may have ended, but his involvement with the quadrennial soccer tournament is just beginning.After apparently failing to impress the U.S. national team's coaches in a recent brief tryout, Washington, 23, is in his third week as a full-time administrative assistant in the World Cup USA '94 government relations office."Every soccer player dreams of playing in the World Cup, more so than the Olympics, but I don't think I'll be called back [to the national team]

Two Baltimore-area players were named yesterday to the U.S. women's national team roster for the U.S. Women's Cup tournament, which opens in Connecticut May 31 and ends at RFK Stadium in Washington on June 8.They are Thori Staples, the Joppatowne grad and North Carolina State defender who was an alternate on last summer's Olympic team, and Laurie Schwoy, the McDonogh grad and freshman star of last fall's NCAA-champion North Carolina Tar Heels.Pride: High-level women's soccer resurfaces locally with the national-champion Maryland Pride opening its season at 7 p.m. Saturday against the North Carolina Speed at Howard High's stadium.

PORT-OF-SPAIN, Trinidad - Soccer came of age in the United States in 1989 when the national team qualified for its first World Cup finals in 40 years, thanks to a gritty victory on the road over Trinidad and Tobago. Since that time, the team has transformed itself from a plucky group of collegiate players to a regional power, now poised to join a few select countries that have qualified for five straight finals. The final round of qualifying for a spot in Germany in 2006 begins today in the heat, humidity and emotionally charged atmosphere of Carnival season in Trinidad (2:30 ET, ESPN2)

Like other high school graduates, Donte Greene is spending his summer vacationing, including hanging out with friends. Except for Greene, "vacationing" also means flying across the Atlantic for an elite basketball tournament, and "hanging out" comes in the form of early morning workouts with NBA stars Carmelo Anthony and Sam Cassell. Greene has spent the past several days in Dallas as part of the U.S. under-19 national team, preparing for a trip with the team to Serbia. Before he left Baltimore, the Towson Catholic graduate and McDonald's All-American worked out with some top talent at Anthony's youth center.

The U.S. men's national team is taking about seven weeks off before regrouping to prepare under coach Steve Sampson, or a successor, for the World Cup final round in France next June.Players in the pool from which the American World Cup team will be picked are to train in seclusion for three weeks in Chula Vista, Calif., starting Jan. 5. Players invited will include those in the qualifying-round pool, plus others from the 1996 Olympic squad and from Major League Soccer.In February, the U.S. team will compete in the CONCACAF Gold Cup, a tournament of national teams in North and Central America and the Caribbean.

The laboratory in team chemistry that the U.S. national men's soccer team has become will resume in next Thursday's game against Ecuador at Memorial Stadium.U.S. coach Steve Sampson announced the roster for that game yesterday, a 17-man squad that includes 12 players who haven't seen national duty in at least six months, many of them for longer.The players are being called up from five of Major League Soccer's 10 franchises, but none of the three regulars from this area's representative, D.C. United, is among them.

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. - A World Cup training session for the famous U.S. women landed Mia Hamm and Co. in a scrimmage yesterday against the University of Virginia men's soccer team. Guess what? The highly skilled, experienced and talented women "lost" to an unranked Division I team that had no doubt been warned to not injure the stars, but work them hard. Respectful and obviously full of admiration, the Cavaliers controlled almost all the action, even while extending a hand to U.S. national team stars they had just tackled.

The Utah Jazz's Carlos Boozer shows a flair for the dramatic when he refers to Team USA's attempt to restore America to international basketball supremacy as being on the "road to redemption." But from the very beginning, you got the idea that this current crop of American pro basketball all-stars had a dimension that wasn't part of any previous NBA national team that suited up for the United States in the Olympics. The original Dream Team had a well-deserved regal swagger as the players signed autographs for their star-struck opponents even as they crushed them.