The show is over.
On with the show.
After a dreary, made-for-TV extravaganza at the Las Vegas Convention Center, the first-round pairings and schedule for the 1994 soccer World Cup are set.
The actual draw proceedings seemed a sideshow, taking less than one-third of the 90-minute telecast seen by an estimated 500 million viewers worldwide.
But the draw’s results were surprising and enticing enough that the tournament could occupy center stage in the U.S. sports theater for at least part of its month-long run next year. It is expected to command the attention of 32 billion viewers worldwide.
The 15th World Cup will open at 2 p.m. June 17 at Soldier Field when defending champion Germany meets Bolivia, South America’s Cinderella team.
Spain, Bulgaria and Greece also will play in Chicago.
The Germans, whose first-round group includes Bolivia, Spain and South Korea, have been given a relatively easy path to the second round. Not so the host United States, in a group with Switzerland, Romania and Colombia.
The first round is a round robin within each of the six four-team groups. The top two teams in each group and the four third-place teams with the best records advance to the second round, when the tournament becomes single elimination.
“They didn’t do us any favors,” said U.S. forward Joe-Max Moore.
Italy and Brazil, which like Germany have each won three World Cup titles, wound up in the two toughest first-round groups.
Italy is with Ireland, Mexico and Norway in what World Cup ’94 chairman Alan Rothenberg called “the Group of Death.” Brazil is with Russia, Cameroon and Sweden.
“Our group is probably the second toughest after Brazil’s,” said Arrigo Sacchi, Italy’s coach. “But I won’t complain. I trust my team. We just have to show how strong we are.”
When a group of former soccer stars-not including Pele-and other celebrities had finished picking the balls that placed the 24 teams, there no longer seemed any way to support contentions the draw was rigged.
If it had been, the host country never would have been drawn in a group with Colombia, which routed traditional power Argentina 5-0 in Buenos Aires last summer.
“I didn’t see anyone walk out of there with blisters on their fingers,” said Rothenberg, referring to past rumors that some balls had been heated to help identify certain teams.
The draw didn’t even give Rothenberg some of the ethnic placements he preferred, such as Ireland in Boston or Mexico in Dallas. The Irish are playing in New York and Orlando, the Mexicans in Washington and Orlando.
