Meola Marriage Gives Stanisic Shot With U.S.

Tony Meola, the captain of the U.S. National Team, gets marriedtoday in Kearny, N.J., and Meola's honeymoon could be the key toScoop Stanisic making the squad.

Stanisic, the former Sting goalkeeper who spent the indoorseason in the National Professional Soccer League, was one of the newfaces in camp when the U.S. Nationals ended a month-long vacationlast week. He traveled with the team to Iceland Friday and willlikely be in goal when the U.S. resumes its schedule forinternational friendlies Tuesday.

In addition to the U.S.-based players, coach Bora Milutinovicwill have Roy Wegerle available for Iceland. He had two assists forCoventry City in its season-opening 3-0 win over Arsenal Aug. 14.

Star sweeper Marcelo Balboa, last year's U.S.Player-of-the-Year, began running again following knee surgery butwon't train with the team for several weeks. After the Iceland trip,the U.S. visits Norway Sept. 8 and then has a busy October.

Though pummeled in its last start by Mexico 4-0 in thechampionship game of the CONCACAF Gold Cup tournament in Mexico CityJuly 25, the U.S. will get a rematch Oct. 13 at RFK Stadium inWashington. That match will highlight the October schedule, whichalso includes a meeting with Ghana Oct. 9 at Foxboro, Mass.; and twomatches with Ukraine Oct. 16 at High Point, N.C., and Oct. 23 atBethlehem, Pa.

FRUSTRATED: Eric Wynalda, a key U.S. National offensiveperformer, couldn't hook on with a first division team in the German Bundesligaand has remained with demoted FC Saarbruecken even though he doesn'tlike it.

"I'm not going to panic yet," he said. "I expect to be back inthe first division by winter break. If I'm not, maybe I'll startgetting a few gray hairs then."

MONEY-SAVERS: Last year, Italian League teams spent as much as$25 million on transfer fees for a single player. This year theusually free-spending circuit, which starts its season today, hasonly nine new foreign stars. Last year there were 35. The estimatedtransfer fees for this year are $30 million, percent from a year ago.

"Many clubs invested millions of dollars for players who turnedinto big disappointments," Pisa president Romeo Anconetani said.

The league still has 58 foreign players. AC Milan will startwith six and Internazionale has five.

SECURITY RISK: Ed Best, a 22-year FBI veteran who was in chargeof security at the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles, will be the chief ofsecurity for next summer's World Cup. He has been tight-lipped aboutwhat measures will be taken, having granted just one interview sincebeing hired last September.

He has ruled out the strong show of force that was exhibited inItaly during the 1990 World Cup, where more than 4,000 police andmilitary personnel - some carrying machine guns - were placed in highprofile positions in host cities.

"The outward appearance at the stadiums will be soft," Bestsaid. "What you will see are people clearly identifiable assecurity, and behind the scenes there will be sufficient resources totake care of the unknown."

A priority will be to deny hooligans - fans whose sole intentionis to cause disturbances - entry into the U.S. Photos and criminalrecords of hundreds of hooligans, supplied by European police, arestored by the FBI in an electronic database.