In contrast to his England counterpart, he appeared a contented individual, although admittedly three recent “friendly” victories against Denmark, Italy and Russia would hoist any coach’s spirits.It must also be stressed, of course, that Soderberg has not been unnecessarily burdened by confessing to his own duplicity in persuading players to deceive the media, passing critical comment on some of his own men and incurring the ire of others for introducing Mrs Drewery into his regime. He is also not supervising a group of players among whom there are those prepared to bare their dysfunctional souls at the drop of a publisher’s cheque.In a week when squalid tales of Tony Adams’ bed-wetting after drunken binges has made larger headlines than Gerry Adams’ insistence on an end to Ulster blood-letting, Soderberg could probably scarcely believe the psychological advantage that had been thrust towards him: all of it self-inflicted. NOT for the first time, a faintly incredulous look crumpled the already lugubrious features of Tommy Soderberg, a man who is somewhat redolent of a handsome version of Walter Matthau. He stood in the cramped basement of a Stockholm hotel, hands in pockets, having genuflected towards his audience when introduced, a trifle bemused by the attention, although aware that it had rather more to do with his counterpart’s notoriety than his own prestige. On the eve of England’s first Euro 2000 qualifier, their opponents’ head coach had been asked to reflect on a whole gamut of contemporary football issues The usual kind of thing. From the use of a faith-healer – or as the head of the Swedish FA rather dismissively alluded to the ubiquitous Eileen Drewery, “a fortune-teller” – to the former England captain Tony Adams’ critique of his national coach’s methods, and to the ethics of Glenn Hoddle’s own literary outpourings.
Soderberg simply shook his head at the bizarre nature of it all.
“We can’t allow such indecency,” an official of Sukom 98, the Games organisers, said. “Though we are one big happy family in the village, we can’t be too open in certain things. I don’t think we are being unreasonable in asking everybody to keep a modicum of modesty.” The reports claimed that athletes from the Welsh team had been seen naked on several occasions. Some 6,000 athletes and officials from 70 countries are expected to be in Kuala Lumpur for the Games which open on Friday.. baseball:
Record still on for slugger Sosa
The Chicago Cubs’ Sammy Sosa closed in on Roger Maris’ 37-year-old home-run record by taking his tally to 57 homers for the season in his side’s victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates. Meanwhile, the St Louis Cardinals’ Mark McGwire remained stuck on 59, two behind Maris’ all-time regular season total of 61, when his side were beaten by the Cincinnati Reds.. athletics:
Naked truth too much to bare
The Commonwealth Games organisers are angry about reports of athletes going naked in the corridors of their apartment blocks at the Games village.
Title rivals Michael Doohan, of Australia, and Italy’s Max Biaggi secured front row grid placings yesterday for the San Marino Grand Prix while France’s Jean Michel Bayle took pole. Japan’s world 250cc championship leader Tetsuya Harada crashed during practice for the San Marino Grand Prix and broke his left leg.. Motorcycling:
Bayliss remains poles apart
The Australian Troy Bayliss claimed pole position with a scorching lap of Silverstone in the final qualifying sessionfor rounds 19 and 20 of the Motor Cycle News British Superbike Championship. The Ducati rider covered the 2.25 mile circuit in a time of 1min 22.672sec to outpace the championship-chasing Chris Walker by five hundredths of a second. Trained by Frank Gilman, the 7-1 favourite came home 15 lengths clear and Saunders, the oldest winning jockey of the National, won critical acclaim for the outstanding ride he gave the gelding after he courageously took the Fred Winter/John Francome route down the inside rail where the drops at the fences are more severe but considerable ground can be saved. Saunders retired immediately after the win but Grittar ran twice more in the National, finishing fifth in 1983 and 10th the following year..