YEAR IN REVIEW 1997: SPORTS-AND-GAMES: FOOTBALL

FOOTBALL: Association Football (Soccer). Argentina was favoured to win the soccer championship at the Centennial Olympic Games in 1996 but lost in the final contest to Nigeria (3-2) in the last minute. Otherwise, the most important international events for South American teams during the year were the World Cup qualifying matches. In these, for the first time, nine Latin-American countries were scheduled to play one another at home and away, with the top four qualifying for the 1998 finals in France. At the end of 1996, with this qualifying tournament almost at the halfway stage, Colombia remained the only unbeaten team and led in the standings by six points. Traditional South American powerhouses Argentina and Uruguay were finding the going difficult in their efforts to qualify. Brazil, as defending World Cup champion, was not required to qualify for the finals. It could have continued its international winning streak--which stood at 35 at the end of 1995--but instead sent its Olympic under-23 team to the CONCACAF Gold Cup (played in the U.S.) and lost 2-0 to Mexico in the final to end the streak at 39. In Argentina Vlez Sarsfield won the 1995-96 season-closing championship to add to its opening title. After that, River Plate became Latin America's club of the year by winning the Libertadores de Amrica Cup (South America's club championship) with a 2-1 aggregate victory over Colombia's Amrica. The Argentines lost, however, 1-0 to Italy's Juventus in the finals of the Intercontinental Cup (world club title) in Tokyo. Argentina swept all three continental club cups as Vlez Sarsfield won the Super Cup (for Libertadores Cup winners) and Lans the CONMEBOL Cup for other leading teams. In Brazil Grmio (Prto Alegre) won the national title and Cruzeiro (Belo Horizonte) the KO Cup. Deportivo Cali ran away with the 1995-96 title in Colombia, and its Cali neighbour, Amrica, was doing the same at the end of 1996. Colo Colo made it a league and cup double in Chile. Paraguay's two top clubs, Olmpia and Cerro Porteno, won the 1995 and 1996 titles for the 34th and 24th time, respectively. In Uruguay Penarol retained the title in 1996 after a play-off with the country's other big club, Nacional, with which it shared the opening and closing championships. In Peru Sporting Cristal won the championship for the third consecutive year in 1996, while Minerven won it for the first time in Venezuela's 1995-96 season. In Ecuador it was Barcelona in 1995 and Nacional in 1996, while San Jos and Bolvar won the respective Bolivian titles. In Mexico Necaxa retained the first division title in the 1995-96 season, and, under a changed format, newcomers Santos Laguna took the winter title corresponding to the first part of the 1996-97 season. In its first season major league soccer crowned Washington, D.C., United as its champion. United staged a final-period comeback to defeat the Los Angeles Galaxy 3-2 in sudden-death overtime on October 20 in Foxboro, Mass. Ten days later United also won the U.S. Open Cup by defeating the Rochester Rhinos 3-0 in Washington, D.C. (ERIC WEIL) FOOTBALL: Australian Football. The Australian Football League (AFL) celebrated its 100th season in 1996, and North Melbourne FC emerged as the league's premier club, defeating Sydney before a crowd of 93,102 at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. It was North Melbourne's third title--and first since 1977--since entering the competition in 1925 and Sydney's first grand final appearance since it was known as South Melbourne in 1945. The first-round series of the season consisted of each of the 16 clubs playing 22 matches, and by September eight clubs had qualified for the finals. The 176 first-round games produced a total attendance of 5,216,148 (an average of 30,000 a game), and the eight finals drew 478,812 for a grand total of 5,694,960. After the completion of the finals, the top five clubs, in order, were North Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Essendon, and West Coast. During the year Fitzroy and Brisbane merged; in 1997 the club would be known as the Brisbane Lions. A new club, from Port Adelaide, was to also enter the AFL in 1997. Major award winners in 1996 were: Brownlow Medal (best and fairest player in the competition), tie between James Hird of Essendon and Michael Voss of Brisbane; Norm Smith Medal (best player in the grand final), Glen Archer of North Melbourne; Coleman Medal (leading goalkicker in the home and away rounds), Tony Lockett of Sydney. (GREG HOBBS)