Who needs football when you've got futbol? . . . As Los Angeles' sports media lament the absence of a local NFL team, the kind of football actually played with feet, meaning soccer, is doing just fine in the City of Angels. L.A. is acquiring quite a list of soccer credentials. People first took note 15 years ago when the Rose Bowl sold out for the 1984 Olympic soccer final. Los Angeles has since hosted two World Cup finals in 1994 and 1999. Last July, 90,185 spectators witnessed the U.S. women's win over China. Even the grand old Coliseum routinely draws solid crowds for international soccer matches. Soccer matches at the Coliseum drew 271,306 for 12 games, last January, and 91,585, in February, to watch Mexico play Argentina. As for professional soccer, the Los Angeles Galaxy reached the final of the MLS Cup in 1996 and 1999. This year the Galaxy led the league in total home attendance. Combining regular season and playoff games, 341,495 fans flocked to the Rose Bowl gates to follow the exploits of such Galaxians as Carlos Hermosillo and Cobi Jones.

Soccer flourishes on the local college scene, too. UCLA's men's soccer team reached the semifinals in the NCAA Division I tournament, losing to eventual champion Indiana in quadruple overtime. In the Division I women's tournament, UCLA progressed to the round of 16. Out in the suburbs, Cal Poly Pomona placed second in the NCAA Division II women's tournament, while Azusa Pacific reached the semifinals of the NAIA women's tournament.

As for participation, there is no shortage of players on the pitches. The American Youth Soccer Organization (AYSO) has 70,000 Los Angeles County kids registered to play in its leagues, with another 61,000 from surrounding Orange, Riverside and Ventura counties. The California Youth Soccer Association has more than 13,000 Los Angeles area kids registered in its programs, with another 31,000 playing in San Bernardino, Riverside and Orange counties. Thousands of youngsters also play in park and community leagues. Then there are the high schools. Based on figures supplied by the Los Angeles City Section of the California Interscholastic Federation, we figure that approximately 25,000 Southern California high school boys and girls play soccer for their schools. Additionally, there are myriad adult recreational leagues filling L.A.'s parks every weekend. Ricardo Oliva, of the California Soccer Association, says that 45,000-60,000 adults play on teams registered with his organization. He estimates that number represents only one-third of the adults playing organized recreational soccer in Southern California. Anyway you slice it, there's a whole lotta soccer goin' on.

Last, there is an abundance of soccer broadcast over the television airwaves and cables of Los Angeles. Thanks largely to Fox Sports World Español, an ardent viewer can choose from nearly 80 hours of soccer programming via cable television each week.

From the Next Big Thing Department . . . It's been more than 30 years since an American high school runner broke four minutes in the mile. Only three preps have accomplished the feat including track legends Jim Ryun, Marty Liquori, and the less-often mentioned Tim Danielson. Recently, a few young men have come close, but all have fallen short of the elusive four-minute goal. Now, folks in Virginia think they have an heir-apparent poised to join the troika. Alan Webb, a junior at South Lakes High School in Reston, broke Ryun's 36-year-old sophomore class record last summer with a sizzling 4:06.94. While he's still several seconds short of the four-minute mark, Webb's speed over 400 (48.7) and 800 meters (1:51.9) suggests he could be the one.

Can you name what standing stadium has been the site of the most National Football League games? OK, trick question. The answer is Chicago’s Wrigley Field. Although The Friendly Confines are no longer home to the Bears, the Monsters of the Midway did play 330 home games there before moving to Soldier Field. Wrigley also hosted 12 other NFL games for the Chicago Cardinals and the Chicago Tigers. And, although Cleveland’s late Municipal Stadium hosted the same number (342) of NFL games, it is now resting as a reef on the bottom of Lake Erie.

Cruising the naturbahn . . . The sport of luge seems to be getting back to its permafrosted grass roots. Over the last several years, the discipline of natural track luge, also called naturbahn, has grown in popularity, especially in Austria and Italy. Natural track luge foregoes refrigerated artificial tracks and instead is held on courses that follow a hill's natural contours. The tracks usually are built on winding mountain fire roads and do not include any artificially raised or banked curves. The naturbahn sleds use sharper runner blades that enable the sliders to turn and brake better than artificial track sleds. All of this makes for a wilder ride with more crashes and spinouts. At the moment, 15 national teams are competing in World Cup races. In October, the International Luge Federation Executive Committee met to discuss strategies for having natural track luge included on the program of the 2006 Olympic Winter Games in Turin, Italy. At the moment, the only naturbahn track in the United States is located at Marquette, Michigan, but that's likely to change if the discipline is included in the 2006 Games. U.S. Olympian Gordy Sheer told SportsLetter that while he's always raced on artificial tracks, naturbahn racing is great to watch. Sheer says that his doubles luge partner, Chris Thorpe, loves the wild ride of the naturbahn.

Add luge . . . The natural track luge world cup races have seen credible performances from at least one country not exactly known for its athletic exploits on snow and ice. Currently, India ranks 10^th on the list of 15 countries in overall World Cup standings ahead of such snowy lands as Norway, Sweden and Finland.

Nike abhors a vacuum . . . One sure sign of a sport on the rise is interest from shoe companies. At the 1998 Asian Games in Bangkok, Thailand, the sport of sepaktakraw was a big hit with crowds, especially as the Thai national team took five of the six gold medals offered in the sport. Enter the Swoosh. Now, Thailand's national team has sponsor support from Nike, including shoes and apparel. At this year's 1999 King's Cup Sepaktakraw World Championships, held in November, most of the Thai national squad was shod in new Nike plimsolls. The "Play Series" are low-cost shoes designed specifically for the Southeast Asian market. Interestingly, sepaktakraw players favor the thin, lightweight shoes for their better kicking feel and flexibility. All of which goes to prove that not every world-class athlete needs a $150 pair of shoes to play in.

Get a few Heisman votes or win the Wooden award and you make all the papers. But how many of you can name the 1999 NCAA Woman of the Year? Get the point? And by the way, the 1999 NCAA Woman of the Year is University of California track and field standout, Jamila Demby.

Penguins of the world unite! . . The number of people running marathons in the United States has surged over the last several years. Figures from USA Track and Field claim that marathon participation has grown 70 percent in the last decade due mostly to the increase in women marathoners. Of course, many of these marathoners, men and women, don't exactly run. As they would describe it, they waddle. Waddle, walk, run, whatever. They are the Penguin Brigade, the not-so-silent majority of runners for whom marathons are less about personal bests than personal satisfaction, fun, and a generally good time. The Penguin's unofficial leader is John Bingham, a 50-year-old reformed smoker and former fat guy who gave name to the movement and writes a regular column for Runner's World magazine called the "Penguin Chronicles." The Penguins phenomena has, in part, been fueled by the World Wide Web, and they even have their own site at www.waddle-on.com. Journalist Marc Bloom discussed the Penguin phenomena in a November 1, 1999 New York Times article, mentioning that many long-time runners aren't particularly thrilled with the throngs of the slow moving marathoners. Bloom quoted one long-time runner complaining that he often has had Penguins suddenly stop to tie their shoes in his path. The race directors, though, seem to have a more benevolent attitude. Carey Pinkowski, director of the Chicago Marathon says that his race welcomes all runners and tries to group people at the starting line according to approximate times in order to avoid having faster runners impeded by Penguins. Richard Finn, director of public relations for the New York City Marathon, says that even though times might be a bit slower these days, slower runners are not really a problem. Which brings us back to those grousing long-time runners. Why are they running behind those slow moving penguins in the first place? Waddle on, dude!

Troubling numbers . . . The November 22, 1999 issue of the NCAA News leads with a long article on the problem of eating disorders among female college athletes. Eating disorders among college athletes reflect a larger societal trend in which instances of anorexia nervosa and bulimia have doubled in the last ten years, with more than 10 percent of teenagers and college students suffering from eating disorders. According to a study of 1,445 Division I female athletes done by Craig Johnson of Laureate Psychiatric Hospital in Tulsa, Oklahoma, 13 percent show signs of anorexia and/or bulimia. Another 36 percent are considered at risk for developing an eating disorder. Experts interviewed for the article also note that eating disorders may be an emerging problem among male athletes, too.

One of the striking things about the various fin de siècle lists of athletic greats is the absence from most of them of Pelé, the Brazilian soccer star. Talk about emerging from a huge talent pool. Pelé was the greatest player of the world's most-played team sport. He was a member of three World Cup championship teams between 1958 and 1970, and scored 1,280 goals, including 97 at full international level, and 92 hat tricks, in a storied career that included a two-and-a-half-year stint playing for the Cosmos of the North American Soccer League. He clearly is in the same league with Ali, Jordan and anyone else mentioned as the greatest athlete ever.

Nothing quite like sledding on Christmas, or about then anyway. Meet Rodolfo, the mascot of the International Luge Federation Natural Track World Championships, which will be held January 26-30, 2000 in Olang-Valdaora, Italy.