"All I know is that when this thing is over we're either gonna be real happy or real sad. If we draw between 15,000 and 20,000 for both days together I think we'll break even and Lord willin' and the creak don't rise we'll have the tournament here next year,"--Dan McNamera, Executive Vice-President of the Orange Bowl Committee.

And so, like a greedy monopoly player who already owns Boardwalk and Park St., and is now erecting a chain of hotels, the Orange Bowl Committee launches into a three-year lease for the NCAA Soccer Championships to compliment its awesome King Orange Jamboree festivities and the increasingly peopular Orange Bowl football classic.

Taking part in college soccer's first real attempt to break into the national spotlight, Harvard, which sprinted through the season with a 13-1 mark, will face Howard (13-0) in the first game of the semi-finals on December 28.

In the second game later that night, undefeated, reigning national champion, and number one rated St. Louis faces the number two ranked west coast titlist San Francisco (13-2). There will be no consolation match before the finals, which will be played at 8 p.m. on the 30th.

History

In 1969, Harvard and San Francisco were among the final four teams at the championships in San Jose, but both lost to perennially strong St. Louis. The Crimson dropped a 2-1 heartbreaker to the Billikens in the semis and San Francisco, after beating Maryland in the semis, 1-0, fell to the same fate in the finals, 4-0.

The Crimson, after strong playoff shutouts of Southern Connecticut (5-0) and Brown (3-0) and a very impressive 4-1 win over the nation's fourth ranked team, Hartwick, in the Dec. 4 Eastern Championships, appeared on its way to reaching a peak in team performance for the Miami finals.

However, there is no way to judge what effect a long lack of competition since Hartwick may have on the team. Coach Bruce Munro gave the squad a week layoff after clinching a berth at Miami, but had the team out practicing Monday, The squad will leave Cambridge for New York this Sunday at noon.

At 2 p.m. Sunday on the Adelphi College field, Munro will attempt to reaclimate the squad to hard competition by sending his charges against a combination team consisting of members from the Cosmos and Hots, two of New York's best pro teams. After the game, the team will fly to Florida, spending a week practicing at St. Andrews, a prep school in Boca Raton, before checking in at the championship's headquarters in Miami's McAllister Hotel.

Harvard is heading south a full week ahead of any of the other schools, which all will arrive when the headquarters open on the 26th. "It's obvious why we're going down early," Munro said yesterday. "We need to get accustomed to the climate, heat, humidity, and hopefully to get a lot of work down on artificial turf."

Many experts are leary about playing the championships on the artificial "Poly-Turf" surface in the orange Bowl, which is presently under careful scrutiny as the possible cause for numerous slips and losses of footing experienced by football players there. Also, the limitations that the Orange Bowl forces on the more expansive dimensions of soccer fields has been a cause for debate.

"We staged a semi-pro game last Friday afternoon in the bowl and kept track of the number of slips," McNamera said. "Only four players fell on their bucket all day. You'll find that many slips on the best natural turf."

Hash-Out

In a hash-out between players and officials after the game, it was found that the slips incurred by both the Eracondos-Lan Chile combination team and the North Miami squad were limited to players whose shoes had high hard cleats which kept the sole line of their shoes above the grass.

Players with short, but not worn, rubber cleats had no problems and in general, raved about their ability to weave circles around their fallen defenders.