Goebel upset three-time world champion Alexei Yagudin at Skate America two weeks ago with a superb technical performance. Goebel's free program included three quadruple jumps and two triple axels, arguably the most technical routine ever skated.

Now Goebel meets Yevgeny Plushchenko, who was favored for the worlds after winning six consecutive meets last season. But Plushchenko faltered in the long program at the world championships in Nice, France last March and came in fourth.

"When I saw the others before me, when I went out on the ice I was thinking only of the victory," Plushchenko said. "Maybe too confident. It was a mistake. I learned a lesson from that."

Plushchenko said he has been training in the Netherlands and is working on another quadruple jump. Last year he was the first skater to do a quad toe loop-triple toe loop-double loop combination and is now talking of a quad salchow.

Goebel has been doing two types of quads for two years now. At Skate America he did a quad salchow in combination then a solo quad salchow and a solo quad toe loop.

Goebel, who was 11th in Nice, has improved since his move to Frank Carroll, the coach of world champion Michelle Kwan. Known primarily as a jumper, Goebel has added some presentation to his skating.

In the women's event former world champion Maria Butyrskaya, who was the oldest woman to take the world title when she won in 1999, faces two American skaters more than 10 years her junior.

Sarah Hughes and Sasha Cohen will test Butyrskaya, 27. Hughes, 15, was fifth in this year's world championships as Kwan won and Butyrskaya came in third after leading entering the free skating.

Cohen, 16, finished second to Kwan at the U.S. nationals but needed to medal at the world junior championships to qualify for the senior worlds because she was under the age limit at the time.

Cohen came in just sixth at the juniors, held in Germany last March. This is her first major competition this season.

In the pairs competition world champions Maria Petrova and Alexei Tikhonov head the field. The Russians took the world title after two-time world winners, Yelena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze of Russia were forced to withdraw after she had unknowingly taken a banned substance in a cold remedy.

Berezhnaya and Sikharulidze also had their European title taken away and Petrova and Tikhonov moved up from second to first in that event almost two months after the competition.

The dance event has Italians Barbara Fusar-Poli and Maurizio Margaglio, world runners-up, favored.

The Nations Cup is the third of six meetings in the International Skating Union Grand Prix series with the winners getting dlrs 30,000. The top finishers in the standings qualify for the Grand Prix final in Tokyo, Japan in February.

The world championships this year are in Vancouver, British Columbia, in March.