Decade on the Rise Sets Team Up for Quite a Fall

This much I know after taking in my first World Cup match: The United States can’t say it has moved any closer to the level of Brazil and Argentina when it can’t even match the results of Trinidad and Tobago.

This was supposed to be the unveiling of the new and improved U.S. squad on soccer’s greatest stage, the first look at a team that could at least threaten the better soccer countries, if not beat them. If it had yet to capture the attention of the nation, it had secured the backing of two starmakers: ESPN and Nike. President Bush even called Coach Bruce Arena to wish him luck before the game.

The Americans hoped for, at the minimum, to match their Cup quarterfinals run in 2002. Instead the Czech Republic knocked them backward in a 3-0 victory that reminded observers of the American squads of the 1990s.

In the grand scheme of things this wasn’t a disaster. But it wouldn’t have been surprising if Bush called Arena back to say, “You’re doing a heck of a job, Brucie.”

There were indications that the U.S. had narrowed the gap with the soccer elite, one of which was a No. 5 spot in the suspect FIFA world rankings.

Then the U.S. played the second-ranked Czechs. What’s more believable, a three-spot difference in the rankings or a three-goal on the scoreboard? In sports, it’s always the scoreboard.

The U.S. couldn’t get a tie, as World Cup newcomer Trinidad and Tobago did against Sweden. The U.S. couldn’t even produce the type of encouraging loss the Ivory Coast had against Argentina.

When asked whether there were any positives from this outing, American midfielder Landon Donovan said, “Not a whole lot.”

Arena said: “I don’t think we ever positioned ourselves to win this game” and could name only three of his players who met expectations: Claudio Reyna, Oguchi Onyewu and Bobby Convey.

It might have been easier to take if this were simply a matter of the Americans making too many mistakes and blowing opportunities. That wasn’t the case.

“For as bad as we played, they played better,” Pablo Mastroeni said. “I think they had more to do with it than we did.”

Before the game, there was a steady stream of injury reports coming from the Czech camp. It turned out two of the guys who supposedly were hurt instead put a hurtin’ on the red, white and blue: Tomas Rosicky scored two goals, and Pavel Nedved dictated the match with his ball control.

One serious injury to a Czech star came too late to help the U.S. Jan Koller went down after injuring his hamstring in the 41st minute. That’s a concern for the Czech Republic in its next game against Ghana. It’s what he did in the fifth minute that concerned the U.S. Koller headed in a crossing pass for the first goal, a single move that seemed to undo months of American preparation.

“The game of soccer is one of being contagious,” Mastroeni said. “If you go out there and put together a few good passes early in the game, everyone else catches the bug and starts playing well. And the reverse of that. If you get a goal scored on you and no one wants the ball and everyone’s kind of shying.”

Instead of a victory that would wake up the world to the state of American soccer, Mastroeni said this match was “like waking up on the wrong side of the bed.” Everything went bad after that.

The only effect Koller’s injury had on this game was that it deprived it of the most fascinating matchup. The Czechs run soccer’s version of a low-post offense, standing 6-foot-8 Koller at the edge of the penalty box and lobbing the ball toward him. Onyewu did a good job against Koller, even though Onyewu gives away six inches.

“It was kind of fun, actually,” Onyewu said. “It was the first time in my career I’ve been able to play against a man a lot taller than me. Against him, physically, I think I matched up pretty well. He didn’t win any head balls. He wasn’t able to make the plays he wanted to.”

But Onyewu was drawn away from Koller on the play that led to the Czech Republic’s first goal, and the ball sailed over Eddie Pope to Koller.

Onyewu’s attention to Koller actually led to the Czech Republic’s second goal as well; Onyewu knocked away a pass for Koller, only to see the ball go to Rosicky, who fired a shot past Kasey Keller.

The American attack was nowhere near as precise as the Czech Republic’s. Its best chance was more of a great shot than a great play, but Reyna hit the crossbar.

Now it’s time to regroup against Italy, another European power.

“We all have to learn quick,” Reyna said. “Especially the young guys. We have five days to get it right. We can’t have months or years.”

They’ve already had those. A lot of good it did Monday.

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J.A. Adande can be reached at j.a.adande@latimes.com. To read more by Adande, go to latimes.com/Adandeblog.