World Cup Soccer Qualifying : Guatemala to Show Its New Faces Today Against United States

With puddles of water on the field and talk of under-the-table payoffs in the air, the United States tries to improve its chances of qualifying for next year’s World Cup of soccer with a game today against hopeless, and perhaps hapless, Guatemala.

After his players worked out Saturday on the soaked field of the Mateo Flores National Stadium, named for the 1952 Boston Marathon winner from Guatemala, U.S. Coach Bob Gansler called the 10 a.m. (PDT) game a “must” for the United States. But, as he emphasized, that makes it no more or less important than the previous five games or the next two.

In the five-team North and Central American and Caribbean region’s round-robin qualifying tournament, the United States has a 3-1-1 record. With two points awarded for victories and one for ties, the United States has seven points, four fewer than Costa Rica (5-2-1) and two fewer than Trinidad and Tobago (3-1-3).

Guatemala (1-4) and El Salvador (0-4-1) no longer are in contention as only the top two teams will earn berths in the 1990 World Cup in Italy.

The United States is in good position because it has three games remaining. But it would like to score the maximum number of points in the next two games so that it can take a cushion into the final one, Nov. 19 at Port of Spain, Trinidad. That is the only game remaining for Trinidad and Tobago. Costa Rica has completed its schedule.

Naturally, Trinidad and Tobago would benefit from the United States’ failure in the next two games. So there have been rumors here that Trinidad and Tobago’s soccer federation offered Guatemala’s soccer federation $25,000 as an incentive to send an enthusiastic team onto the field today.

There is, however, another rumor circulating here that the U.S. Soccer Federation offered the Guatemalans $45,000 to do the opposite.

Everybody denies everything.

These rumors are not particularly creative. There was talk before last month’s game at Tegucigalpa, Honduras, that El Salvador players would receive $1,000 each from Costa Rica or Trinidad and Tobago, or perhaps both, if they beat or tied the United States.

Not much credence was placed in that after the Salvadorans virtually sleepwalked through a 1-0 loss.

The United States dominated that game but scored only on a goal in the 62nd minute by midfielder Hugo Perez. Because of injuries, that has been Perez’s only qualifying game this year. He will miss this one because of a strained groin muscle.

That leaves the United States vulnerable in the midfield, where it also is missing Tab Ramos and Eric Eichmann. Each is serving an automatic one-game suspension for receiving two cautions in qualifying games this year.

“We need to read the referees better,” Gansler said.

Eichmann was credited with the winning goal in the 2-1 victory over Guatemala in June at New Britain, Conn., although television replays indicated that a Guatemalan accidentally headed it in for the United States.

That has been the story of Guatemala’s year. It started the qualifying tournament with high hopes, taking the best players from the nation’s club teams and paying them salaries to stay together as a unit.

But then the team faltered. When it mercifully was eliminated from World Cup contention, a headline in one of the local papers said, “The Anguish is Over.” Not only the coach was fired. So were most of the players. Only two are on the roster today who played against the United States in June.

For this game, Guatemala has a collection of players borrowed from the club teams, but they have been together only 10 days.

“There are pluses and minuses to that,” Gansler said. “This team has to be less cohesive than the one they had. That will be a minus. The plus will be the enthusiasm of the new people who are getting their opportunities.”

There is a minus to the condition of the field, which was flooded by heavy rains last week and appears as if it has not been mowed since Mateo Flores returned from Boston.