SOCCER : Frustrated Gansler Hopes Reality Has Hit U.S.

Frustrated by the U.S. national soccer team’s lack of intensity in a 2-0 loss to Costa Rica Friday night in the first round of the Marlboro Cup, Coach Bob Gansler indicated Saturday that he is losing patience with players who have allowed a contract dispute to affect their performances.

In his most blunt remarks about the team since he became its coach 13 months ago, Gansler said he is close to the point of delivering an ultimatum to the disgruntled players.

“I don’t have a specific date in mind, but I’m looking for people who are winners,” he said. “Winners are people who come up with consistent performances, who are psychologically tough and cannot be distracted.

“These young men are looking at careers and livelihoods. Some are able to sort through things and, when they step between the lines, do a job. Some are not. They have to get through this.”

He also said some players have developed inflated opinions of their skills since the team qualified for this summer’s World Cup in Italy with a 1-0 victory in November over Trinidad andobago.

“It would have been good to measure them for hat sizes before Trinidad and then after,” he said.

But he said he expects to see a humbled team at the Orange Bowl today, when the United States plays Colombia for third place. Uruguay, which beat Colombia, 2-0, Friday night, and Costa Rica will meet for the championship.

“We’ll be better,” Gansler said. “I know the kind of players we have. Right now, they’re embarrassed.”

Of the 16 players who were offered standard contracts in December by the U.S. Soccer Federation, 12 signed by the Jan. 14 deadline.

Two others, goalkeeper Tony Meola and midfielder John Harkes, signed Friday after receiving extensions because they were trying out with an English team in January.

But all the players have expressed dissatisfaction with the contracts, although some are more vocal than others.

Gansler gave them a forum to voice their complaints by appointing a five-player grievance committee, but the players disbanded it last week because they believed they would not be heard.

“What it comes down to is that they’re the federation and the coaching staff and we’re the players,” said Harkes, a member of the committee. “We do what they tell us to do.”

Harkes said he did not carry his resentment of the federation onto the field with him Friday night, but he acknowledged that other players might have. No one played well.

“The team went out there with no heart,” Harkes said.

Gansler said no player should feel secure, including Meola, the former University of Virginia goalkeeper who had shutouts in all four of his starts during last year’s World Cup qualifying tournament and was the Hermann Award winner as the nation’s best college player.

Meola said he was “hammered” by the coaches after the loss to Costa Rica.

“I’m going to put the goalkeeper’s job up for grabs,” Gansler said. “It’s not that Tony doesn’t have the edge right now, but--how can I say this delicately?--this was the least (efficient) of the games I’ve ever seen him play. One of the things I want to find out about Tony is how he plays after a poor game.”