Soviets Dissatisfied Despite Win : Soccer: Coach Valeri Lobonovsky expects a better effort when his team plays U. S. at Stanford Saturday.
With more than 50,000 tickets already sold, the largest crowd ever to see the U. S. national team play other than at the 1984 Summer Olympics is expected for Saturday’s game at Stanford against the Soviet Union. But if you believe Soviet Coach Valeri Lobonovsky, those tickets should come with a money-back guarantee.
Asked about the kind of soccer he wants to show the crowd at Stanford, he said: “More than we’re capable of. It is impossible for us to show what we would like.”
Lobonovsky had harsh words for his team Thursday night, and that was after a 2-1 victory over Costa Rica for third place in the Marlboro Cup before a crowd of 29,323 at the Coliseum.
“We are totally unsatisfied with our performance,” he said. “We are only satisfied with the result.”
The crowd was the second largest for a single game in the four-year history of the Marlboro Cup, which is played each year in four cities--Los Angeles, Miami, Chicago and New York.
Judging from the flags being waved in the stands, most of the fans Thursday night were at the Coliseum to see Guadalajara of Mexico, which played Colombia for the championship.
Chivas fans were disappointed when Colombia won, 1-0.
The Colombians scored on an unusual play in the ninth minute of the second half after a corner kick by Bernardo Redin. Teammate Alexis Mendoza headed the ball, which was caught by Chivas goalkeeper Javier Ledezma. But Ledezma lost his balance and fell into the goal, giving Colombia the only score it needed.
The game deteriorated late as each team had a player ejected for rough play.
When they agreed to make this three-game visit to California, the Soviets realized that they would not look like the World Cup contenders that they expect to become in June.
For one thing, they arrived in Los Angeles late Sunday night complaining of fatigue after a 10-game tour of Italy. It was during that tour that they lost one of their best players, midfielder Alexi Mikhailitchenko, with a knee injury that might require surgery. They also are without several other players, who are under contract to European teams.
As for the players who are with teams in the Soviet first division, their regular season doesn’t begin until March 5. So this is spring training for them.
“This Cup and the game against the United States are not really important,” the head of the Soviet delegation, Nikita Simonian, said this week. “The important things are that we get experience playing together and that we improve as a team.”
If the Soviets appeared better Thursday night, perhaps it was because they were playing a team of lesser quality. They were shut out two nights earlier during 90 minutes of regulation by Colombia, then lost on penalty kicks in the tiebreaker. Lobonovsky certainly seemed to believe that any sign of improvement was an illusion.
“There was no change from Tuesday to tonight,” he said. “There are many problems with our style of play. The performance of the team does not match the structure we have developed in preparation for the World Cup.”
No one would ever guess from his comments that the Soviets dominated the action, taking 28 shots to only 12 for the Costa Ricans. But of those 28 shots, only five were serious threats. Soviet goalkeeper Victor Chanov, on the other hand, had to make seven saves.
Costa Rica scored on one of only five first-half shots, taking the lead at 34:15 on a direct free kick by midfielder Juan Cayasso after a Soviet foul just outside the penalty area.
But it was only a matter of time before the Soviets began to make something of their opportunities. They came back in the second half with goals by midfielder Gennadi Litovchenko at 67:14 and forward Fedor Cherenkov at 75:14 and had a chance to score again when forward Oleg Protasov’s penalty kick sailed high over the crossbar.
