U.S. Soccer Team Intends to Get Down and Dirty

Even though the U.S. soccer team went to church today, the theme of the day was no more Mr. Nice Guys.

Before taping promotional spots for MTV and visiting the Basilica of the Madonna at the Montenero Sanctuary, the team worked out in the rain and talked about the need to get tough--and even play dirty.

“We’re too clean, myself included,” forward Bruce Murray said. “As a team, we have to get mean and aggressive. I know a lot of that comes with maturity on the field, knowing when to give up a professional foul if pressed, when to just step in and hip check and stuff.”

Professional fouls? Hip checks?

“I don’t think it’s a matter of retaliating,” U.S. Coach Bob Gansler said. “It’s just a matter of asserting your manhood out there, as well. We certainly have come a way from (the days when) after a hard play we’d look at the referee and say, ‘What’s going on here?’ ”

Peter Vermes, likely to start at forward along with Murray in Sunday’s game against Czechoslovakia, has played in Hungary and the Netherlands and knows the way things go.

“When you come over to Europe and start to play as an American player, you have to learn in three weeks to a month the tricks of the trade that these players over here have been learning for their whole lives,” Vermes said.

And what, exactly, are those?

“Nothing major where you really hurt someone,” Vermes said. “Just get the foul. Slow the game down. Begin again.”

Or, as Murray put it: “Sometimes you have to lay in the heavy tackle and set the tone. Let the other guy know that, next time, you’re in for more.”

That’s exactly what FIFA, soccer’s governing body, is trying to prevent.

“I think the intentions are good,” Gansler said of FIFA’s directive for strict refereeing. “But even though you set the guidelines, you still have different individuals out there, in terms of referees, that are going to have the jurisdiction.”

Murray said he prefers strict enforcement.

“That might work to our advantage,” he said, “because a lot of these teams are going to think, ‘Let’s see if we can intimidate them.’ And if they’re going to try that stuff from behind, well, then we’re going to be hopefully protected by the referees. If not, then maybe matters might have to be taken into their own hands.”

After the morning practice, Paul Caligiuri, Desmond Armstrong, Jimmy Banks and Eric Eichmann sang for the MTV camera.

There was no singing at the Montenero Sanctuary, set on a picturesque hilltop outside Livorno. The church was opened in 1575 and is dedicated to an alleged sighting of the Madonna at Livorno on May 15, 1345.

Joe Machnick, the team’s goal-keeping coach, said if the Americans advance to the second round, he would crawl from Tirrenia to the church as an act of thanks.