WORLD CUP ’90 : U.S. Players Need European Style, Midfielder Says

The only way the United States is going to become competitive in future World Cup tournaments is by sending players to Europe.

So says U.S. midfielder Tab Ramos, perhaps the most accomplished of the 22 American players in Italy and certainly the most realistic about the state of soccer in North America.

“It’s really, really important that we try to have a lot of players go overseas after this World Cup because we need to take that next step,” Ramos said at the U.S. team’s training camp in Tirrenia, where it is preparing for Tuesday night’s game against Austria.

Ramos, from Hillside, N.J., started and played well in each of the United States’ first two matches--a 5-1 loss to Czechoslovakia in Florence and a 1-0 loss to Italy in Rome. Unlike some American players, he was not surprised by the results.

“I know some people on the team said we haven’t played as well as we can, but I think we did a good job,” he said. “In my viewpoint, we did just about as well as we can do.

“As I said before the Cup, we might come out here and play our best game every game and lose 3-0 or 4-0. That’s just the way it is. Tactically, we’re not as sound as these teams, and physically we’re not as sound, either.

“We’re going to do everything we can to win, but we’re outmatched in all aspects of the game, and that’s something we have to learn. It’s a reality; it’s not something to be ashamed of. We’ve come through our system at home, and our system is not prepared to take on the rest of the world.

“I think it was a great accomplishment for our team to be here and to come to the World Cup. We’re going to learn from every game and then take it from there.”

What that means is using the four years between now and the 1994 World Cup in the United States to raise the standard of American play. Ramos says it can best be done by encouraging and helping U.S. players join professional teams overseas. And even then it’s not easy.

“If you come out of college and you’re college player of the year, at this (World Cup) level it means absolutely nothing,” Ramos said. “All it means is you might get a trial with a reserve team somewhere.”

Four members of the current U.S. squad have pro experience in Europe: Forward Peter Vermes plays for F.C. Vollendam in Holland; forward Chris Sullivan played for Rabo Eto in Hungary and said he probably will join a team in Belgium after the World Cup; midfielder Paul Caligiuri played for S.V. Meppen in West Germany and forward Bruce Murray played for F.C. Luzern in Switzerland.

Three others--Ramos, midfielder John Harkes and goalkeeper Tony Meola--were given tryouts by teams in the English League earlier this year and could join European clubs after the World Cup. Ramos, in fact, already has an offer on the table.

“I’ve been talking to a team (believed to be Roda S.C.) in the Netherlands for the last three weeks,” he said. “They’ve offered me a three-year contract, but I don’t want to commit for that long a time.”

Ramos said the loss to the Czechs might have hurt some players’ chances of gaining a pro contract. If a club is interested in a player, he said, it looks for individual skills and tries to assess them in view of its needs. How the U.S. team performs is not necessarily a factor.

Nor does Ramos believe the United States is thought of as a pushover by the other teams in its group.

“If other teams think of us in that manner, then that’s their problem, or their prerogative,” he said. “I think we’re still a good team. We have our best players from America here. We try to do our best. We know that when we go back home we’re still going to be the best players there.

“So you have to put things in perspective. It’s nice to play at home where you can sort of be a star in your own country, but now we’re facing the world, and when we face the world the United States is a brand-new country when it comes to soccer.”

Ramos, who was born in Montevideo, Uruguay, where his father played professionally, was an All-American at St. Benedict’s Prep in Newark, N.J., and at North Carolina State. He first played for the Under-20 National Team when he was 15 and has been a regular on one U.S. team or another since then.

He represented the United States in the 1983 World Youth Championships in Mexico, the 1983 Pan American Games in Venezuela, the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul, South Korea, and the first Five-a-Side (Indoor) World Championships in the Netherlands last year.

He is a creative force in the U.S. midfield, with the ability to take on opponents one-on-one and to beat them with skillful dribbling or a quick change of pace or direction. He said he already has learned a lot from this World Cup, but the memory of the opening game against the Czechs remains the most vivid.

“The thing that caught me and got me really excited was our bus ride to the stadium,” he said. “We kept seeing Czech flags all over the city and people walking around with Czech flags. Then we got to the stadium and saw all those American flags.

“I have to tell you, we were as ready for that game as anyone will ever be. We came out and for the first 20 minutes we played as well as we can play. We had a couple of opportunities to score, but we didn’t. That’s the way it goes. Over the 90 minutes, the Czechs were a much better team and that’s why they won.

“The intensity at the World Cup is a lot higher. Every player goes all-out on every play. Every play is very important to every player.

“I think the experience I got out of the game was that every time I got the ball I got fouled. That’s just the bottom line. Whether there was a call or whether I got away from the guy, I still got fouled. That’s something that we have to learn at home. That’s something that our leagues have to bring up.

“The way they (top international teams) cool the game down is by fouling every time you start to attack. It’s not a bad foul, it’s just something that stops the play and allows the whole defense to get back and it’s very hard for us to penetrate.

“I think on one play my shirt stretched about five yards. I was about five yards ahead of the guy. There wasn’t a (holding) foul called there. It’s just something you have to get used to, and that’s why I really do want to play in Europe. It takes a lot of experience. I think with a year or two under my belt I will do better in the next Cup if I get the opportunity.”

Ramos said the other countries playing in the World Cup have little or no comprehension of the difficulties American players have to overcome, most noticeable being the lack of a viable professional league in the United States.

“I think the other teams have no idea what we’ve gone through,” he said. “If we were any other country and we lost, 5-1, we couldn’t go home. We’re in a situation where if we lose (all three matches), we’ll go home and at Kennedy Airport people won’t know who we are anyway.”

A prime example of the relative anonymity of the U.S. players occurred last November when the team left Florida for its final, vital qualifying match against Trinidad and Tobago, Ramos said.

“When we left Miami Airport, the lady at the counter said, ‘Will the Miami Soccer Club please get on the plane.’ And when we got to Trinidad there were 5,000 fans at the airport yelling and screaming, ‘No way, U.S.A.’ at 1 o’clock in the morning.

“That’s the difference. In other countries, when the national team plays, the whole country shuts down. Our country’s just too big for that. There’s too many other things going on. Soccer will never be as big as it is in other countries, but I think there’s a little room for it.

“Soccer is a way of life everywhere but in the United States. It’s something you live with. Your team loses, you cry. Your team wins, you don’t even go to work because you’re so happy. You just want to yell and scream all day.

“That’s the way it is. It’ll never be that way (in the United States), but hopefully we’ll get the sport to the point where people will want to go watch it.

“I think the most important thing is going to be after 1994. Because the American people are going to love the World Cup in 1994. They just are. It’s a great event and they’re going to love every game.”

Before that happens, however, a little education must take place, Ramos said, and the U.S. players must play a key role.

“I think the scope of this World Cup is something that Americans have really no idea about,” he said. “They don’t know what a World Cup is all about. That’s not something to be frustrated about; that’s something that’s going to take years. I think during the next four years it’s very important that our players do their job not only on the field trying to become better players but also off the field in trying to promote the game. By 1994, hopefully with the guys playing in Europe, we’ll have a very good team.”

Another crucial element, Ramos said, is the success of the American Professional Soccer League, still a fledgling outfit at the moment but vital to the sport’s future in North America after the 1994 World Cup.

“If we can’t catch up by then,” Ramos said, “then we really have no hope.”