He Looks Toward ‘94--and Beyond : Soccer: UCLA’s Chris Henderson, who was a member of the U.S. World Cup team, wants to play on ’94 team and possibly professionally after that.

UCLA’s Chris Henderson learned a valuable lesson as a member of the United States soccer team in the 1990 World Cup in Italy: Other nations play for keeps.

Henderson, a sophomore from Everett, Wash., didn’t play a minute in the three World Cup matches the U.S. played--and lost. But he had a good view from the bench.

What he saw convinced him that American players will have to get a lot better--and a lot tougher--if they hope to win a match or two when the 1994 World Cup is held in the U.S.

One of three collegians on the U.S. team, Henderson said that a 5-1 rout by Czechoslovakia in the opening round of World Cup play was an eye-opener.

“For our players, it was a shock,” he said. “We knew it wasn’t a friendly match like the ones we had in practice matches with Poland and Malta. (In the World Cup) they play for everything.

“The Czechs were very physical. We would get the ball at midfield, and they would either shove us off the ball and take it or shove us off and get a foul call. We couldn’t get any rhythm going.”

In their second match, the U.S. players, whose average age of 24 was the youngest of all the teams, surprised the world--and probably themselves--by taking prohibitive favorite Italy out of its game. The Americans lost, 1-0, but it was the kind of loss they could savor as they competed evenly with the host team.

Henderson said that the close loss to Italy “restored our pride. Italy was the home country and had the crowd support.”

“But it was the most fascinating experience I’ve ever had,” he said. “There were 80,000 people singing songs, and there must have been 70,000 flags in the crowd. I was sitting on the bench getting chills wanting to be in there.”

He thinks that he never played in any World Cup matches not because he lacks ability, but because of his youth. In a practice match with Liechtenstein, he said, he showed he could compete. He played the entire 90 minutes and scored his first international goal as the U.S. won, 4-1.

At 19, the UCLA midfielder was the youngest player among all the teams in the World Cup. “I got a lot of attention over there, mostly from the foreign press,” he said. “When I was growing up all the Italian and German players were my idols. It was like a dream come true.”

Although he was disappointed that he didn’t play, he said that he profited by being on the U.S. team. “For me it was more of a learning experience than anything. Just being there is going to help me in international play.”

He said that being a member of the U.S. team helped him mature as a player. “I started with the team in January of 1990; the others had been playing together for two years,” he said. “But the more I was with the team, the more confident I got and the more the older players were confident in me.”

What were some of the lessons he learned in his view from the bench at the World Cup? For one thing, the differences between American and foreign playing fields makes a big difference in styles of play.

“Here we play on a lot of football fields; there the fields are larger, 120 yards long and 70 or 80 yards wide,” he said. “There are more one-on-one encounters, and you see how technical the players are when they take each other on one-on-one. You can see team tactics better and things like the German and Brazilian styles. Sometimes the fields here are so small that you can’t play any style.

“For wing players, if the fields are narrow, it closes everything off. Our field at UCLA is pretty wide, but most of the time we play on football fields at other colleges. That doesn’t make the game exciting to watch; it should be more opened-up.”

Since his return to UCLA, Henderson’s own game has opened up. In earning a letter playing for an 18-4-1 Bruin team last year, he scored only three goals, but he had seven assists to tie juniors Sam George and Cobi Jones for the team lead. This year his four goals and four assists make him the team’s third-leading scorer behind Bill Thompson’s six goals and five assists and Joe-Max Moore’s five goals and three assists. As the week began, UCLA was 6-0-1.

UCLA Sigi Schmid said that Henderson’s experience with the U.S. World Cup team has made him “a lot more confident, more eager to demand the ball. He wants the ball. He is also willing to shoulder more responsibility; he is not passing up shots but taking shots. In his freshman year, he was more willing to pass on the responsibility to someone else.”

Schmid said that although Henderson did not play in the World Cup, he still benefited.

“I think that any time you’re in that level of competition, whether you’re playing or not, in any sport, you gain from it,” he said. “Chris was the youngest player there, and he eventually would have gotten the same thing. But without a doubt, it accelerated the process.”

Henderson and the other college players who were on the U.S. team might be right on schedule in their bid to bring respectability to American soccer in international play. He and Wake Forest midfielder Neil Covone and University of Portland goalie Kasey Keller could form the nucleus of the U.S. Olympic team in 1992. They could also play important roles on the U.S. team for the 1994 World Cup.

Henderson hopes to play beyond 1994, preferably for a professional team in Europe. He wants to emulate former UCLA star Paul Caligiuri and other members of the 1990 U.S. World Cup team who recently signed with European pro teams.

“As long as I can play, I want to, especially after 1994,” he said. “That’s what I’ve been building up to.”