Milutinovic Simply Translates to Success : Soccer: Yugoslav coach makes an instant winner of once-beaten U.S. team, which will play Honduras for Gold Cup tonight.
In searching for a coach to lead the host United States into the 1994 World Cup, it took the U.S. Soccer Federation officials longer to learn how to pronounce his name than it did to make Bora Milutinovic the leading candidate.
Who among the coaches available was more qualified than Milutinovic, who became known in the sport as something of a miracle worker after going to the World Cup quarterfinals with Mexico in 1986 and to the second round four years later with Costa Rica?
Miracle-working ranked high on the USSF’s list of prerequisites.
But he had one liability that the critics said might prevent him from achieving similar success with U.S. players. He did not speak much English.
He did, however, speak enough when he was hired as the national coach in March to respond in perfect English to those who asked about the potential for confusion. “No problem,” he said.
A native Yugoslav, it was no problem for him to learn Russian in school, French while playing in Monaco and France, Italian while coaching in Italy and Spanish while coaching in Mexico.
As for English, he said that, until he mastered his sixth language, he would get by, which is what he was doing during a recent practice at Cal State Dominguez Hills. Noticing defender Paul Caligiuri, who recently returned to the national team after playing last season in East Germany’s first division, meandering up the field with the ball, Milutinovic ordered, “ Spiel! Spiel! “
That is German for “Play! Play!”
If the sport is significantly more complex than that, it has not seemed like it to the U.S. players since Milutinovic arrived. Casting off the safe but encumbering soccer-by-the-numbers style that they learned under the previous coach, Bob Gansler, they have been liberated by Milutinovic’s confidence in them to open the throttle when the opportunity presents itself and attack, as it is done on the playgrounds of South America and Europe.
Play! Play!
Do they ever. In nine games under Coach Bora, as he likes to be called, the United States has lost only once, and that was by 1-0 to 1990 World Cup runner-up Argentina. Before 41,103 Friday night at the Coliseum, in the semifinals of the Confederation of North and Central American and Caribbean Association Football Gold Cup, the team beat Mexico, 2-0, for only the third time in 26 games since 1934 and for the first time since 1980.
If the United States beats Honduras in tonight’s 6 p.m. final at the Coliseum, after the Mexico-Costa Rica game for third place at 4 p.m., it will be the first time since the USSF began keeping records in 1885 that the team has won five consecutive full international games.
Success has come so quickly that USSF officials no longer pester Milutinovic about combing his hair, which, like him, has a rather independent nature.
Yet he insisted last week that his only goal for this tournament was to play consistent, entertaining soccer and reach the semifinals.
“We want to play good and win,” he said. “But the (goal) is not this Cup. It is World Cup in ’94.”
Between now and the summer of 1993, when he plans to put his World Cup team together, he said that he wants to learn as much as possible about all the players in the United States while they learn about him.
It has been only a few weeks since they were introduced, but so far the players and Milutinovic seem to like each other.
In practices, the 46-year-old former Yugoslav national team midfielder dresses in a sweat suit and plays as well as he coaches during scrimmages, good-naturedly taking more ribbing than anyone else when his shots soar off target. While he stops play occasionally to instruct players on the decisions they have made with the ball, his most frequent advice is, “C’mon, boys, have fun.”
Midfielder Bruce Murray, who has been with the national team for more games than anyone else in history, said that the atmosphere is conducive for learning the basics that many U.S. players have missed in their development.
“He’s picking everyone’s game apart, taking everyone back,” Murray said. “We’re going to learn the basics all over. He’s really starting from the ground up.”
UCLA midfielder Chris Henderson, the youngest player on the team at 20, had an opportunity to play full time with the Olympic team, which is for players under 23. But at the risk of burning out, he decided to shuttle between the Olympic team and the national team.
“Every day with Bora is such a learning experience,” he said.
Milutinovic said that he has always admired U.S. players for their spirit.
“The skill, the tactics is not so good,” he said during a recent interview at Osteria Orsini Romano, a Pico Boulevard restaurant where the Italian, soccer-fanatic owner treats Milutinovic as if he is the biggest star in town. “But American boys in good shape, run all day. They never quit. That is good.”
Milutinovic acknowledged that he has been somewhat distracted during the Gold Cup because of the civil strife in his native country. Born in Bajina Basta, Serbia, he, his four brothers and a sister were brought up by an aunt after their parents were killed during World War II. Two of his brothers also played for Yugoslavia’s national team, and one, Milos, coaches Belgrade’s famous team, Partizan.
Before arriving at Orsini’s, Milutinovic placed a call to his family and learned that everyone was safe. But, as always, he declined to discuss the situation in Yugoslavia.
“I am soccer coach, not politician,” he said.
Asked if there is anything else in life he would rather be doing than coaching soccer, he thought for a few moments and gave up.
“I have perfect life,” he said. “I go all over world, talk to people and coach football.”
Five years ago, he married Maria del Carmen Mendez of Mexico, and they have a 4-year-old daughter, Darinka, who is named after his mother. The family will retain its Mexico City villa, but also plans to buy a house soon in Mission Viejo.
The interview had not progressed far before Milutinovic pulled out his wallet and began showing off pictures of his daughter.
A waiter stopped at the table long enough to tell him, in Italian, that the young girl is very beautiful. All of the waiters spoke Italian to Milutinovic, who translated for one of the guests at his table, in Spanish. It was not long before he was carrying on a conversation with a female diner, in French.
“You see my problem?” he said, feigning exasperation. “How can I learn when nobody speak English to me in Los Angeles?”
Somehow, one guesses, he will survive.
