BARCELONA ’92 OLYMPICS : U.S. Hangs Tough; the Only Blowout Comes Afterward : Soccer: Feud between American coach and his leading scorer reaches new heights.

Steve Snow, the most prolific scorer on the U.S. Olympic soccer team, sat quietly on the bench Friday night, watching as heavily favored Italy won the tournament’s opening match, 2-1. But Snow made plenty of noise afterward as his feud with U.S. Coach Lothar Osiander erupted. Again.

It’s gotten so bad that Osiander said Snow would not play again in the Olympics until he apologizes.

This was merely the first game of the 16-team tournament, played a day before the opening ceremony. And even though Osiander had all but announced earlier this week that his strategy was to play for a tie and the Americans were not given much hope of keeping it close against an explosive Italian team, they performed beyond expectations.

In fact, after a nervous start, the U.S. team scored on a free kick by Joe-Max Moore in the 65th minute and attacked the Italians to such an extent that they spent the last half of the match retreating to their end.

So, the expected blowout didn’t materialize. The only blowout was the one after the game.

Osiander said Thursday that he wouldn’t start Snow because of his strategy of playing defensively against Italy. Snow, 21, is a scorer. Since joining the under-23 national team, he has scored 19 goals in 18 games.

Osiander’s problem with Snow is not scoring, but attitude. The coach once referred to Snow as a “cocky little twerp” and makes it clear that he expects Snow to do his share on defense, a role Snow doesn’t like.

Osiander also points out that Snow lacks sufficient speed to help on defense.

Friday night, Snow suggested that if it’s speed he wants, Osiander should ask the coach of the U.S. Olympic track team if he can borrow a sprinter or two.

“His idea of a perfect soccer player is a track guy,” Snow said.

Osiander handled, with a calm resignation, the inevitable postgame questions regarding his decision not to start Snow. Even after Italy’s two unanswered goals in the first half, Osiander said he believed his team could come back and stayed with his plan to use Snow during the second half. However, injuries to Troy Dyak and Michael Huwiler used the two substitutions allowed each team per game. Osiander noted that to substitute Snow for Huwiler after Huwiler’s injury would be substituting out of position.

Snow questioned the strategy.

“Everyone agrees that I should have been on the field,” Snow said. “Even if he didn’t start me for defensive reasons, when you’re down two goals and you don’t put in your best goal scorer . . . I have no idea what he is thinking.

“Now, our chances are so much worse of getting through (group play) to the second round. He sits out his best player and he expects me to carry the team the next two games, like I always have. That’s so ridiculous. We could have very easily gotten a tie out of this game.”

Osiander said Snow hasn’t adhered to team rules regarding team play and defense. Osiander also said that, when he informed Snow two days ago that he wouldn’t be starting, the player swore at the coach.

“If he wants to play,” Osiander said, “he can apologize.”

Said Snow: “I’m not kissing up to him just so I can get into a game.”

Contrary to Snow’s belief that his teammates wanted him on the field, most U.S. players chose not to comment on Osiander’s decision.

One who did was Snow’s Olympic roommate, the injured Alexi Lalas.

“If he thinks he could have come in and dribbled by himself through five Italian players, he’s sorely mistaken,” Lalas said. “If scoring points gets you on the field, then Steve Snow should have been on the field. But if attitude and support of your teammates is the concern, then Steve shouldn’t just sit on the bench, he should be back in the United States.”

The U.S. debut, before an announced crowd of 18,000 at historic Nou Camp Stadium, home of the famed FC Barcelona soccer team, was a face-saving effort. Even the Italian coach, Cesare Maldini, offered Osiander a back-handed compliment by saying he was surprised at how well the Americans played.

Snow was right about one thing. The American loss makes it that much harder to advance out of Group A. Three points should get a team into the second round. A victory is worth two points, a tie worth one.

In the U.S. group, Poland is in first by virtue of its 2-0 victory over Kuwait later Friday night, Italy is second and the United States third. The U.S. team will play Kuwait on Monday night at Zaragoza.

Soccer Notes

U.S. Soccer Federation President Alan Rothenberg, who attended the U.S.-Italy match, said that a decision is expected soon on the selection of a permanent training site for the U.S. national soccer team. Mission Viejo and Orlando, Fla., are the finalists. Rothenberg said Bora Multinovich, national team coach, prefers the proposed site at Mission Viejo, saying it fits in more precisely with the selection goal of 12 months of mild weather.