WORLD CUP ’94 / 13 DAYS AND COUNTING : Mexico Rejoins the World : After Being Banned From 1990 Event, Soccer-Loving Nation Is Eager for Revenge

Marcelino Garcia Paniagua shifts in his seat and squints slightly upon hearing the question, but he does not flinch. The president of the Mexican Football Federation--although he was not in charge at the time of the scandal--is accustomed to answering it.

The issue has been a source of shame to many Mexicans--the soccer-loving country’s humiliating two-year ban from international play in 1988 for falsifying documents and using four over-age players in qualifying for the world youth tournament.

“It was very, very embarrassing,” Paniagua said. “There was great suffering. The fans were sad. They wanted their team to represent them. The results were that FIFA decided to punish us. We were punished. The punishment reached our souls. Now, we are trying to do things the right way.”

After its brief but painful exile, Mexican soccer is back with a vengeance. With new leadership in the federation and a successful new coach, Mexico became the first team other than automatic qualifiers Germany and the United States to gain a place in this year’s World Cup.

Mexico plays its last tuneup game against the U.S. team today at the Rose Bowl at 4:30 p.m.

In the exhilaration of Mexico’s locker room after that qualifier against Canada in Toronto last spring, in the midst of the champagne spray and the players’ dancing children, the afternoon’s hero--soft-spoken Francisco Cruz--found the few words to express his joy.

“Today, Mexico is very happy,” he said. “Mexico has been waiting for this for so long. It is beautiful.”

The way back for Mexico has been hard, and made harder by the passion the country feels for its national team. But Mexican soccer is fueled by passion, and the team performs at its best when the odds are against it. Such was the situation in World Cup qualifying.

It began with the anthem and typical soccer gamesmanship. Mexico played at El Salvador in a qualifying match in April 1993, and the Salvadorans said they forgot to play the Mexican national anthem. The Mexicans took it as a national slight.

A month later in Toronto, before the decisive qualifier, the Mexican national anthem was played, but in a condensed version. Mexican fans did not miss a beat, though. Even after the music ceased to play over the public address system, they continued to sing as their national team stood at attention.

Only a week before, Mexico had been treated badly in Tegucigalpa, Honduras. Before that qualifying match, the Mexican team had been besieged at its hotel. Honduran fans camped outside the team hotel, honking horns, playing loud music and training high-powered lights on hotel windows.

When the Honduran team fell behind in its practice session and Mexico had to take the field later than scheduled, the stadium crew told the Mexicans their allotted time was up. When the Mexican team refused to leave, the sprinkler system was turned on.

“Everything is always against Mexico,” observed Hugo Sanchez, the team’s enduring star. “But we fight. We always fight.”

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The ties between neighbors bind, but sometimes they also chafe. The soccer fortunes of the United States and Mexico have been interestingly intertwined. Before the FIFA ban, the worst thing that had happened to Mexico in international soccer occurred during the 1987 Pan American Games at Indianapolis. During a foul-plagued game against Brazil, the Mexican team’s masseur ran onto the field and tripped a Brazilian player who was dribbling the ball. The masseur was sent home.

At the next Pan American Games in 1991, the U.S. and Mexican teams met for the championship in Havana. The U.S. team won, 2-1, and a melee erupted on the field afterward. The loss was shocking to Mexico, especially since it was the second at the hands of the United States in two months. The U.S. national team had earlier caused a sensation when it upset Mexico, 2-0, and won the CONCACAF Gold Cup in Los Angeles. The Mexican coach, Manuel Lapuente, resigned in shame the next day.

The incident of the Mexican masseur was of little consequence on the international scene. The same can’t be said for the scandal in 1988, though. That incident resulted in the resignations of both the president and vice president of the Mexican Football Federation. The ban also kept the Mexican Olympic team out of the 1988 Games at Seoul--the U.S. team went instead. Worse yet, a 3-0 loss to the U.S. team meant that Mexico would miss the 1992 Games at Barcelona.

By far the most agonizing period for Mexican soccer was during the 1990 World Cup in Italy. The United States and Costa Rica--the region’s soccer gnats--went, but Mexico, serving its FIFA penalty, was barred.

It was the first time in 40 years that the U.S. team had qualified for the World Cup tournament. Mexico had been such a power in the CONCACAF region that qualifying in ’90 probably would not have posed a challenge for a talented Mexican team.

To be kept out of the World Cup by on-field failure is acceptable to most athletes. But to be denied the opportunity to perform on sport’s biggest stage because of the ill-advised actions of others never is. To be replaced by an unworthy stand-in was a kind of horror that has not yet faded.

“I was both angry and embarrassed,” said Javier Aguirre, who was a national team player in 1990 and is now an assistant coach of the Mexican team. “I was angry because, as players, we couldn’t do anything about it. I wanted to go to Italy.

“I was embarrassed because to many people, being a Mexican meant being a cheater. But the players were not responsible. It was very frustrating to see Costa Rica and the United States play when we could have done better.”

In that context, it is difficult to underestimate the satisfaction Mexico experienced when it wrested back the Gold Cup by trouncing the U.S. national team, 4-0, here last July.

There was nothing subtle about the prevailing sentiment or significance of that game. The headline in one of Mexico City’s daily newspapers, El Nacional, the day after the victory was, “For Revenge.”

Mexicans need not have felt so strongly the need to win that game to re-establish their soccer superiority in the region. For all the recent surprises, the U.S. team has won only seven times, at any level, against Mexico.

Perhaps it was the timing. The game was played when Mexico was growing irritable with its pushy northern neighbor, which appeared to win everything.

Not the least of what the United States has gained at the expense of Mexico is Bora Milutinovic, the coach who led Mexico to its best World Cup finish, in 1986.

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Mexico was awarded the ’86 World Cup after the original host, Colombia, withdrew for financial reasons. FIFA entertained bids from Mexico, Canada and the United States and announced on May 20, 1983, that Mexico would have the tournament for the second time since 1970.

Mexicans were elated at the news, which in some quarters was celebrated as a victory over the United States. Some newspapers ran angry editorials, objecting to the 11th-hour intervention of former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, who had lobbied FIFA on behalf of the American effort.

Even with only three years to prepare, Mexico was in good shape for the World Cup, the nation’s $98-billion foreign debt notwithstanding. Having been host to the Olympic Games in 1968 and the World Cup in 1970, Mexico had to build only one new stadium among the 12 to be used.

The entire nation was looking forward to the event and everyone cooperated. The academic year was shortened and college entrance exams were moved up to avoid conflict with the May 31 opening game.

Everything appeared to be progressing on schedule until September 1985, when twin earthquakes hit Mexico City and, overnight, reduced parts of the city to twisted steel or rubble. More than 40,000 residents were suddenly homeless.

With overall inflation at 70%, there could not have been a worse time for government World Cup expenditures. With the added cost of earthquake repairs, most Mexicans quickly grew angry. When Mexican President Miguel de la Madrid presided over the opening game of the World Cup, he was booed.

But once Mexico’s team took the field, the nation was enveloped by soccer fog, and de la Madrid and inflation were forgotten. As the team progressed with surprising ease through the tournament, the nation dared to hope that it would win the championship.

It was a wish that went unfulfilled. Mexico lost in the quarterfinals to West Germany. Even though the team had succeeded beyond expectations, there was an audible sigh in Mexico. The fiesta was over and the joy that had filled the lives of Mexicans drained away.

According to the newspaper, Uno Mas Uno: “With the defeat, reality took over. The euphoria of 23 days has ended and we will have to live with the consequences now that the football curtain has fallen.”

The curtain has remained down for eight years, and Mexicans are ready for a new show.

Cle Kooiman, a defender on the U.S. national team, is the captain of Cruz Azul, a first-division professional team in Mexico City. He said the anticipation in the country is palpable.

“Definitely, they want to prove to the world that Mexican football is something to be reckoned with,” Kooiman said. “The team fully expects to make it past the first round. I think if they don’t, it will be tough for them to go home and face their fans. During the World Cup, everything--I mean the government--will stop and all the attention will focus on the national team.”

If history is any guide, all the country’s woes will be forgotten as the World Cup curtain rises once again. After being denied entrance to the show the last time, Mexico will not miss a moment of this tournament. And it doesn’t matter that, as usual, everything is against the Mexican team, which drew into the so-called “group of death,” with Italy, Ireland and Norway, and must play in the summer heat and humidity of Orlando, Fla., and Washington.

That helps, having something to fight against. It motivates.

“Revenge,” assistant coach Aguirre said, not laughing. “This is what we think of when we finally return. I think, as a country, it is very good for us to be in the World Cup. It is true that Mexico is going through a period of crisis in economic recovery. But we can help in keeping the people happy. This sounds romantic, but we can bring joy.”

U.S. vs. Mexico Game a Sellout

Today’s international soccer game between the United States and Mexico at the Rose Bowl is a sellout.

Officials said Friday that all 80,000 available tickets had been sold for the 4:30 p.m. game, the last warm-up for both teams before the World Cup.