WORLD CUP USA ’94 / THE FIRST ROUND : They Told US--We Didn’t Listen
I suppose Alexi Lalas of the United States of America said it best, when he said:
“AYYYYYYYYYY!”
Which is U.S.-ese for: “Who says we can’t play this game?”
Bogus team 2, Bogota team 1!
South America, take that away. Pardon my jingoism, but what happened Wednesday at the Rose Bowl was the sporting equivalent of cave people discovering fire. Colombia, the up-and-comer of the subcontinent, the team that Pele called the “best in South America,” the team that Bolivia’s coach called “the best team in the world,” was conquered in a game of soccer by . . . us ???
Lead-footed, dead-headed, soccer-backward us?
Yes, us.
“A great day for U.S. soccer,” said the first man to encounter Lalas after the game.
Whereupon Alexi screamed.
A primeval scream. An all-out, eee-aaa, from-the-diaphragm, “One Million Years B.C.,” “2001: A Space Odyssey,” this-is-how-the-world-begins kind of scream.
“Boy, that feels good!” Lalas said. “That feels good!”
Moments before, the orange-goateed, dust-mop-tressed, 25-year-old, rock-group guitarist could be seen prancing across the Pasadena pasture wearing an American flag as a cowl. Nearby was his teammate, ponytailed Tony Meola, keeper of the goal, who had thwarted practically everything the increasingly desperate Colombians kicked in his direction. Meola was dragging a flag behind him the way Superman drags a cape.
Three cheers for the red, white and blue.
Mike Sorber, American midfielder: “People said it couldn’t be done, and we did it.”
Paul Caligiuri, American defender: “We united soccer in the United States. We made people believe in us.”
Ernie Stewart, American forward: “This is a once-in-a-lifetime thing. I almost started crying.”
Although the stolid little Air Force brat Stewart was at that particular moment truthfully speaking of the goal he scored--the game-breaker, as things turned out--his words were suitable for the entire occasion. For this was a triumph of considerable consequence in American sport, a real eye-opener that would have a “permanent impact” on the Republic’s standing in the world’s most popular pastime, to use U.S. soccer federation bigwig Alan Rothenberg’s description.
Lalas had a few of his own.
“It’s incredible. It’s historical. I think we were the only ones who thought it was possible,” Lalas said. “We knew that we had to stifle them, frustrate them, then look for the counterattack, which is basically what happened. It’s an indescribable feeling to be a part of such a historical day.
“I guess this proves it.
“Any country can beat any country.”
Alas, this is really, really, really bad news down Colombia way, where there is no joy in Bogotaville tonight. The Colombians are 0-2 and hanging on by their toenails. Their overnight stardom and growing reputation as soccer’s Team of Tomorrow has been summarily trashed. The same players who recently went 28 games without a defeat now are laboring for a coach so exasperated that he says Colombia couldn’t have done any worse “if we had tried on purpose.” Ay, caramba .
Could this be the same team that gave Argentina a 5-0 drubbing only a few months ago? The same players to whom Colombia’s president, Cesar Gaviria, personally presented the country’s highest civilian medal of honor, the Boyaca Cross? The same bunch that had elevated so many expectations in Colombia that the coach, Francisco Maturana, shook his head before the tournament and said, loosely translated: “We’re screwed. Now we’ve got to be champions of the world.”
They won’t be.
Colombia couldn’t even compete with the United States, except maybe for the prize for worst haircuts. Everything turned out so cockeyed that they even started knocking the ball into the other team’s net. By the time Maturana was asked whether he considered substituting for Carlos Valderrama, the guy with the tumbleweed on his head, the coach more or less said, no, what he really needed was a substitute for everybody carrying a Colombian passport.
He too felt like screaming.
Different kind.
“Any country can beat any country.” The new battle cry of World Cup ’94.
