WORLD CUP USA ’94 / THE FIRST ROUND : Romania Puts U.S. in Its Place--3rd : Group A: Early goal can’t be overcome at sweltering Rose Bowl. Bickering Americans still not assured of reaching the second round.
“The bandwagon was going way too fast for us.”
Tab Ramos said it and everyone was thinking it. The U.S. soccer party bus careened off the road Sunday, losing to Romania, 1-0, in a caldron of heat and recrimination at the Rose Bowl.
It was not a game the United States should have lost. Even as the events of the day placed the team behind the wheel of its destiny, the team lost control. Before the game, both Romania and the United States needed only a tie and one point to advance out of the first round, placing the United States at least second in the group. If ever a team would have accommodated a tying goal, it was Romania.
Plus, Colombia was beating Switzerland in Palo Alto, meaning if the United States could tie Romania, it could win Group A, stay at home and play a lowly third-place team in the second round.
As it is, Romania wins the group with six points, Switzerland is second and the United States is one of the lowly third-place teams, with the control over its fate left to other teams playing in other cities. So much slipped away so fast for the U.S. team that it underlines the power of one goal, which brought the United States from first to third place.
The earliest the United States can know if it has advanced is Tuesday. There are a number of complicated scenarios, but what the American team is hoping is that only three other third-place teams finish with four points.
In addition to having no idea if it has advanced to the second round, the United States faces the most unpleasant of scenarios if it does get through: It will play either Brazil or Germany in the second round. Choose your poison.
“Do you want to dive off the top of a building or do you want to jump off a bridge?” Ramos said, asked which team he preferred to play. “At least if you jump off a bridge you fall into water. But the result is the same. Brazil is the bridge.”
On either road lies probable soccer suicide, but that was already committed by the U.S. team on Sunday, in front of a crowd of 93,869 in searing temperatures. Official reports placed the temperature at field level at 115 degrees.
The crowd was the largest to see the national team in the United States. In addition to the fans present in Pasadena, the game was expected to draw one of the largest television audiences ever for soccer.
That was murder for the sport, too, as the game featured the worst the sport has to offer. Once Romania scored, in the 18th minute, the team’s sole purpose became to pack nine men back on defense and protect its lead.
Unattractive, but a necessary tactic to advance. It was something the United States would have done had it been able to score.
“There’s absolutely nothing wrong with what they did,” U.S. goalkeeper Tony Meola said. “They did what they had to do. They are on top of the group.”
Not that the team needed any additional problems, but it will not have the services of John Harkes if there is a next game. Harkes received his second yellow card of the tournament Sunday and must sit out one game. Florin Raducioiu of Romania also received his second yellow card and will miss Romania’s next game, Sunday at the Rose Bowl.
All of the Americans’ old problems came back to haunt them, as well as a few new ones. The team, especially the defense, was stretched and not compact, a problem it had in its first game against Switzerland.
The new wrinkle was an ugly one. Dissension on the U.S. team has rarely been as evident as it was Sunday, both among the players on the field and between the players and coaches. When Marcelo Balboa attempted to peel Harkes off the referee after the yellow card, Harkes turned his wrath on Balboa.
Players such as Ramos and Ernie Stewart can’t be happy that they are rarely getting the ball. The defensive players, particularly Balboa, are constantly repositioning the midfielders, who don’t enjoy the scolding.
No one on the U.S. team seemed pleased with Coach Bora Milutinovic’s game plan, and Ramos, for one, didn’t think there was one.
“Game plan? No, we didn’t talk about anything. We never do. To tell you the truth, I don’t know if it was the right thing to do (to press for a win from the beginning rather than staying back and going for a tie). They (Romania) would have done the same and we would have been in the second round.
“I’m glad the game ended up the way it did. They were a better team today.”
Romania, which would have been satisfied with a tie, was better at what it intended to do, which became evident after Dan Petrescu scored, beating Meola to the near post.
The best scoring chance for the United States had come earlier from Harkes, whose shot hit the post.
Milutinovic’s late-game substitutions showed he was serious about pushing it up--forward Roy Wegerle came in for midfielder Mike Sorber and speedy wing Cobi Jones replaced Ramos.
But there were few chances in the second half. Both came, as expected, off restarts. Thomas Dooley took an in-swinging corner kick and snapped a header that went just wide. Stewart also had a chance off a corner and Eric Wynalda came close with a free kick.
After the game, most of the players talked about the overwhelming nature of the team’s public attention in the last week. Most spoke of attempting to cling to the bandwagon as it hurtled along.
Ramos also talked pointedly about the importance of being humble.
“I don’t think we remembered that we had to be humble,” he said. “I didn’t like the atmosphere. We are the underdogs all the way. We must remember that.”
Perhaps the U.S. team succumbed to the oldest and easiest pitfall for a newly arrived star--it fell for the hype and believed itself to be something other than a team of young men who must always work hard for what they get.
Looking Ahead for the United States
For the United States to not qualify for the second round, third-place teams in at least four other groups would have to have at least four points and better goal differentials. That means at least four of these five scenarios would have to occur:
1--Cameroon beats Russia by at least three goals and Sweden does not lose by more than one goal to Brazil.
2--South Korea beats Germany by one goal and Germany scores at least two and Spain beats Bolivia, or South Korea beats Germany by one goal and Germany scores at least two and Bolivia beats Spain by at least two goals.
3--Bulgaria ties or beats Argentina and Nigeria ties or beats Greece.
4--Either Ireland-Norway or Italy-Mexico ends in a victory and the other game ends in a tie, with the tie game finishing 3-3 or higher, or both games end 3-3 or higher.
5--Saudi Arabia beats Belgium or plays a 1-1 or higher tie and the Netherlands beats Morocco or plays a 2-2 or higher tie.
