WORLD CUP USA ’94 ROUND OF 16 : COMMENTARY : The Real Winners From Round One: Cup Organizers
The first round of World Cup USA ’94 fulfilled practically all the hopes of the organizers. It had the largest crowds in World Cup history, and they were enthusiastic and good-natured--even in heat that ranged from searing to merely slow, moist baking. It had surprises, especially America’s stunning defeat of Colombia. And it had spell-binding soccer.
The first round showed a more spirited kind of soccer than the host Italians--and the world--saw four years ago. There have been more goals, more playing to win, less playing to tie. The games have moved faster, with fewer histrionic injuries.
All this is due, at least in part, to rule changes FIFA made to pull the first part of the tournament out of the doldrums.
The new rule prohibiting the goalkeeper from picking up the ball if passed to him by his own teammates reduced the number of backward passes. It added some tension whenever the goalkeeper was obliged to act like another field player in playing the ball with his feet and clearly added fluidity to the game.
Awarding the winning teams three points instead of the traditional two placed a premium on winning and enabled some teams--such as Russia and Bulgaria--that had seemed hopelessly out of contention for the round of 16 to compete for it until the last day of the opening round.
The fact that only eight teams were eliminated in the first round and four third-place teams advanced caused some of the last games to encourage an excessively complicated mathematics. For example, when Mexico played Italy it knew that if it scored one goal it was likely to advance so long as it did not lose; Italy required two goals and a tie (of course, a victory would solve its problem). Mexico achieved its objective by tying, 1-1, and Italy was saved at the last minute by the collapse of Cameroon against Russia, 6-1.
World Cup ‘98, which will be played in France, will not have this problem. Instead of 24 teams, which must be whittled down by an elaborate point system to 16 for the second round, there will be 32 teams in the first round, playing in eight groups of four. The round of 16 will be composed of the two top teams in each group.
A few more rule changes would open up the game even more--perhaps some modification of the offside rule. As of now, the low scores reflect not so much defensive tactics as the superb conditioning of the athletes. This enables all 10 field players both to attack and to defend, thus at times producing a congestion in front of the mouth of the goal, leading too often to scores from defensive mistakes.
In the opening round, there was a marked contrast between the almost scientific European style and the more imaginative brand of soccer associated with Latin America.
Fortunately, each group had a representative of that style. In addition to Brazil, Argentina and Mexico played fast and aggressively. Two African teams, Nigeria and Cameroon, applied the same style and played with tremendous verve, at least until the Cameroonians fell apart against Russia.
The big and pleasant surprise was the style of Saudi Arabia and Morocco, which played a fluid and attractive game. Saudi Arabia deservedly advanced, and Morocco was not far from doing so, even though it won no games. A little more experience will put it over the top.
Brazil, which to its grief experimented with the European style four years ago, has become its old exuberant self. Against Russia, against the unlucky Cameroonians, Brazil sent waves of successful attacks. It contented itself with the tie it needed against a dogged and muscular Sweden when Romario displayed his and Brazil’s style at its best with a dazzling goal.
The favorite before the first round, Brazil still looks like one of the very best. Its principal weakness seems to be a tendency to exhaust itself in ballhandling and to forget that scoring is the ultimate purpose.
Argentina, the champion in 1986 and the runner-up in 1990, looked good, too. It played a most attractive game in the first round. But Diego Maradona’s forced departure for a failed drug test will probably hurt his team, which will surely miss his pinpoint passing.
Nigeria seems not far behind. Judging by Cameroon in 1990 and Nigeria this year, African soccer shares qualities of Latin soccer: imagination, drive, a certain beauty. The prospect of more good African teams over the next years is a boost for the future of the game. In future World Cups, the African champion will, in all likelihood, be among the semifinalists.
The European style of soccer is sinking in stereotypes. You watch a team like Norway’s for instance, with great sympathy for the players and their fans, but with impatience with such a defensive style that quickly becomes boring.
You cannot, however, readily call Germany boring, because Germany, as always, brings to the game discipline, thoroughness and skill. But in the first two games of the first round, it seemed much too hackneyed, perhaps because this is essentially the same team that played four years ago. The players do all the right things--more than any other team they open up the entire field. They supply textbook lessons of “total soccer.” But in the first round they lacked allure and conviction.
For the first 30 minutes of the game against plucky South Korea, Germany, led by Juergen Klinsmann, put on a great show of aggressive soccer. But then it wilted in the face of a combination of heat and determined South Korean attacks and nearly blew a three-goal lead. You had to wonder if Germany was too spent to grind through the tournament to the end. But then in the first game of the second round, Germany revived with a handsome game and beat a determined Belgium, 3-2.
Italy is a strange team. No team has better players man for man; they are surely the highest paid in the tournament. Their technical skills are extraordinary; no team controls the ball better or passes it more skillfully.
But Italy has lacked drive. Its attacks avoided contact, and it rarely dribbled the ball past opponents, perhaps because its leading player, Roberto Baggio, has a strained Achilles’ tendon. In none of its games did Italy show the daring that all the fans of the Azzurri have come to associate with its great teams.
Unless it repeats its recovery of 1982, when after a poor first round it emerged as the class and champion of the tournament, it will not even get to the semifinals.
Switzerland, Ireland, Romania, Belgium, the Netherlands, Sweden and Spain all went into the second round, as did Mexico--back in the World Cup after its exclusion for infractions by the country’s youth soccer program. Mexico tied Italy, 1-1, by playing with heart and determination.
Among the pleasant surprises was South Korea’s courageous struggle against much stronger teams that have much more experience, Spain and Germany. Its 2-2 tie with Spain and its 3-2 loss to Germany in the torrid Cotton Bowl gave the team much to be proud of as it left the tournament. South Korea’s performance was a beacon for the future of Asian soccer.
Among the disappointing surprises was Colombia’s unhappy fizzle. The team was acclaimed as the new Brazil. No less an authority than Pele predicted that Colombia would win the championship.
Only in its last game, against Switzerland, which it beat 2-0, did Colombia show the drive and flair that had made it famous. But Romania ran over it, 3-1, and then the United States, the beginners, the kids without a soccer tradition, the almost certain fourth-place finishers in their group of four, stunned Colombia, themselves and the world by winning, 2-1.
It wasn’t just that the Colombians played badly; they did indeed. But the U.S. team played well, aggressively and intelligently. It deserved the victory it got.
It was a victory that, we hope, will make a lasting contribution to the future of soccer in the United States. It was a victory that we don’t believe should be overshadowed by America’s 1-0 loss to Romania in a game in which the predictions about U.S. inexperience came all too true.
To have come to the round of 16 is a great thing for the American team and American soccer. To have come this far, only to find yourself staring straight into the eyes of the great Brazil on the Fourth of July in Stanford Stadium--well, it is the ultimate confirmation that America has reached the big leagues of soccer.
