WORLD CUP USA ’94 / ROUND OF 16 : SPOTLIGHT : IS U.S. PLAYING BRAZIL OR BOLIVIA?

On the U.S.-Brazil game today in Palo Alto:

“The script is unimprovable. America, the giant nation with the pygmy soccer team, defies all expectations to reach the last 16 of the World Cup it is hosting. The opponents: the great and glamorous Brazil, the one name in soccer potent enough to penetrate even the North American sports consciousness. The date: the Fourth of July, what other? . . .

“Can America win? Of course not. Even the Disney studios would laugh at such a scenario. . . . Having lived a brief and eventful life and caught the public imagination with their run for freedom, the soccer outlaws will meet a sticky but visually satisfying end at the hands of too many South Americans. Just like Butch Cassidy and the Sundance kid. Who are these guys, anyway?”