WORLD CUP USA ’94 / ROUND OF 16 : Proud Argentina Bloodied but Unbowed : Commentary: Team fights valiantly to stay alive in tournament, but terrific performances by Romania’s Hagi and Dumitrescu prove to be too much.

We cry for you, Argentina.

You played in a soccer game for the ages Sunday, played with what your coach called “fire and vigor” and still, despite the wondrousness of a Romanian team that just gets better and better, you kept trying.

The truth is, you never left us.

You were a team that came as one of the favorites to win World Cup ‘94, and you had to persevere through injury and the distraction of the loss of your superstar, Maradona, to yet another drug scandal.

But few teams, with or without Maradona, could have been prepared for the kind of magic you faced at the Rose Bowl on Sunday in Gheorghe Hagi and Ilie Dumitrescu, who turned a soccer game into a basketball fast break. This was a series of two-on-ones and three-on-ones, with Magic Johnson in the middle and Michael Jordan running one of the wings. And you never stopped chasing and breaking on your own.

When it ended, and Romania had won, 3-2, the true measure of this World Cup classic was the scene on the field, a litter of exhausted and drained bodies. Even at the end, you were there, in your blue-striped uniforms, scattered amid Romanians in yellow jerseys, with the same look of total physical and emotional fatigue they had.

Perhaps not until the Romanians regrouped near midfield 10 minutes after the match had ended and formed a yellow circle of celebration, dancing and bouncing and rotating all at once, would the reality set in for you. Argentina is out of the World Cup.

As for fortune, and as for fame, you never invited them in.

But there you were, in front of 90,496 people and millions more on television, facing a team that began the tournament with low expectations and has developed into a team that clearly can win it all. You had the reputation, but it now seems that they have the players. Hagi made a 40-yard goal against Colombia that darted and dipped into the goal like it had been steered by remote control. Then Dumitrescu did the same thing against you on a free kick that had only one spot of the goal it could reach untouched and, over the defensive line and over your goalkeeper and still under the crossbar it went. More Romanian remote control.

With your star, Maradona, 50 rows up in the stands and on the wrong side of the television cameras, your young Arnaldo Ortega dribbled and crossed and started and ended runs toward the Romanian goal. He wasn’t Maradona, but he might be someday.

Your midfielder, Fernando Redondo, might have said it best for all of you:

“This team’s attitude was outstanding. Even when we were down, 3-1, and Romania was pulling back on defense, we continued to attack. We have nothing to apologize for. We gave everything, down to the last drop of sweat.”

All through your wild days, your mad existence, you kept your promise.

In a sport that all too often is missing them, yours was a game of dozens of chances. This was run-and-shoot soccer. If somebody looks closely, they will see paint chipped off the goalposts and cross bars. It was excitement. It was showtime in Los Angeles and the Lakers weren’t anywhere around.

And yet you lost, on a day that soccer fans worldwide will remember for the intensity of play and the effort put forth on both sides.

“Even though we were defeated,” defender Oscar Ruggeri said, “we have to keep our heads high. We earned that today.”

In defeat, you earned the respect of millions, including the man whose team sent you home to Buenos Aires, Romanian Coach Anghel Iordanescu.

“Even though they (Argentina) are no longer in the tournament,” he said, “they are still one of the best teams to play in it.”

That’s why we cry for you, Argentina.