WORLD CUP USA ‘94: ROUND OF 16 : It Was Their Finest Hour, for 74 Minutes

You don’t have the United States to kick around anymore.

It sure was fun, though. From the fateful moment shortly past noon when 22 soccer players from South America sashayed into this university football stadium, squeezing hands like schoolboys about to play ring-around-the-rosey, their feeling of confidence that there was no way in the World Cup that they really could be outplayed by these precocious North American candy-stripers gradually disappeared.

And OK, in reality they were not outplayed, winning the game, as we do willingly accept.

Ah, but what patience and extra effort it took for Bebeto, Romario and Brasil ‘94, who had to endure nearly 74 full minutes of scoreless stalemate and fruitless near-misses before finally breaking through. In the sunlight at Stanford Stadium, the hosts “scared the daylights” out of the haughty Brazilians, in the words of U.S. Soccer Federation President Alan Rothenberg, who could only imagine the number of people sweating out this result in Rio.

“This,” summarized Hugo Perez, a U.S. player originally from El Salvador, “could have been the greatest day in history in the sport of soccer in this country.”

And likely Brazil’s darkest.

In the end, though, the ultra-conservative play of the U.S. team could do little else but hold down the score. Twelve minutes into the contest, an acrobatic attempt by Thomas Dooley went barely awry, leaving teammate Alexi Lalas tangled in the netting, but not the ball. No other chance after Yankee Dooley’s dandy came so close to making this a holiday to remember.

The question was, was this a moral victory?

And the next question was, had U.S. soccer progressed past the point of moral victories?

Timo Liekoski, an assistant coach, tried to answer both. He said, “I think this was the game that Brazil feared the most. I’m absolutely sure that, psychologically, this was the most difficult game for them so far in this tournament. It must be a huge relief for them to get this one behind them.

“I really thought this could be the game that would surprise the world. But it wasn’t meant to be. Maybe someone’s telling us, ‘Just keep working and it will come.’ ”

So circle those calendars:

Paris, 1998.

Brazil will work harder and harder to become defending champions. The winners put one of the U.S. guys in the hospital Monday and were obligated to play short-handed because of it. A player named Leonardo, who henceforward can consider himself regarded as Leonardo di Vicious, whipped an elbow in the direction of Tab Ramos’ temple that makes him the new leader for Dirtiest Play of the Tournament.

Playing 10-against-11 for most of the second half, the Brazilians had to “leave the spectacle and play with our hearts,” as their gifted player Romario observed. No dirty plays are necessary in the repertoire of Super Romario, whose textbook pass to Bebeto arranged the game’s only goal.

Bebeto embraced Romario’s neck.

Romario hugged Bebeto’s waist.

Bebeto kissed Romario’s cheek.

A continent away, others did the same. They knew. They all knew. One goal was going to be enough in this game. Team USA had adopted a strategy for the occasion like a chess player more attuned to salvaging a draw than attacking toward a checkmate. In this sport, tactics make perfect.

“It would have been a huge mistake for us to get into a shooting match with Brazil,” Liekoski said.

Zero-zero could have been a victory.

Zero-zero could have led to the kind of shooting match the U.S. did want to get into with Brazil--a postgame shooting match.

Didn’t happen.

So, OK, the United States really didn’t defeat Brazil, 0-1. But the U.S. did do its best. The U.S. did give it the old college try. The U.S. did give notice that better days are ahead. Brazil, rest of the world, it’s time everybody understood this.