SOCCER / GRAHAME L. JONES : Help Wanted: Coach for U.S. Team
Now that the U.S. Soccer Federation has made a shambles of its coaching situation, what’s next?
In the eyes of the rest of the world, Bora Milutinovic was the only “legitimate” coach the U.S. men’s national team has ever had. But the USSF fired Milutinovic, wrongly believing that the position could easily be filled.
Candidates would be tripping over one another to come to the United States, the federation leadership believed.
“The lure of the United States is magnetic,” Hank Steinbrecher, the federation’s general secretary, told USA Today.
Maybe so, but it wasn’t strong enough to attract Carlos Queiroz of Portugal, who was the first to say, “Sorry, but no thanks. I like it better here.”
Queiroz had long been touted as the federation’s top choice. As the coach who led Portugal to the under-20 world championship in 1991 and ‘93, he was seen as the ideal coach to mold young Americans into international-caliber players.
Steinbrecher, who is running the show at federation headquarters in Chicago while Alan Rothenberg remains involved in Mythical League Soccer fantasies, was convinced Queiroz would accept the position. Queiroz had said as much.
But in a reversal that stunned Steinbrecher, Queiroz elected to remain coach of Sporting Lisbon. Perhaps the numbers had something to do with it. The USSF was offering a reported $200,000 to $300,000 a year. Sporting Lisbon already was paying him more than double that and offered more.
Next in line on the federation’s wish list was Carlos Alberto Parreira, who coached Brazil to the 1994 World Cup. Parreira had earlier expressed genuine interest in coming to the United States, but when it seemed apparent last fall that Rothenberg was going to renew Milutinovic’s contract, Parreira signed a new contract with Valencia in Spain through the 1996-97 season.
“I would like to take the [U.S.] job,” Parreira told the Associated Press last week. “It would be my sixth national team to coach. Not many coaches could say that, and I would be very proud.”
In addition to Brazil, Parreira, 52, has been coach of Ghana, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates.
But Parreira said his contract with Valencia would be “too difficult to break now,” and the assumption must be that he is out of the running, at least for the time being.
Now, Steinbrecher says he has a list of 10 candidates who are viewed as potential U.S. national team coaches.
In keeping with the USSF’s let’s-not-let- anyone-know-what’s-going-on policy, the names are not being revealed. Considering how desperate the sport is for acceptance and publicity, this is narrow-minded and self-defeating.
No matter who the choice is, speculation and debate about the candidates could provide continuing media exposure. But the federation doesn’t see things that way.
In the meantime, the national team, under interim Coach Steve Sampson, faces a daunting schedule in the next two months. After playing Costa Rica in Tampa, Fla., next Sunday, the team will have U.S. Cup ’95 games on June 11 against African champion Nigeria at Foxboro Stadium in Massachusetts, on June 18 against CONCACAF champion Mexico at RFK Stadium in Washington, and on June 25 against Colombia at Rutgers Stadium in New Jersey.
After that comes the Copa America tournament in July in Uruguay, where the Americans will play Chile, Bolivia and South American champion Argentina.
On paper, the only possible victories among those seven games are against Costa Rica and Bolivia, and even those are not locks.
Sampson will be the sacrificial lamb who takes the blame for a likely series of defeats.
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According to figures compiled by the Soccer Industry Council of America, 18.231 million people played soccer in the United States at least once in 1994, an 11% increase over 1993.
SICA said that on the youth level, soccer participation now ranks third behind basketball and volleyball among players under 18, and second behind basketball among players under 12.
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The latest FIFA rankings drop the United States from 22nd to 27th.
Brazil, Italy, Spain, Norway and Germany hold the top five positions, followed by Sweden, the Netherlands, Argentina, Mexico and Ireland.
Soccer Notes
Interim U.S. national team Coach Steve Sampson has named Clive Charles as his assistant. Charles, who played professionally in England and with the Portland Timbers in the North American Soccer League, is coach at the University of Portland and of the U.S. women’s under-20 national team.
Paul Caligiuri, the U.S. national team defender now playing for the Los Angeles Salsa, is donating his salary from the USISL team to the families of the Oklahoma City bombing victims.
Former U.S. national team player Paul Krumpe has been named assistant coach under Sigi Schmid at UCLA, replacing Todd Saldana, who took the head coaching job at Cal Poly Pomona.
Two former national team players, George Brown and Willy Schaller; former referee Alfred Kleinatis; former national team coach Al Miller, and Soccer America founder and former publisher Clay Berling have been selected for induction into the National Soccer Hall of Fame.
