No Love Lost Between U.S., Mexico
Outside, fans were lining up for a between-games snack of tacos al carbon, but the sandwich Eric Wynalda attacked as he spoke with reporters was All-American roast beef.
His taste in North American soccer-playing nations runs along the same lines.
“When I look at us and Mexico, I have no problem at all with saying I hate them,” said Wynalda, proud to have started and scored at the Rose Bowl on Sunday while wearing the hallowed red, white and powder blue.
“I hate and I love to play them. Mexico’s always been our biggest rival. It’s one of the things we grow up with as soccer players in America--you always have to read and hear about Mexico. I don’t like it. Once I step on the field, I hate ‘em.
“Nowhere is it written that I have to say I like them. That’s just the way it is.”
International relations were taking a beating here, but then, so had Wynalda. Sunday’s U.S. Cup championship decider between the United States and Mexico was littered with yellow cards, brutish tackles, push-and-shove game delays and more than a few crumpled bodies, Wynalda’s included.
Wynalda was leveled by Mexican defender Duilio Davino while chasing a loose ball early in the second half. The U.S. striker crash-landed on his left shoulder, the same one he recently separated while playing for the Major League Soccer San Jose Clash.
Within eight minutes of the collision, U.S. trainers declared Wynalda done for the afternoon. Wynalda spent the remainder of the game on the sideline with his shirt off and his shoulder tightly wrapped. There he stewed and simmered, unable to aid the cause as his teammates, needing a victory to retain the U.S. Cup, had to score in extra time for a 2-2 tie.
The U.S. Cup is now Mexico’s. And Bora Milutinovic’s. The United States’ old rival and the United States’ old coach. For all the American talk about this being “a great day for soccer”--92,216 at the Rose Bowl to watch this futbol doubleheader, U.S.-Mexico followed by Galaxy-Tampa Bay Mutiny--those two pieces of information still stung.
Steve Sampson, the former Milutinovic lieutenant who coaches the United States, had to sit in the interview room and grind his teeth through questions of the general teacher-schools-student variety.
“We played against a man who has participated in three World Cups,” said Sampson, who is still working on getting to his first. “How old is he? Fifty two? That’s 13 years older than me. He has that much more experience than me.
“But, as they put it in Spanish, we went mano a mano today, and I think we played them evenly. And, at times, outplayed them. So, maybe the student has learned a few things after all.”
One lesson: When kicked by Mexico, make sure to kick back. Sunday, typically, the Mexicans were whistled for 19 fouls. The Americans were cited for 22. Mexico’s rough play was penalized with two yellow-card cautions. The Americans doubled that total.
“Pretty typical,” was U.S. defender Alexi Lalas’ assessment of Sunday’s exchange of arms, elbows and strategically placed knees.
“Whenever we play, it’s like a derby,” Lalas said, using the British jargon for cross-town rivalry. “It’s a country-to-country derby. Like England-Scotland.”
U.S.-Mexico is different, though, because of the Bora factor. Milutinovic may have gone south of the border after the 1994 World Cup, but he remains on American minds.
Sunday’s referee was from Costa Rica, the same country Milutinovic coached in the 1990 World Cup. Sampson broke into a halftime huddle between Milutinovic and the referee, telling him, in Spanish, “If you talk, Bora, I talk too.”
Wynalda, taken down from behind by Davino, claimed the ensuing yellow card should have been a harsher hue because “he was the last defender. It’s a red card. But Bora will tell you that he knew before the game that wouldn’t have been called.”
Milutinovic was all who-me? smiles afterward, breaking into the interview room with a loud “Meester Sampson!” and hugging his former assistant.
“Today, we don’t have a winner,” Milutinovic grandly announced. “The winner today is soccer. The soccer is so good.”
On that, the United States and Mexico finally reached an accord.
“Hell, I would’ve paid money to see this doubleheader,” Lalas said. “Two of the greatest teams in the world continuing a tremendous rivalry, followed by the two best teams in MLS. There were goals, excitement, drama. What more do you want?”
Give Wynalda a minute or two. He’d come up with something.
