Keeping U.S. Team From Public’s Eye Is an Oversight
Tuesday morning, March 4. Miami International Airport. Conversations overheard . . .
“So how you do?” asked Raul, a ticket agent from Paraguay. “I didn’ see the score.”
“They tied us, mon,” replied Gregory, a baggage handler from Jamaica.
“You said you gonna win.”
“We would’ve, mon, but we didn’t get the penalty. The American, he was pulling on our player, like this. But he didn’t fall down. If he fell down, we would’ve had a penalty.”
“They gotta learn,” said Raul. “Jus’ like the Argentina players, you touch them an’ they fall.”
“That’s right,” interrupted Gonzalo, a sales clerk from Colombia. “In the Copa, you have to do.”
Ah, yes, the Copa, the World Cup, international soccer’s quadrennial extravaganza. Only 15 months remain before the next tournament, in France, but already the passions are beginning to surface.
Gonzalo’s Colombia is all but certain of qualifying. Raul’s Paraguay has a good chance of making it. Gregory’s Jamaica would have been in better shape had it not been tied, 0-0, by the United States in Kingston on March 2.
They’re all talking about their teams.
But where is the American passion? Where are the arguments about how poorly the U.S. is playing, about who should be on the national team, about the future of the coach and the direction of the sport?
Unless its fans start becoming more vocal, there is little hope of soccer achieving its goal of becoming the nation’s fifth major professional sport.
And hyphenated Americans will continue to talk about the exploits of their old country instead of their new country.
MISSED OPPORTUNITY
Contributing to the problem is English-language television’s continuing refusal to recognize a potentially huge market.
To see the Jamaica-United States game, fans in the U.S. had to tune to Spanish-language Univision and view it on tape delay.
Since Andres Cantor and Norberto Longo can make the game exciting even for those who don’t understand a word they’re saying, that’s not a bad thing. But must it always be this way?
ESPN supposedly wanted to televise the match, but dollar signs got in the way. Jamaica demanded $100,000. ESPN offered $40,000. The gap was never closed. Another opportunity was lost.
ABC will televise Sunday’s U.S.-Canada match live from Stanford Stadium in Palo Alto. The trouble is, that will be a much less colorful game than the one in Kingston and will feature not one, but two struggling teams.
WHISTLE-BLOWERS
Thomas Dooley was the American defender guilty of holding and impeding Jamaica’s Theodore Whitmore, a foul that went uncalled by Honduran referee Emiliano Rodriguez.
The quality of CONCACAF officials is mixed. Some are good, some are bad, many are average.
It was interesting to see that the Mexico-Canada game in Mexico City that same day featured a far more proficient Brazilian officiating crew.
A FEW PROBLEMS
In assessing the U.S. team’s difficulties against Jamaica, some shortcomings stood out. For example:
--Midfielder and team captain John Harkes is overweight and not match fit, the result of off-season surgery and a long layoff. As a result, he was nowhere near as efficient as normal.
--Claudio Reyna was again played out of position, forced into a defensive role where he is neither comfortable nor especially dominant.
--There must be something in winger Ernie Stewart’s game that causes him to keep being selected, but apart from speed, no one is absolutely sure what it is.
--Cobi Jones, who should have been given a lengthy rest after the Major League Soccer season ended in October, instead has kept playing and now appears burned out.
--The same goes for defender Alexi Lalas, whose game has deteriorated steadily over the past year. He is still enthusiastic about fouling opposing players, however.
--Striker Eric Wynalda got virtually no support. Fellow forward Brian McBride tried but did not have the speed to beat the Jamaicans. Roy Lassiter does but was brought on much too late.
The absence of injured midfielder Tab Ramos has left the U.S. without a capable playmaker.
A FEW SOLUTIONS
Just what changes U.S. Coach Steve Sampson will make for Sunday’s game against Canada--which is now almost a must-win match--is unknown. Sampson refuses to announce his lineup until 45 minutes before game time.
But here are a few suggestions:
--Abandon the 4-4-2 formation and go to a 4-3-3.
Leave Kasey Keller in goal; he is superb. Keep Dooley at sweeper but start Marcelo Balboa instead of Lalas. If Harkes is any fitter, move him to right back in place of Mike Burns. If Eddie Pope has recovered from injury and surgery, play him at left back in place of Jeff Agoos.
Move Agoos to the left wing in place of Stewart. Move Reyna from defensive midfielder to a playmaker’s role in the center of midfield. Give Michael Mason the start on the right wing in place of Jones.
Play McBride as a center forward, using his aerial strengths to strike directly at the Canadian goal or to feed Wynalda to his left and Lassiter to his right.
Playing defensively is not going to get the United States to France next summer.
Goals are what is needed in Palo Alto. Coach Bora Milutinovic’s Mexico put four of them past the Canadians in a 4-0 victory. If the United States wants to keep pace, it had better try to match that output.
DOWN UNDER
While the U.S. men struggle, the U.S. women go from strength to strength.
Playing its first games since winning the Olympic gold medal last summer, Coach Tony DiCicco’s squad swept a three-game series against Australia without difficulty last week.
The Americans won, 4-0, in Melbourne on goals by Cindy Parlow, Tisha Venturini, Danielle Fotopolous and Mia Hamm and 3-1 in Bathurst as Justi Baumgardt, Kristine Lilly and Brandi Chastain scored.
The third game was played at Bruce Stadium in Canberra, a possible soccer venue for the Sydney Olympics in 2000. This time the U.S. won, 3-0, on goals by Chastain, Julie Foudy and Tiffeny Millbrett.
Next up is an April 24 match against France at Greensboro, N.C.
REVOLUTIONARY SIGNING
In perhaps the most significant MLS player-signing of the off-season, the New England Revolution has acquired former Italian national team goalkeeper Walter Zenga.
Zenga, 36, starred for Italy between 1986 and 1992--recording 38 shutouts in 58 national team matches--and was voted the world’s best goalkeeper after Italy finished third in the 1990 World Cup.
He played for Inter Milan for 11 seasons before joining Sampdoria and later Padova.
The Revolution will play the Los Angeles Galaxy on July 4, by which time the Galaxy’s own World Cup keeper, Jorge Campos of Mexico, should be fully recovered from a knee injury that still has him sidelined.
Campos recently signed a global endorsement contract with Pepsi-Cola, one of MLS’ sponsors, and soon will be showing up in commercials on a television screen near you.
MATCHUPS
The Galaxy now has a farm team, the Orange County Zodiac of the 24-team A-League. Founded by Galaxy assistant coach Octavio Zambrano and coached by Alfredo Maran, the Zodiac will play 14 home games at the Santa Ana Bowl, starting April 20.
On Saturday, the Zodiac will play the Galaxy in a 7:30 p.m. exhibition at the Santa Ana Bowl.
Also Saturday, Necaxa (Mexico) will play Atlas (Mexico) at 5 p. m. and Club America (Mexico) will play Aguila (El Salvador) at 7 p.m. in a doubleheader at the Los Angeles Coliseum.
