Austria a Representative Test for U.S. Opener in France
Today Austria, tomorrow the world.
Those weren’t the exact words used by Steve Sampson, but they come close to capturing what the U.S. soccer coach meant when he held court in the late-afternoon sunshine at Ernst-Happel Stadium Tuesday.
Had there been more than a trio of U.S.-based journalists present amid the couple of dozen Austrian reporters, the game plan Sampson revealed for tonight’s Austria-United States match might have raised a few eyebrows. Instead, it was met with polite interest.
Several hours later, Sampson talked privately about the lineup he would like to field seven weeks from now when things get really interesting, when the U.S. plays Germany in the World Cup. Time will tell whether his dream team becomes a reality, but it is not going too far to say that what happens tonight in Vienna will have a great bearing on which U.S. players take the field in Paris on June 15.
Sampson has settled on a novel 1-2-6-1 formation for the 8:30 p.m. (11:30 a.m. PDT) game, the first of the final four matches the U.S. will play before leaving for France ’98. Still ahead: Macedonia, Kuwait and Scotland.
Austria, another World Cup participant, is supposed to be the team that gives the Americans an idea of what it will be like to play Germany. Oddly enough, the U.S. is turning to its own “Germans” to defeat the Austrians.
At least four of tonight’s American starting 11 either play or have played in the Bundesliga. Had Eric Wynalda and Joe-Max Moore not been injured, that number might have been six.
As it is, Sampson has chosen Thomas Dooley (ex-Schalke 04) as sweeper, Chad Deering and Claudio Reyna (both VfL Wolfsburg) in the midfield and David Wagner (Gutersloh) as the lone striker.
The remaining starters are Kasey Keller as goalkeeper, Mike Burns and Eddie Pope as marking backs, Cobi Jones and Ernie Stewart as wingers and Frankie Hejduk and Brian Maisonneuve as midfielders.
The players who are “on the bubble” for France are Deering, Wagner, Hejduk, Maisonneuve and forward Brian McBride, and it is the performance of those five that Sampson will be most interested in tonight.
Any of them could secure a place on the 22-man World Cup roster or lose it altogether. McBride will replace Wagner in the second half. Preki, too, will get significant time as a substitute.
The lineup is significant not only for the absence of John Harkes, who was dropped from the team last week, but for the benching of veteran defenders Alexi Lalas and Marcelo Balboa.
The formation, meanwhile, is decidedly experimental.
“It comes from having viewed a lot of videotape in the last month,” Sampson said of his 1-2-6-1 alignment in which Dooley will sweep behind a two-man defense of Burns and Pope, with Deering and Maisonneuve sharing defensive midfield duties while Reyna and Hejduk are the attacking midfielders.
Jones and Stewart provide the speed on the flanks to get behind the Austrian defense, with Wagner/McBride expected to finish the chances created.
“Eventually, with the 22 that I expect to name for the World Cup, the system will be very easily adapted to by the players,” Sampson said, adding later that he expects to name his World Cup squad by May 1.
Austria, which defeated the United States, 2-1, at the Italia ’90 World Cup in the only previous game between the countries, compiled an 8-1-1 record in qualifying for France.
“They play in the same style as Germany. They have two very fine players in Andreas Herzog, their playmaker, and Anton Polster, their leading goal scorer,” Sampson said. “They have wide players who get forward and back. They seem to have very good discipline, tactically.
“I think they’re playing with more confidence than they have in many years, and a lot of that came from the qualification phase. . . . They’re certainly going to give us a good match. It will be a realistic test for those [players] that I’m trying to get look at.”
