Netherlands Goes to Work Early With U.S. Half Asleep

It’s time Steve Sampson taught his soccer players a few fundamentals.

This would be a good one to start with: When the referee blows his whistle, it means the game has begun.

Giving up a goal less than two minutes into the match and another less than one minute into the second half, the United States was beaten, 2-0, by the Netherlands Saturday in front of 20,379 at Pro Player Stadium in Miami.

The loss was the second in a row for the U.S. and its scoreless streak now stands at 205 minutes.

The last goal Sampson’s squad scored was Preki’s momentous 65th-minute strike against Brazil in the semifinals of the Gold Cup.

Shut out by Mexico in the final and then by the Dutch, the Americans boarded their flight to Brussels on Saturday night--they play Belgium on Wednesday--knowing that their offense needs to wake up.

Not that the defense was any great shakes in Miami.

Injuries to Eddie Pope, Thomas Dooley and Gregg Berhalter and the absence of Marcelo Balboa because of the birth of his son Wednesday, forced Sampson to rearrange his defense.

Mike Burns stayed at right back and Alexi Lalas stayed in the center, but Jeff Agoos was moved from left back to the center and John Harkes took over at left back.

The makeshift combination was a flop.

In the second minute, U.S. forward Roy Wegerle made a disastrous back-pass intended for goalkeeper Kasey Keller, only to see Ronald de Boer intercept the ball.

De Boer’s shot deflected off Lalas’ left knee, redirecting the ball left and into the corner of the net as Keller dived right.

Having taken the early lead, the Dutch strolled through the rest of the game. They were clearly superior and treated the match, their first in four months, simply as a warmup for Wednesday’s game against Mexico, also in Miami.

One way to tell an elite national team from an ordinary one is to check which clubs the players come from. A quick glance at Coach Guus Hiddink’s starting roster and anyone could have forecast Saturday’s result.

Four players from PSV Eindhoven, three from Ajax Amsterdam and one each from Barcelona, Inter Milan, Real Madrid and FC Utrecht.

The only reason Michael Mols--the Utrecht player--got in for only his second international game was because the Netherlands was missing two key players. Dennis Bergkamp’s dread of flying kept him with Arsenal in England and a slight groin strain kept AC Milan’s Patrick Kluivert on the bench.

In other words, this was close to the Netherlands’ full World Cup team, and the ease with which it handled the U.S. does not bode well for the Americans in France this summer.

Sampson, whose team had won six in a row and gone unbeaten in nine consecutive games before coming unstuck against Mexico last Sunday, tried several experiments.

For one thing, he made Preki a starter instead of bringing him off the bench, pairing him with Wegerle up front.

In the midfield, he played Claudio Reyna in a primarily defensive role, with Ernie Stewart, Joe-Max Moore and Jovan Kirovski pushing forward.

But the Dutch were too fast, too poised, too experienced and too polished to be denied.

No sooner had Mexican referee Armando Tellez blown his whistle for the second half to begin than the Dutch doubled their lead.

Moore gave the ball away under pressure, a line of five orange-clad Dutchmen swept downfield, Philip Cocu’s defense-splitting pass left Clarence Seedorf one-on-one against Keller and the Real Madrid player did not squander the chance.

The closest the U.S. came to scoring was in the 35th minute when Moore fired a low shot that Dutch goalkeeper Edwin van der Saar blocked by sticking out his left foot. The ball rebounded to Lalas, but van der Saar, sprawled on the ground, got a hand up to knock Lalas’ header away.

“The early goals in both halves were difficult to overcome,” Sampson said. “Two mistakes and we were back on our heels trying to play catch-up.”