Beginning of the End?
The glowing electric orange signs at either end of the Parc des Princes stadium told the sad story Monday night:
Allemagne 2, Etats-Unis 0.
A loss is a loss, even in French.
Once again, the United States had been beaten in a World Cup game. Once again, Germany had done all that was necessary and more to show its superiority on the soccer field.
Once again, the Americans were taught a lesson.
The Germans were physically more powerful and mentally much quicker. They out-jumped, outran and out-hustled the U.S. team for most of 90 minutes.
But they won by only two goals.
And therein lies the seed of hope this morning for the future of the sport in the the United States. There was a time, not all that long ago, when the Germans might have put four or five or even six goals past the Americans.
Not any more.
Of course, the start Monday night was less than promising for the red-clad U.S. team. The game was barely eight minutes old when Olaf Thon sent a corner kick in from the left. Jurgen Klinsmann, at the far post, leaped to head the ball back across the goal mouth and Andy Moller was on hand to head it into the back of the U.S. net from close range.
“That’s the last thing in the world we wanted to happen,” said U.S. forward Eric Wynalda.
Yes, there were U.S. defenders standing around. No, they didn’t do much to stop Germany from grabbing the lead.
“It’s basic defending. You have to be extremely alert in those situations,” U.S. Coach Steve Sampson said. “But you have to give the Germans credit. They’re extremely good in the air.”
Nor could the United States do much about the second German goal, the one that effectively killed the game for the Americans, in the 64th minute.
It came on a counterattack. The United States lost the ball in midfield and the next thing the Americans knew Thomas Dooley was battling Klinsmann inside the penalty area. Klinsmann won and fired a shot that U.S. goalkeeper Kasey Keller had no more chance of stopping than the first goal.
“You don’t give him [Klinsmann] that opportunity,” Sampson said, “because nine times out of 10 he puts it away.”
The second goal actually came against the run of play. After a dismal first half, the American team came out fired up for the second 45 minutes and for a brief, bright spell, it had Germany back on its heels.
Bringing Frankie Hejduk into the game had a lot to do with that. His speed was an immediate factor, although he did pick up a yellow card within five minutes of entering the game when he tripped Jorg Heinrich.
It was Hejduk, in fact, who came within inches of tying the score.
His diving near-post header off a cross from David Regis was only just smothered on the goal line by German goalkeeper Andreas Kopke.
Too bad. The world was deprived from seeing free-spirit Hejduk do his high-stepping Bob Marley dance.
“I was already thinking about it,” he said. “I did it all last night.”
But Kopke denied him the opportunity.
“I had a diving header and I thought it was in the goal,” Hejduk said. “I think I started celebrating a little bit too early because their keeper made a great save. He got it with his fingertips.
“That could have been a turning point for us. It would have made it 1-1. But it didn’t go in. Luck wasn’t our way today.”
Hejduk was not about to dispute the outcome, though.
“You’ve got to hand it to them, they played a great game,” he said. “I think we were a little nervous and a little tentative in the first half, but in the second half we settled down a little bit and started to play more.”
Sampson had no real surprises in his starting lineup.
Keller was in the nets, with Dooley sweeping and Regis and Eddie Pope used as marking backs. In the midfield, Mike Burns played wide right and Cobi Jones wide left. Chad Deering and Brian Maisonneuve were the defensive midfielders, with Ernie Stewart and Claudio Reyna the attacking midfielders. Wynalda was the lone striker.
The key for the Germans was in keeping Reyna, the U.S. playmaker, under wraps, and Jens Jeremies did an excellent job in that regard. He hit Reyna hard early on to let him know he was there, and then stayed close to him all night, throttling any chance Reyna might have had to do the sort of damage he did against Austria in the U.S. team’s 3-0 victory in Vienna in April.
German Coach Berti Vogts saw the videotape of that game and learned from it.
In addition to bringing Hejduk on in place of Burns in the second half, Sampson also replaced Wynalda with Roy Wegerle and later brought Tab Ramos into the game in place of Deering.
All the moves, he said, were intended to be offensive, to show that the United States was not content to take a moral victory by holding the European champions to a single-goal victory.
“I do think that we played some very good football, in the second half especially,” Sampson said. “And I’m very pleased with the team. I’m not happy with the result, but I’m very pleased with the performance.”
In the end, no matter how the analysts huff and puff about formations and matchups and aerial duels and motivational factors and experience and all the rest, it was Hejduk who best summed up the reason behind the U.S. loss. And it took him only six words.
“Tonight,” he said, “they were the better team.”
*
RIOTS
About 2,000 French police officers went on duty to deal with fan violence. C6
* STANDINGS: C5
* SPOTLIGHT: C5
