Just in Case, Sampson Has His Resume in Mind

“Is this a disaster?” American reporters asked again and again of U.S. soccer team officials in the aftermath of Sunday’s disastrous 2-1 loss to Iran.

“Progress,” Coach Steve Sampson replied again and again. “We are making progress.”

“We’re moving forward,” U.S. Soccer President Alan Rothenberg insisted. “Nothing is going to knock U.S. Soccer off the track.”

What we have here, soccer fans of America, or at least those of you who haven’t sworn off the sport for the more personally rewarding experience of supporting U.S. rugby, is a failure to communicate.

Progress?

Moving forward?

Yes, if you’re looking at the travel itinerary for the U.S. men’s national team. So far, Team USA has progressed from Paris to Lyon and now is moving forward to Nantes, site of Thursday’s impending defeat against Yugoslavia. Sunday, the United States became only the fourth team to be eliminated from the 32-team field, clocking in and punching out right behind Saudi Arabia, Japan and South Korea.

Monday, Team USA shifted training sites to the beach town of Pornic, about 40 miles outside Nantes, where Sampson met briefly with the dwindling band of reporters still on the U.S. beat and discussed, among other things, his post-World Cup future.

Sampson said that if he is not retained as U.S. national coach, he will work elsewhere.

“I’ve got an enormous amount of international experience, which is rare,” Sampson pointed out by way of verbal resume. “I would hope U.S. Soccer continues to want to make use of it. If not, I’ve already had international offers. We’ll wait and see what happens after the World Cup.”

He also talked about how the U.S. performance is being viewed back in the States. Yes, the sound of televisions clicking off can be heard half a planet away.

“The bottom line,” Sampson said, “is that the American public won’t happy until we are world champions. But those who know the game well will see the subtle changes in the way the team plays. We have come a long way from being a team that overly respected the opposition.

“It’s important we put a team on the field that’s going to fight to get a result. We’re obviously not among the elite, which includes Yugoslavia, but I’m convinced we can compete with second-tier European teams.”

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Contrary to the prevailing view back home, Sampson believes this is “a very exciting time for U.S. soccer.

“We’ve developed several young players who are going to be with this team for a long time--Brian Maisonneuve, Frankie Hejduk, Brian McBride. Certainly Eddie Pope is a quality defender. Our goalkeeping situation is going to be solid for years to come. . . .

“We’ve put into place a more attacking system, more offensive, with players pushing forward. Hopefully, this style of soccer is something we can build upon.”

For starters, between now and 2002, how about some shooting practice?

With frequent reminders that there are no extra points awarded for hitting the goalpost?

“We’ve been very unlucky, but it must also be said that we exhibited a terrible inefficiency in front of the goal,” Sampson said. “We’re going to have to do a lot of work to overcome this lack of precision and make our opportunities pay off.”