Situation Gets Even Uglier for the Americans

It will be the shattered remains of a United States team that takes the field against Yugoslavia tonight in Nantes in the final game in a miserable World Cup for the American players and coaches.

Morale has not dipped in the U.S. camp; it has disappeared.

Veteran players are angry and bitter, and most of their unhappiness is directed at Steve Sampson, who figures to have only days, perhaps weeks, remaining as the national team coach.

The comments being voiced by players Tuesday and Wednesday were quite extraordinary, but it’s a pity they were not made a long time ago. Had the players spoken up earlier, instead of bowing to the party line imposed from above that all was sweetness and light in the U.S. camp and that unity and harmony prevailed, something might have been done.

The losses to Germany and Iran are simply losses, nothing more. The loss of prestige and respect and the belief that U.S. soccer might finally be growing up, those are the real losses.

Now, the U.S. simply looks like another two-bit nation as far as soccer is concerned, a country that has to be invited to the World Cup party but that everyone knows really doesn’t belong there.

An also-ran, with encouraging words said to its face and laughter behind its back.

If Sampson is to be the fall guy in this rapidly deteriorating soap opera, then as far as the players are concerned, so be it.

Among the most disgusted players are veterans Eric Wynalda, Alexi Lalas, Ernie Stewart and Marcelo Balboa, all of whom were said to have been threatened with being sent home if they spoke out.

Only the fear among certain overly image-conscious U.S. Soccer officials of the bad publicity such a move would bring prevented that from happening.

Now they have the bad publicity anyway, as any media-savvy person could have told them beforehand.

Tab Ramos, too, has indicated his displeasure, but is reserving comments until after tonight’s match. Preki also is distraught, but in his case it’s about the distinct possibility he will not get to start against his former country.

And stirring the pot from long distance is John Harkes, the former team captain cut by Sampson in a disciplinary show of strength.

The entire squad could blow sky high tonight--but the coaches are probably prepared for that and might be keeping players and media as far apart as possible.

“Everybody’s ready to explode, you can get ready for it,” Lalas told the Washington Post, adding some telling comments about life behind the Sampson curtain.

The biggest cause of unhappiness among the veteran players has been the constant tinkering and changing that has gone on over the past few months as Sampson has experimented with different lineups and different formations. Changing both in the middle of a World Cup was the last straw.

“It’s rather naive to think that a team that has gone through so much together can basically be rearranged and expected to play with any consistency and cohesiveness,” Lalas said. “It just doesn’t happen, especially in soccer. The reality is, consistency comes from playing under a system for an extended period of time and understanding the role you play in that system.

“If this was the master plan, good god, it was pretty masterful. [Sampson’s] got a weird definition of a master plan.”

Players also have been upset by what they view as Sampson’s taking credit for their accomplishments on the field. That is a problem that U.S. Soccer had best consider when it looks for a new coach: If you have not played the game at the highest level, which Sampson has not, you cannot expect the respect of players who have done so.

It’s a fact of soccer life. Why else do you think France 98 favorites Argentina, Brazil and Germany have coaches who have won the World Cup as a player?

Responding to some of the players’ remarks Wednesday, Sampson said:

“Players came here to play. They didn’t come to sit on the bench. It’s hard for players who didn’t play. They have a choice whether to be professional or not. I’ve always been professional with them. I will never criticize a player through the press.”

Maybe so, but symbolic of the U.S. team’s disintegration is the fact that rather than heading home as a team Friday, the players will scatter in different directions, probably not to be pulled together as a team again.