He Wants His Warriors to Have Fierce Quality

Hank Steinbrecher knows how to solve the United States’ World Cup woes.

Or he at least knows the problem.

“I think that the level of fierceness of competition is something that we have not been able to replicate in the United States at any level,” U.S. Soccer’s secretary-general said Thursday night.

“Not even within our CONCACAF qualifying do you find the fierceness of competition that you find here. It’s something we really need to find out how to replicate.

“Hopefully, the league [Major League Soccer] will progress and we’ll be able to get a much higher level of competition, but I think it really points out the need for the development of the younger players.

“You look at the teams here, you look at us against Yugoslavia tonight, clearly they were the superior team. They were superior in physical strength and technical ability. We gave a great fighting spirit, but they were the much better football side.

“We’ve got to get our players into training and into high-level fierce competition all the time on a regular basis. You can’t do it piecemeal.”

Which leaves the U.S. in a Catch-22 situation. It wants MLS to be stronger, but for the national team to succeed the best American players have to be playing abroad, preferably in Europe.

“There’s got to be a balance in that,” Steinbrecher said. “But maybe the key is to make the MLS even more competitive.

“I’ve been very pleased with the improvement I’ve seen in three years, but it’s not where we want it to be. We had great expectations [for France 98], and the pain of not fulfilling those expectations is pretty hard.”

And made harder by the in-fighting in the U.S. camp between players and Coach Steve Sampson.

“We think that this is part of the maturation problem with our players,” Steinbrecher said. “I think what you saw here was some players who obviously want to perform for their country, they want to perform well and felt that they shouldn’t be on the bench.

“That’s a coach’s decision. We support that. We have supported that. We will continue to support that. Players won’t run the team. The coach will.

“I’m more disappointed in that aspect [the players’ public criticism of the coaches] than in being 0-3 and out.”

Sampson has been hurt by the barbs aimed his way.

“I’m a human being,” he said. “You select 22 players and you give players an opportunity to participate in a World Cup, or at least be selected and enjoy the World Cup. You stick by players, even during hard times, and you hope that they appreciate that. That’s all you can expect as a coach.

“Some have done a great job of showing that appreciation. Some have not.”

Sampson tried remove some of the bitterness by sending Eric Wynalda--one of the players who has criticized him--into Thursday’s game and also brought on Preki Radosavljevic as a substitute so he could play against his former country.

“Let’s hope that everybody saw that we gave an effort today, and we’ll have a lot more to give in the next few years,” said Marcelo Balboa, who joined Wynalda and Tab Ramos as the only Americans to play in three World Cup tournaments.

Said Wynalda: “I think we have to do what we can to prevent this [0-3 performance] from happening again.”