U.S. Needs to Follow Germany’s Lead
A one-question quiz for those who think they know it all. Name the country that in the last seven months has:
* Been knocked out of World Cup ’98 ignominiously early;
* Seen its coach resign under intense pressure;
* Been turned down by a high-profile coaching candidate;
* Named a new coach after weeks of haggling;
* Dropped veteran players and introduced a slew of rookies to the national team;
* Brought a former World Cup player back into the fold after a four-year absence;
* Had some disappointing results against mediocre opposition.
If you said the United States, you would not be wrong, but the correct answer in this case is Germany, the team the Americans lost to in their first game of the France ’98 tournament in June and which they play again in a unique doubleheader Feb. 6 in Jacksonville, Fla.
Since last summer, the two countries have followed surprisingly parallel paths. Sooner or later, however, Germany will veer off and reclaim its traditional place among soccer’s elite. Being ranked fifth in the world is not Germany’s idea of elite. For the U.S., ranked too high at
No. 23, the prospects are much more modest.
It would seem a useful exercise, therefore, to look at how the rebuilding is going on both sides of the Atlantic in an effort to determine why one will succeed and the other will not.
THE DEBACLES
The United States was eliminated in the first round of the World Cup after three consecutive defeats, the first a 2-0 loss to Germany in Paris. The performance was met with much hand-wringing and wailing but was not really unexpected. The players blamed the coach, the coach blamed the players, the media blamed them both and the whole sorry mess left the anti-soccer lobby laughing.
Germany, a three-time world champion and the defending European champion, was ousted by Croatia in the quarterfinals, an unthinkable finish, especially after suffering the same fate at the same stage in 1994, when Bulgaria applied the coup de grace in New Jersey.
German fans blamed the coach and the players, but the outcome was different. Unlike many U.S. veterans who will have to be pushed away, the German veterans voluntarily stepped aside. Team captain Juergen Klinsmann, with 47 goals in 108 international appearances and with world and European championships on his resume, retired and moved to Southern California with his American wife.
Juergen Kohler, Andreas Koepke and Stefan Reuter also retired.
Apart from U.S. captain Thomas Dooley, himself German-born, no other American player announced his retirement from international play. All presume they will be recalled and recycled. Dream on.
Lesson No. 1: Know when to call it quits.
THE RESIGNATIONS
Steve Sampson resigned as U.S. coach before he had even unpacked his bags from France. Unfortunately, instead of pointing out the flaws in the American soccer system at a time when people were paying attention, he waited six months and a worthwhile message went virtually unheard.
Berti Vogts eventually decided to stay on and try to rebuild the German team. It was a mistake.
Vogts named striker Oliver Bierhoff, 30, captain in place of Klinsmann and recalled midfield playmaker Stefan Effenberg, 30, who had not played for the national team since being sent home in disgrace from the ’94 World Cup after directing an obscene gesture toward German fans at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas.
Vogts also dropped such veterans as Lothar Matthaeus and Andreas Moeller and abandoned Germany’s traditional sweeper system of defense amid loud protests from the players. He then set off with his new-look team to Malta for two matches, one against the island nation and the other against Romania.
The first resulted in a 2-1 victory aided by a Maltese own goal. The second was a lackluster 1-1 tie. It marked the end for Vogts, a World Cup-winning defender on Germany’s 1974 team, but now called “the symbol of the downfall of the national team,” by a Frankfurt newspaper. Within a few days he had resigned to preserve, he said, “any remnants of dignity left over for me.”
Germany played 102 games with Vogts as coach and lost only 12. Yet he still was hounded out of office.
Lesson No. 2: Never try to prolong the inevitable.
THE NEWCOMERS
In the U.S., Bob Contiguglia was elected to replace Alan Rothenberg as U.S. Soccer’s president and shortly thereafter named Bruce Arena as the national coach--only after being turned down by Portugal’s Carlos Queiroz.
If nothing else, Arena satisfies one criteria. He is American. No team with a foreign coach has ever won the World Cup.
Earlier, in Germany, Egidius Braun, the 73-year-old president of the German soccer federation (DFB) had also been spurned. He had decided that Paul Breitner would replace Vogts, but before the announcement could be made, Breitner, a 1974 World Cup winner, scuttled his own chances by lambasting Braun and the DFB in the media.
Jupp Heynckes, who coached Real Madrid of Spain to its European Cup triumph in May, earlier had been approached but turned down the job.
Enter Erich Ribbeck, 61, respected but, like Arena, unproven at the national team level. But his appointment as Germany’s coach underscores another vast difference between the countries.
Ribbeck is only Germany’s seventh coach since 1926. The first finished third in the 1934 World Cup. The next five won either a World Cup, a European championship or both. In the same 73 years, the United States has had 35 coaches.
Lesson No. 3: Tradition and continuity bring success.
THE FEDERATIONS
Braun, belatedly realizing that German soccer needed revitalization, made another key move last fall. He appointed Franz Beckenbauer to the DFB’s executive committee as a vice president.
Beckenbauer, 53, who captained Germany to its 1974 World Cup victory, coached it to its 1990 triumph and is the president of Bayern Munich, does not mince words.
“We’ve fallen way behind Holland, France and Spain,” he warned on German television after Vogts’ fall. “We’re out of step. If we don’t watch out, we’ll be on the same level as Albania.
“Something must be done for football in this country. . . . A fresh wind must blow. We need new structures, new people.”
U.S. Soccer, unfortunately, has no one with Beckenbauer’s credentials. When Beckenbauer talks, people listen. When Contiguglia talks, so does everyone else. The federation needs some true soccer people--former players or coaches--in positions of power. But whom?
Rothenberg was not able to find his left foot with his right on a soccer field, but he did know his way around a boardroom and played the political game to perfection. Without a player of any stature to lead the way, he was U.S. soccer’s hope. But arcane rules against serving more than two terms have taken Rothenberg out of the picture.
Lesson No. 4: Never discard what works.
THE FUTURES
Arena has had two games in charge. The first was a 0-0 tie against an understrength Australia. The second was a 0-0 tie against a very understrength Bolivia. Hardly impressive.
Arena recalled Tony Meola after a four-year absence. Ribbeck went one better, recalling the 37-year-old Matthaeus.
“Anyone who knows me knows that I don’t shy away from unpopular decisions,” Ribbeck said.
His debut was a disaster. Germany lost its first qualifying game for the 2000 European Championship, 1-0, to Turkey. It was the Turks’ first victory over Germany in 47 years. Since then have come a 3-1 victory over Moldova and a lucky 1-1 tie with the Netherlands.
Beckenbauer’s analysis: “Our wide basis [depth of talent] is OK, but we’ve got a problem when it comes to our elite. We simply lack outstanding footballers.”
Germany is bringing some of those “less than outstanding” players to Florida for the Feb. 6 game against the U.S. and another match against Colombia in Miami on Feb. 9.
But more intriguing is the chance to see the next generation. As part of the Feb. 6 doubleheader, the U.S. Olympic team under Coach Clive Charles will play the German under-21 team. Both are preparing for the Sydney 2000 Olympics.
The German team is likely to have some future World Cup winners on it. The same, sadly, cannot be said for the U.S. Feb. 6 is when the paths start to diverge.
