Group Dynamic

By GRAHAME L. JONES

Dec. 2, 2001 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

Shortly after 3:30 Saturday morning, the telephone rang in Cobi Jones’ room. Jones lifted the receiver, listened briefly and hung up. The five-word message required no response.

“Portugal, South Korea and Poland.”

Those are the teams that Jones and the rest of the United States soccer team will play in the first round of the 2002 World Cup in Japan and South Korea.

Their identity was learned Saturday when the World Cup Draw was held in the South Korean port city of Pusan.

The 17-hour time difference between South Korea and California meant that it was literally a wake-up call for Coach Bruce Arena’s team, the bulk of which is in training camp in Chula Vista preparing to leave Monday for a Dec. 9 friendly against the World Cup co-host in Seogwipo, South Korea.

It could have been better. It could have been worse.

“Obviously, we could have gotten an easier draw, but we also could have gotten a lot tougher one,” Jones said. “We’ve got a pretty good group. We’ve definitely got the opportunity to be in the next round.”

The U.S. team will operate from a training base in Seoul, South Korea, traveling to its first-round games against Portugal in Suwon on June 5, against South Korea in Daegu on June 10, and against Poland in Daejeon on June 14.

The top two teams in each of the eight four-team groups advance to the second round.

“Obviously, Portugal will be a difficult opening game,” said Arena, who was in Pusan for the draw. “They are one of the top five teams in the world, so it will be quite difficult to get one point, let alone three points, against them.

“Against Korea, it will also be difficult with the home support they will receive, and Poland is a team with a lot of momentum that had a great run in qualifying. It’s going to be difficult no matter who we play, but if our team can improve across the next six months and go there and play well, we’ll have a chance to advance.”

Arena said he was “very content with the group” even though “the joke here [in Pusan] is that Portugal is already celebrating.”

That might not be the case. Certainly, Portugal’s coach, Antonio Oliveira, was being cautious.

“It’s not as easy as it looks,” he told Reuters. “Korea are at home with big support, Poland are a good European team with a very good attack and the U.S. are a good team with a lot of good experience at the World Cup.”

That experience, however, includes a 0-6-1 record against European teams in the last three World Cup tournaments. Losses to Czechoslovakia, Italy and Austria in 1990, to Romania in 1994 and to Germany and Yugoslavia in 1998 are hardly offset by a tie against Switzerland in 1994.

Then, too, the U.S. has a losing record against all three of its first-round opponents and has not played any of them for at least seven years.

The Americans are 1-2-1 against the Portuguese, whom they haven’t played since 1992. They are 0-2-1 against the South Koreans and last played them in 1994. And they are 4-6-1 against the Poles, whom they last played in 1990.

Arena said U.S. unfamiliarity with its opponents would not be an issue. Meanwhile, Guus Hiddink, the Dutchman who coached the Netherlands to the semifinals of the France ’98 World Cup and who now coaches South Korea, is hoping to guide his team to its first Cup victory. South Korea in 0-10-4 in World Cup play.

South Korea’s opening game is against Poland, whose coach, Jerzy Engel, is under no illusions.

“We will be under great psychological pressure,” he said, “because the whole stadium will be against us.”

Like Arena, Hiddink believes Portugal is the Group D favorite.

“I think it’s possible they might advance to the semifinals,” he said. “They’re skillful. In the past, they had the problem of lacking balance in defense. But through time they have overcome that problem.”

Apart from the Dec. 9 game, the U.S. will have another opportunity to assess the South Korean team before the World Cup. The countries will play each other at the Rose Bowl on Jan. 19 in the first round of the CONCACAF Gold Cup.

In general, Saturday’s draw was kind to the seven former world champions in the field of 32. The exceptions were Uruguay, which was grouped with France, and Argentina and England. The latter were drawn together in Group F, which also features Nigeria and Sweden and immediately was dubbed the “group of death,” or, as Arena put it, “the group of hell.”

Longtime rivals Argentina and England played a classic game in the France ’98 tournament, tying, 2-2, at St. Etienne, where England fought a tremendous short-handed battle after having David Beckham red-carded and Argentina eventually prevailed on penalty kicks.

The countries meet again June 7 in Sapporo, Japan. “Personally, I can’t wait--it’s a great chance to lay the ghost of ‘98,” Beckham, now England’s captain, said Saturday.

Defending champion France will open May 31 by playing one of its former colonies, Senegal, a first-time participant. France Coach Roger Lemerre said he was more wary of Uruguay, however.

Germany and Italy, both three-time World Cup winners, were given potentially smooth passages to the final 16.

“You can say we’re lucky because other groups, especially the one with England, are much, much tougher than ours,” said Germany’s former World Cup-winning striker Juergen Klinsmann, who lives in Southern California.

Klinsmann’s former coach, Franz Beckenbauer, immediately put pressure on the German team. “If we don’t make the quarterfinals it will be really disappointing,” he said.

Italy has a team that could reach the final, but Coach Giovanni Trapattoni said it will have to tread carefully in the first round, where its opponents include Mexico.

“On paper it looks like it’s an easy group for us, but I don’t think you can say that,” he told Reuters in Pusan.

“Croatia are an excellent team and some of their players have experience of Italian football, which is a big advantage. Mexico has a long football tradition, so of course I’m worried about playing them. Ecuador is a new, emerging side and play some nice football. We will have to be extremely careful.”

Said Mexico Coach Javier Aguirre: “It appears to me that it’s a group which could produce surprises.”

Brazil’s group could do the same. At least one Brazilian was salivating over a group that includes Turkey, Costa Rica and first-timer China.

“Our group is pawpaw with sugar,” Brazil’s technical director, Antonio Lopes, told reporters in Rio de Janeiro.

It does, however, include one soccer strategist who could sour Brazil in a hurry: China Coach Bora Milutinovic, the master of the unexpected.

“It is a tough group, of course, because Brazil are in it, but it’s not an impossible group,” said the coach who took the U.S. to the second round in 1994.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

World Cup Odds

Odds for the 32 qualifiers:

Argentina 4-1

Italy 5-1

France 11-2

Brazil 8-1

Spain 8-1

England 10-1

Germany 10-1

Portugal 11-1

Cameroon 33-1