U.S. Tries to Keep Momentum Going
When something happens for only the third time in 67 years, there has to be a reason. What Coach Bruce Arena must do now is find it, bottle it and preserve it.
Arena and the players on the U.S. national soccer team flew to Los Angeles from Columbus, Ohio, on Thursday, fresh off an exceedingly rare victory over Mexico in World Cup qualifying play.
Such victories have happened only twice before--in 1934 and 1980.
Battered, bruised but beaming, would be the best way to describe the players in the wake of Wednesday night’s 2-0 success. Nonetheless, they said they were looking forward to playing four-time world champion Brazil at the Rose Bowl on Saturday afternoon.
“Absolutely,” said Landon Donovan, the teenage striker from Redlands who is the subject of intense talks between Major League Soccer and his German club, Bayer Leverkusen.
Donovan, who turns 19 Sunday, could be playing in MLS by the start of the season, April 7.
Meanwhile, Mexico’s demoralized squad flew home to Mexico City only to be greeted by a series of newspaper headlines that will do nothing to raise their spirits.
“Humiliated,” said Excelsior. “Not Worth Mentioning,” said Esto.
El Heraldo went even further and lambasted Coach Enrique Meza’s team, saying it was “lacking character, personality [and] leadership.”
Arena doesn’t need to worry about that. His squad won’t have to play Mexico again until July 1 in Mexico City. Next up in World Cup qualifying, after the friendly encounter with Brazil, is Honduras in San Pedro Sula on March 28.
For now, though, the U.S. players simply want to savor this victory--even though it resulted in injuries to forward Brian McBride (severe bruise above his right eye), midfielder Claudio Reyna (left groin strain) and defender Tony Sanneh (broken bone in his left foot).
None of them will play against Brazil.
Most of Arena’s European-based players won’t play, either. Goalkeeper Brad Friedel, defender David Regis, midfielder Earnie Stewart and forwards Joe-Max Moore and Ante Razov all returned to their clubs.
The two Sydney Olympians, Donovan and Josh Wolff, who scored one goal and set up another against Mexico, are the hot properties, and both will play against Brazil.
So will Cobi Jones, still unsigned by MLS but getting closer; former Galaxy standout Clint Mathis, whose pass set up Wolff’s game-winning goal, and Chris Armas, the defensive midfielder who this week was named U.S. Soccer’s Chevrolet player of the year for 2000.
“It was a good win,” Armas said. “We set out to get three points and that’s what we accomplished. The rest of the road to qualifying is going to be difficult, we know that, but it’s a great win.”
Defender Jeff Agoos, whose pass out of the back initiated the sequence that led to Wolff’s goal, suggested that the U.S. must not be complacent because of the victory. It was, after all, only the first of 10 qualifying games this year.
“Obviously, we’re very happy with the result,” he said. “I think we could have played a little bit better, a little bit sharper, but any time you can get a win, especially with the atmosphere we had in Columbus, it was a great feeling.”
Brazil, ranked No. 1 in the world by FIFA, will present a different challenge, especially since Coach Emerson Leao has brought such accomplished players as 1994 World Cup winner and MVP Romario, along with Ronaldinho, Edilson, Cafu and Silvinho.
Arena wouldn’t mind a Romario or two on his own squad, but he’s not complaining about the players he has. Not after they defeated Mexico.
“This game [soccer] is about the players,” he said. “It always was about the players and it always will be. Tactics and coaches belong in the background. It’s all about the players and my hat is off to them.”
By midweek, 30,000 tickets had been sold for Saturday’s 1 p.m. game, which will be televised live by ABC.
