U.S. doesn’t have to act like underdog, but it might be a winning role
That’s what they tell you, sure. It says “Seoul” on the hotel stationery, “Seoul” on the plane ticket, “Seoul” on the press kit. But if you believe that, the next thing they’ll try to do is sell you a ticket for a World Cup quarterfinal between Turkey and Senegal.
Where was the connection to the outer space black hole on the flight from Tokyo to, ahem, “Seoul”?
(I apparently missed it while engrossed in a travel brochure about Suwon, capital of the Korean “toilet culture.” Suwon, according to the promotional literature, boasts the most beautiful public restroom in all of Korea, the result of the city’s famous “Campaign to Beautify our Toilet” of 1997, featuring “the grandest toilet with beautiful pictures on the wall, well supplied with current newspapers and magazines, music playing constantly and the scent of flowers in the air.” A little slice of heaven, that Suwon toilet.)
Where were we again?
That is the question, isn’t it?
Tuesday, I found myself in a discussion, at least that’s how I remember it, among German and American sportswriters debating a World Cup quarterfinal matchup between Germany and the United States. I’m not kidding. The Americans seemed pretty convinced the Americans had no chance. The German scribe, on the other hand, was very impressed with U.S. striker Clint Mathis (“I’d rather have him than Klose”) and U.S. Coach Bruce Arena (“He could coach in Europe”) and had serious misgivings about the quality of this German team (“The worst German World Cup team ever”).
Wednesday, I found myself in a news conference, at least to the best of my recollection, during which a writer asked Arena if he had seen South Korea’s upset of Italy the night before and did he have a preference for an opponent in the next round, Spain or South Korea?
Arena blinked and paused and smiled and said, “So you’re asking the coach from the United States, ‘Who do you prefer to play in the semifinals of the World Cup?’ ”
To quote the famed American striker of tennis balls, John McEnroe, who is very lucky his sport never adopted the red-card concept: You cannot be serious.
We have been whisked to some uncharted Fourth Dimension of Football, a parallel soccer universe where up is down, right is left, France, Argentina, Italy and Portugal are all at home and Senegal, Turkey, South Korea and the United States are on the doorstep of the World Cup final four.
According to the official schedule, the U.S. is to play Germany in one quarterfinal in Ulsan. In Germany, they actually believe this is going to happen. Germans are taking it seriously.
The German newspaper Bild reports that Germany has a 75% chance of beating the U.S. in the quarterfinal. Really. This gives the U.S. an exponentially improved chance of reaching the semifinals, compared to the 0% it had four days ago.
German assistant coach Michael Skibbe disputes those numbers.
“We can consider us to be in the semifinal,” Skibbe says.
And Germany’s coach, Rudi Voeller, points out that while it may be true the “U.S. players are strong in attack ... they have a number of gaps in defense.”
That sounds more like the World Cup we know. Arrogant Germans. Inadequate Americans. Germany 2, USA 0 in the first round of the 1998 World Cup, with the sequel serving up more of the same Friday.
Or will it?
If this really is the World Cup, and South Korea really did eliminate Italy on a header over Paolo Maldini, and Senegal really did shoot down France and Sweden, and Turkey really did overcome 45,011 Japanese in Miyagi, then anything is possible ... even, as ridiculous as it sounds, the U.S. over Germany with a spot in the semifinals at stake.
The Americans have a few assets going for them, the most important being that no one outside the team bus actually expects them to win. Arena, quite shrewdly, plays up the no-hope angle, reminding writers from both countries that the Germans are bigger and stronger and looked quite imposing in a 4-2 exhibition victory over the U.S. in Rostock in late March. “They’re supposed to beat us, right?” Arena says.
Portugal thought the same thing. So did Mexico.
In a tournament where reputation means nothing, the old image of Americans scratching their heads over the soccer ball and wondering why they can’t pick it up and run plays right into the Americans’ hands.
In a tournament where reputation means nothing, Germany is living off laurels four, eight, 12, 16, 20 years old. Saudi Arabia didn’t know better and came in scared against the Germans. The Saudis gave up eight goals. Paraguay’s Cesare Maldini, the old Italian weaned on the fearsome German machines of yore, decided to coach against the name instead of the reality. Maldini had Paraguay try to play for penalties--and nearly wound up boring the tournament into the Japan Sea before Oliver Neuville, thankfully, scored a lone goal.
This is not a great German team, as even the Germans concede. It lost in the first round of the 2000 European championships. It struggled to qualify for Korea/Japan 2002. Franz Beckenbauer, who won World Cups for Germany as a player and coach, says the current German squad has one world-class player, goalkeeper Oliver Kahn, and a bunch of “average-to-good” field players who get by on teamwork and organization.
Forward Miroslav Klose shares the tournament scoring lead with Brazil’s Ronaldo with five goals, although please note the asterisk attached: *Three goals came against totally discombobulated Saudi Arabia--and Klose didn’t manage much of anything in the must-win match against Paraguay.
Not creative enough to break down defenses through its midfield, Germany relies on launching crosses over the top and waiting for the defense to make a mistake. The U.S. will have to crowd the box, as it did against Mexico, and probably will need to play three center backs with two wingers tracking back to help defend, which is how the Americans shut down Mexico.
Germany’s back line isn’t going to lose many headers, but it is susceptible to speed. DaMarcus Beasley did not play in Rostock, but he could figure prominently in Ulsan.
U.S. defender Tony Sanneh, who plays for the German club FC Nuremberg, says Germany’s players “don’t have a lot of respect for us. I think that stems from the [last] World Cup. Germany hasn’t been strong in the last couple years, but their whole thing is, ‘Well, we’re a tournament team.’
“And they always have been a tournament team. With the exception of the last Euro [championships], they’ve always done great. It’s almost like a sure bet they always get to the semifinals.”
And it would seem that way again Friday.
But that’s based on knowledge gained from another place and another time. It is different here, where there is no such thing as a sure thing, where a Turkey-South Korea final is not yet out of the question, where the city of Suwon welcomes everyone to come see the most beautiful toilet in all the land.
