Win or Lose, U.S. Is in a Tough Spot
It could be a lose-lose situation that faces the U.S. national soccer team today when it plays three-time world champion Germany in a World Cup warmup match at Rostock, Germany.
If the United States wins, critics will say it was because injury-riddled Germany was without virtually its entire starting lineup, while the Americans were close to full strength.
If the United States loses, critics will question how the team can possibly expect to do well against Portugal, South Korea and Poland in the first round of the World Cup if its best players can’t even handle a second-string German team.
What will matter more than the result, however, is individual player performance. And that goes for both sides.
The match at the Ostseestadion (tape-delayed at 7 p.m. Pacific on ESPN2 and 8:30 p.m. on Telemundo) was a 28,835 sellout within three days of tickets going on sale.
That was before Germany Coach Rudi Voeller lost such standout players as goalkeeper Oliver Kahn, defenders Jens Nowotny and Christian Woerns, midfielder Mehmet Scholl and forward Carsten Jancker.
In all, a dozen German players opted out of the match, either because of injury or because they needed to save themselves for Bundesliga and European Champions League play. Voeller shrugged off the losses.
“What can you do?” he asked. “You have to work with what you have and these things happen.... I’ve got an opportunity to try out a few things and a few players will get a chance to prove that they deserve to go to the World Cup.”
U.S. Coach Bruce Arena is skeptical of this being an especially weak German team.
“Yes, they’re missing people,” he said, “but for every good player they have out, they have another to take his place.”
Arena said he expects Germany to be less casual about the game than Italy was when the Italians edged the Americans, 1-0, at Catania, Sicily, on Feb. 13.
“I think the last time in Europe we caught a team that was maybe not fully prepared,” he said. “This time around we will face a German team that is prepared for the U.S. They also have players that are fighting for roster spots and have been told plenty of times that they haven’t beaten us the last two times we’ve played.”
The U.S. shut out Germany, 3-0, in a friendly at Jacksonville, Fla., in February 1999, then defeated it again, 2-0, in Guadalajara, Mexico, during the FIFA Confederations Cup in July 1999.
The Americans, who lost, 2-0, to Germany in the opening round of the 1998 World Cup, will be without playmaker Claudio Reyna, who has had a hamstring injury.
“When we look at the big picture, for a player who has been out a number of weeks, it’s not worth the risk,” Arena said. “If he had to, he probably could have played against Germany, but that’s maybe pushing him too hard, too early.”
Injured and questionable to start are striker Brian McBride, who turned his left ankle in the Columbus Crew’s 2-0 loss to the Chicago Fire at Columbus, Ohio, on Saturday, and midfielder John O’Brien, who strained a groin muscle during training on Monday.
“We’re going to wait until Wednesday morning to name our roster,” Arena told Reuters on Tuesday afternoon. “It’s too soon right now and we have to evaluate some guys before we make any decisions.”
If McBride is out, Arena’s options at forward include Clint Mathis, Jovan Kirovski, Landon Donovan and Joe-Max Moore. In midfield, he is likely to select Chris Armas, Earnie Stewart, Eddie Lewis and the Galaxy’s Cobi Jones, assuming O’Brien is unavailable. Kasey Keller will start in goal.
Germany’s players will play in their new 2002 World Cup uniforms, which feature white shirts with black stripes on the sleeves, black shorts and white socks--almost the same as they wore in the 1966 and 1970 World Cup tournaments.
Meanwhile, four World Cup teams played warmup matches Tuesday, with 2002 co-host South Korea earning a 0-0 tie against Turkey in Bochum, Germany, and Nigeria scoring late on a penalty kick to tie Paraguay, 1-1, in London.
