U.S. Is Drawn Into a Tough Group for Soccer Event

The United States under-20 national soccer team was handed Sunday the most difficult challenge possible when it was drawn to play four-time champion Argentina, highly favored Germany and unknown quantity Egypt in the FIFA World Youth Championship from June 10 to July 2 in the Netherlands.

Coach Sigi Schmid, who attended the draw at the Jaarbeus Exhibition Centre in the Dutch city of Utrecht, tried to downplay the outcome.

“I think we’ve gotten a reasonably difficult group,” he said by telephone. “That’s nothing that’s going to deter us from our goal, which is to get out of our group and advance as far as we possibly can.

“I think this world championship is going to be the best youth championship in a while because the timing of it, being in the summer, is going to allow all the European and South American countries to bring all of their players. I don’t think there are going to be club conflicts for any of the teams.... All the top teams are going to come with all their top guns.”

The world championship, which is held every two years and invariably produces players who go on to win the World Cup, will be played in six Dutch cities. The U.S. will play its first three games at Enschede, near the Dutch-German border.

“I know that the German fans will be behind Germany,” Schmid said, “but I hope that they realize in the Argentina and Egypt games that the U.S. has a coach of German background and will support the U.S.”

The Americans, who open against Argentina on June 11, can advance to the round of 16 by finishing first or second in their group or by being one of the four best third-place teams.

“We’re excited,” Schmid said. “We certainly have a big opener, and my feeling is that the U.S. has always found a way to play well against good opponents. If we have a weakness, it’s that maybe we relax a little bit when we play opponents that are not of the top echelon, but there’s nobody we can relax against in our group.”

In the Americans’ favor, no U.S. coach is as familiar with German soccer as Schmid, who keeps a close watch on the Bundesliga and on Germany’s national teams.

“For me to coach against Germany is very, very exciting,” he said. “From my standpoint, that will certainly be an emotional day and a day I’m looking forward to.”

Also in his favor, Schmid has former Galaxy and Egyptian national team goalkeeper Zak Abdel as one of his assistants, which might make scouting and understanding the African team a little less complicated

“Zak, who helped us in the qualifying tournament and worked with the goalkeepers, still has contacts there and, obviously, in terms of getting access and being able to get tape on them and so forth, that’s going to be helpful,” Schmid said. “And he can help address the mentality of that kind of a team.”

As for Argentina, the U.S. might get an opportunity to see how it stacks up against the South Americans when it takes part in a four-nation tournament at South Korea on March 22-26 along with Argentina, Egypt and the host nation.

“I don’t know if the Argentines necessarily want to play us in Korea or if we want to play them there,” Schmid said, adding that although the U.S. is committed to the event, Argentina might opt to withdraw.

Schmid said he planned to take the under-20 team to Holland in April for about 10 days to familiarize the players with Enschede and to play some games. He also plans three or more Wednesday night games in the U.S. when Major League Soccer teams can make their under-20 players available. He said the collegiate players on the roster will be in camp at the Home Depot Center from early May until leaving for the world championship.

Four prominent Dutch soccer figures, Marco Van Basten, Hans Van Breukelen, Guus Hiddink and John Van’t Ship, performed the draw, and it was Van Basten whose selection determined the U.S. team’s fate.

“Obviously, the Netherlands did pretty well with Benin and Australia in its group, but it always seems that FIFA draws work out fairly well for the host nation,” Schmid said. “As somebody from CONCACAF said to me, ‘Well, you didn’t get any gifts today.’ ”