This U.S. Defeat Is Second Nature

When it returns to Germany for the World Cup in June, the United States had better bring its real team.

That was the international soccer lesson learned Wednesday night when an admittedly understrength U.S. lineup was routed, 4-1, by Germany, which got goals from Bastian Schweinsteiger, Oliver Neuville, Miroslav Klose and Michael Ballack to the delight of a Dortmund World Cup Stadium crowd of 64,500.

The Americans played the Germans more or less even for the scoreless first half but gave up a goal 21 seconds into the second half and then collapsed late in the game when they yielded three goals in a seven-minute span.

“We got beat and we deserved to get beat,” U.S. Coach Bruce Arena said.

“I’d never come again to Germany ... with a second team.”

Goalkeeper Kasey Keller was biting in his criticism of his teammates.

“What this game proves is who can play at this level and who can’t,” he said.

Defender Gregg Berhalter had an error-riddled nightmare of a match, and forward Brian Ching and midfielder Chris Klein appeared slow and ponderous.

The only four U.S. players, in fact, whose reputations remained intact were Keller, defender Steve Cherundolo, who scored the only American goal, industrious midfielder Pablo Mastroeni and attacking midfielder Bobby Convey.

“I don’t think too many players played themselves onto our World Cup roster,” Arena said. “There were a few solid performances, but nothing certainly that would make a strong case. Some were OK, others, not too good.”

The opening goal came when Cherundolo fouled Ballack near the left sideline and Schweinsteiger, who had just entered the game, scored from the resulting free kick.

“It was just a huge mental mistake,” Arena said. “After 45 minutes of good concentration and smart football, we started the second half very poorly.”

The U.S. had suffered a setback much earlier when forward Josh Wolff was forced out in the 17th minute. He was running with his head down when he slammed into the elbow of German defender Christoph Metzelder.

Wolff suffered a mild concussion and had five stitches in his head to close the wound.

“The injury to Josh ... threw us off a little bit and took away a little bit of our attacking power,” Arena said.

When the Americans tired in the last 20 minutes, Germany took advantage. Neuville scored in the 73rd minute, Klose in the 75th and Ballack made it 4-0 in the 79th.

“One thing that was obvious to me is that our domestic [Major League Soccer] players, who are still out of season, are very unfit for games at this level,” Arena said. “You could see the fatigue set in for a number of [them] at about the 65- or 70-minute mark.”

The U.S. got a quirky goal with five minutes left when Keller threw the ball out to Cherundolo, who kicked it long downfield for Eddie Johnson. But Johnson and German goalkeeper Oliver Kahn went down in a heap while racing for the ball, which bounced into the open net.

Earlier, Kahn had made an excellent one-handed diving save off Johnson.

Germany Coach Juergen Klinsmann took the opportunity after the victory to lambaste segments of the German media that have criticized him and his players unmercifully since a 4-1 loss to Italy on March 1, especially the Bild newspaper.

“This win will allow us to carry on working for the next few months in a much quieter atmosphere,” he said, adding, “Now we know where the enemy within is.”