A few minutes before his World Cup debut on June 15, U.S.
defender Eddie Pope's jaw dropped when he looked across the
field and saw the German he would be guarding. At 6'3" and 185
pounds, Oliver Bierhoff, the top scorer in Italy's Serie A this
season, was the most intimidating opponent the U.S. would meet
in the World Cup. "When I saw him before the game, I said, 'Wow,
I knew he was tall, but I didn't know he was that big,'"
recalled the 6'1", 180-pound Pope, who seemed wiry in comparison.
One of the few Americans who improved his stock with this World
Cup, Pope demonstrated a sense of calm and sophistication beyond
his 24 years. He spent the first two games banging against
Bierhoff and Iran's 6'2", 174-pound Ali Daei, preventing them
from setting up in the penalty box and holding them without a
goal. All that hard low-post play left Pope with a sore back and
a seat on the bench for the Americans' concluding 1-0 loss to
Yugoslavia, which placed them last in the 32-team field and
prompted the resignation of coach Steve Sampson on Monday.
Pope gives the U.S. at least a foundation upon which to build
toward the 2002 Cup. The former North Carolina All-America is
hoping to be playing in Europe by then, if a club can negotiate
his transfer with MLS, which owns his rights through 2000. "I
didn't learn anything about myself because I always believed I
could do it," Pope said after the last U.S. game. "But maybe I
learned something about the game—how much higher the next level
was and how much more pressure there was going to be."
Issue date: July 6, 1998
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