No mas for Armas

What now for the U.S.?

"No player is indispensable."
—Bruce Arena, October 2000

That was the first thing that flashed through my mind on Sunday when we learned that Chris Armas, the U.S.'s tough-as-nails defensive midfielder, would miss the World Cup after tearing his right ACL against Uruguay. In his typically direct way, Arena was responding to my coronation of Armas (in a 2000 Sports Illustrated article) as the Americans' most indispensable player.

Truth be told, I didn't buy Arena's argument at the time, dismissing it as the usual coachspeak. Armas was indispensable in those days, and yet for a number of reasons I now think his loss will be less damaging than I would have suspected in October 2000.

On a personal level, of course, it's tragic news for Armas, one of the game's good guys who now has to wait another four years to make his World Cup debut. But this isn't a catastrophe for the U.S. team. For starters, Armas got the "most indispensable" tag not because he was the most skilled American player, but because he performed a dirty, vital (and thankless) job far better than anyone else. There just weren't any other options at D-mid.

Recently, though, we've seen: 1) Armas struggle at times internationally, and 2) the emergence of two potentially capable replacements -- Pablo Mastroeni, the dreadlocked ball-winner who filled in admirably for Armas on Sunday, and John O'Brien, a less physical but more talented midfielder whose return to health means he'll be somewhere in the starting XI in South Korea.

So who will be at D-mid on June 4 against Portugal? My money is on Mastroeni. Consider the opponent. Despite Mastro's lack of experience (only nine caps), there's enough "hardguy" in him to help slow down the Portuguese attack in a game the U.S. would be ecstatic to tie 0-0. Then, in the Yanks' winnable second match against South Korea, I'd expect to see a more offensive-minded lineup, with O'Brien moving to D-mid and DaMarcus Beasley, Landon Donovan or Eddie Lewis filling the other midfield spot. (Which reminds me, before Beasley's blinder of a game on Sunday, did anyone think he would have as good a shot as Donovan at starting in Korea?)

In any case, I still don't buy Arena's "no player is indispensable" line. It's just that, as became painfully clear during World Cup qualifying, that player is Claudio Reyna.

Smells like ... team spirit

Having just returned from a memorably wacky, week-long stay with Bora Milutinovic and the Chinese national team (look for the article in this week's SI), I'm finally starting to realize why World Cup coaches and players make such a big deal about "team spirit."

Keep in mind, you never hear Joe Torre or Larry Brown or Bill Parcells saying the words team spirit, which sounds like the kind of rah-rah B.S. you'd hear from a junior high coach. Yet you hear it all the time in soccer: from Bora, who considers "a good ambience" in camp to be more important than anything tactical or technical; from Jurgen Klinsmann, who has used the phrase to describe his training sessions with the L.A. Galaxy; and even from Arena, who has gone back to the "team spirit" well again and again in press conferences.

When you think about it, though, all this spirit talk actually makes sense. What was it that tore apart the U.S. in World Cup '98? A lack of team spirit. What was it that caused Lothar Matthaus to bet money that Klinsmann -- his teammate, no less -- would score fewer than 10 goals for Bayern Munich six years ago? A lack of team spirit. Why is it that Bora wears a hat in China that reads (in English) ATTITUDE IS EVERYTHING? Team spirit.

After all, national teams are all-star teams, with the egos and catty cliques to match. The last thing you want is for a malcontent (or malcontents) to poison the atmosphere at the worst possible time. Which is why Arena's biggest concern right now has to be the reaction of whoever loses the battle between Brad Friedel and Kasey Keller for the No. 1 goalkeeper spot. Both keepers believe they deserve the nod, both have their own supporters on the team -- and each has a history of sulking when he doesn't get his way.

The classic soccer channel

Ever wish ESPN Classic showed famous old soccer matches? They don't, of course, but thanks to Dave Brett Wasser (DaveBrett@msn.com), a soccer nutjob from Austin, Texas, I've been getting my fill lately. A childhood fan of the New York Cosmos, Dave has a monster collection of old games, and he recently sent me a goodie box containing the following tapes: