Flop in France
U.S. soccer: Disaster in France, triumph in Florida
Posted: Wednesday January 06, 1999 03:30 PM
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Two-time MLS champion D.C. United stunned Brazil's Vasco da Gama for the Interamerican Cup AP |
NEW YORK, New York (AP) -- American soccer was embarrassed in Paris, and all over the world for that matter. At the World Cup, the one event that gets
widespread notice back home, the U.S. team was rife with dissension
and finished last among 32 teams.
Just five months later, there was joyous celebration, a feeling
of international respect combined with domestic ignorance for one
of the country's greatest soccer triumphs. D.C. United became the
first American team to win the championship of the Western
Hemisphere with its stunning 2-0 upset of Brazilian powerhouse
Vasco da Gama.
But the stadium was half-empty, and it was a struggle to find
the game on television.
The next day, the smile was gone from the face of Major League
Soccer commissioner Doug Logan.
"We've managed to achieve success in splendid secrecy," he
said.
Logan would be the first to admit that United got most of the
breaks in the December 5 Interamerican Cup game before 7,283 at
Lockhart Stadium in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Vasco da Gama was
jet-lagged, overconfident and had waived its home-field advantage
for the match.
Yet, from a competitive standpoint, the victory at least gave an
upbeat ending to a year soured by the U.S. team's performance in
the World Cup, where coach Steve Sampson's decision to bench
seasoned veterans and showcase an unproven formation brought
something close to open rebellion from players.
"It's unfortunate for everyone, the way things turned out,"
midfielder Tab Ramos said. "Some guys, like myself, said some
things and Steve answered back. At the end, I was thinking, 'This
isn't smart by anybody.'"
The Americans, who finished 0-3, lost to Germany and Yugoslavia
- not unexpected - but a 2-1 politically sensitive defeat to Iran
put the U.S. team below even the also-rans of World Cup lore. The
unanswerable question is whether a team thought to be so talented
going in would have prospered under another coach.
The Americans, who lost 0-3 to Germany and Yugoslavia, finished below even the also-rans of World Cup lore Shaun Botterill/Allsport | |
"The sad thing is the rest of the world looks at us now and
says we're not that good," said midfielder John Harkes, the
longtime U.S. captain whom Sampson cut before the World Cup. "But
the talent was undermined. That was the decision by the coach."
Sampson, saying the players made him the scapegoat, resigned the
day he left France, closing an unsettling chapter in the American
game. The next one opened in October, when D.C. United coach Bruce
Arena was named his successor.
The U.S. Soccer Federation looked at some big foreign names, but
Arena was the obvious choice all along. He won five trophies in
three years with United - the Interamerican Cup, the CONCACAF
Champions Cup, the U.S. Open Cup and two MLS Cups as the champions
of Major League Soccer.
The victory over Vasco da Gama was Arena's last game with
United, and his goal with the U.S. team is to make the second round
at the 2002 World Cup in Japan and South Korea. Arena has pledged a
youth movement to have a contending team in place by the time
qualifying starts in 2000.
While the United States struggles with its place on the
international stage, the domestic game hums along as a second-tier
sport. Both attendance and television ratings were flat for MLS in
1998, proving that while the league is here to stay, it's not ready
to challenge the big four of football, basketball, baseball and
hockey.
The league averaged about 14,000 fans during the regular season,
including 17,886 for the expansion Chicago Fire, which ended D.C.
United's mini-dynasty with a 2-0 victory in the MLS Cup in October.
Franchises in Kansas City and Tampa continued to draw poorly, but
Columbus showed enough faith to build a 22,500-seat stadium for the
Crew designed specifically for soccer.
In five years, Logan hopes to expand the 12-team league to 18 or
20 teams drawing 18,000 per game - and maybe even show a profit.
"There are losses and there will continue to be," Logan said.
"But (the investors) have pledged to invest more over the next
five years. They continue to think there's a huge upside."
Meanwhile, there's a more immediate task: find a way to make
everyone take notice when an American team actually wins something.
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