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U.S. team hopes for home crowd
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) -- The U.S. men's soccer team is accustomed to being booed -- sometimes even when it's playing at home. However, there won't be many critics in the crowd at Crew Stadium on Wednesday night when the U.S. team plays its pivotal second-round World Cup qualifier against Costa Rica. "This team is used to playing on the road," defender Jeff Agoos said. "We've had games here in the States where we feel as much like the visitors as we do the home team." Game promoters have urged U.S. fans to wear red in a show of support for the team. "We rarely get a home-field advantage, especially when we do play in the U.S., ironically enough," Agoos said. "It seems like Columbus and Portland are some of the unique venues where we do get an overwhelming majority of pro-America fans." Temporary grandstands with 1,170 seats have been added to the stadium, pushing capacity to 23,725. With the sale of standing-room-only tickets, officials are hoping to break the stadium's record crowd of 24,741 set May 15, 1999, in the facility's debut. "We play home games certain places like L.A., where crowds might be anti-U.S. -- which is not a lot of fun," forward Ante Razov said. "But we're going to have a very pro-American crowd out here, and that's definitely helps, especially in the latter stages of the game." Acting U.S. head coach Dave Sarachan said he expects a warm reception. "I think we're going to see a lot more red and feel a lot more support than we have in the previous games at home," Sarachan said. Sarachan will replace Bruce Arena, who will begin serving a three-game suspension for confronting officials and criticizing them to the media after Hernan Medford's penalty kick in stoppage time gave Costa Rica a 2-1 victory over the Americans on July 23 in San Jose, Costa Rica. The United States is 0-1-1 on foreign soil and 2-0 back home in the second qualifying round. The Americans need a victory to clinch a spot in the final qualifying stage. Should they lose, they would have to win at Barbados on Nov. 8 to advance. "The motivation here is to get into the next round," Arena said. "Obviously, if you can do it earlier, you're happier. You don't want to stretch it out another four or five weeks." Costa Rica leads the four-nation group with a 3-1 mark. Two teams move on. Besides Arena, the U.S. team will also be without a many as four front-line players. Midfielder Earnie Stewart has two yellow cards in semifinal qualifying and will miss the match, as will captain Claudio Reyna. He was suspended for arguing the penalty call against defender Gregg Berthaler in the first Costa Rica match. Midfielder Eddie Lewis was issued a red card in the 65th minute in the match against Guatemala on Sept. 3 in Washington, D.C. Brian McBride, a local favorite with the Columbus Crew of the MLS, will likely miss the game because of a blood clot in his arm. He scored the winner against Guatemala.
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