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With the U.S. out, let the real tournament
begin
Posted: Wed June 24, 1998
Sports Illustrated soccer writer Grant Wahl will answer
your World Cup questions through the Finals.
Click here to send a
question.
It was an ugly scene for American soccer last Sunday night
in Lyon. In the interview room after the U.S.'s 2-1 loss to
Iran, coach
Steve
Sampson was doing what he does best—talking. He was saying
something about not having any regrets, blah, blah, blah.
While Sampson spewed forth, prodigal forward
Eric
Wynalda tried to sneak past the media. Wynalda, the Americans'
all-time leading scorer, hadn't played, and now he had
decided not to talk to any American print journalists. His
actions spoke loudly, though. Upon leaving the room he
slammed the door like a
grounded
eight-year-old.
Sampson was still
talking.
That's all you really need to know about the relationship
between Sampson and the U.S. veterans. Over time, the coach
discarded them like empty soda cans:
John
Harkes,
Alexi
Lalas,
Marcelo
Balboa, and finally,
Wynalda.
The relationship between Sampson and the team simply didn't
work, and he will be fired soon (or he will gracefully
resign). Yet he surely won't be remembered as a milquetoast
coach. but instead as a guy who thought that through his
will alone he could
force the world to respect U.S. soccer. It's not that easy,
of course, and Sampson proved to be woefully in over his
head.
U.S. Soccer's instinctive reaction might be to hire an
international coach with a proven track record like
Portugal's
Carlos
Queiroz, but keep in mind that a country has never won a World Cup
with a foreign-born coach. That's why the U.S. would be
better off hiring D.C. United coach
Bruce
Arena post-haste and get on with rebuilding the beleagured
national
team.
But enough about the U.S. I had a fun week following real
teams and players. Irascible
goalkeeper
Jose Luis
Chilavert of Paraguay told me that, yes, he thinks he is better
looking than Henry Rollins, the lead singer of the Rollins
Band (who happens to look just like
him). Italian striker
Christian
Vieri proved that athletes can be jerks in any language when he
feigned the inability to speak English (this from a guy who
grew up in Australia). And
Iran coach
Jalal
Talebi displayed the kind of grace that more sports figures could
use. "It's just a game," he said after Iran's
victory over the
Americans. "Nothing
more."
There was plenty going on outside the stadiums too. There
were the blessed Scottish fans, who I found bathing in
their kilts in a fountain outside the St. Etienne train
station. There were the Cameroonians, dressed in their
safari gear, dancing and
holding up traffic in Montpellier (no one seemed to mind). And
there were the Paraguayans who bought me a beer in St.
Etienne and sang as though their boys had scored a dozen
goals (they hadn't scored
any).
So what's the upset special of the week? I predicted
Paraguay's 3-1 win over Nigeria on
Wednesday. But here's one thing to remember: there just haven't been many
upsets in this tournament. The only surprise victories, in
fact, have been Nigeria over Spain, Iran over the U.S. and
Norway over Brazil. In other words, it will be an upset if
there are any upsets
at all. On to your
questions:
What are the chances of Italy, Argentina and England in the
World Cup? They all have gifted players but always seem to
falter at the crucial stages in a
tournament.
—Shah Hemang, Mumbai,
Bombay
Huh? Last time I checked those countries had won a combined
six World Cups. You know what I think about England (see
below). By finishing first in Group
B, Italy avoided a second-round date with Brazil and should
now breeze to the quarterfinals and maybe even further.
Before the tournament started I picked Argentina to go to
the final, and I'll stand by that pick (witness the 5-0
thrashing of
Jamaica).
Don't you think that Tab Ramos would be a better playmaker
than Claudio Reyna? Is Reyna aggressive enough and speedy
enough to do the
job?
—Delroy Wallace, Coral Springs,
Fla.
Reyna is the United States' most talented player. It's that
simple. Not that Reyna has had a good tournament—he
hasn't—but he has been the only U.S. player to display
any creative offensive spark, and that's what you need in a
playmaker. Ramos showed
against Iran that he's not 100 percent after his knee injury,
and even if he were, his legs are just too
old.
You named Spain as the most overrated team and Chile as the
most underrated team. Who do you think the most overrated
and underrated
players
are?
—Dan Seland, Fayetteville,
N.C.
Wrong, Dan. I named England as the most overrated team, and
after its 2-1 loss to Romania on Monday all I can say is
that I rest my case. As far as players are concerned,
Norway's
Tore Andre
Flo is the most overrated. Everyone expected the striker to be
untouchable in the air. Instead, he rarely touches the
ball. The most underrated player in this tournament is
Nigerian forward
Jay-Jay
Okocha. He hasn't scored a goal
yet, but he controlled each of Nigeria's first two matches
with pinpoint diagonal crosses and blazing runs to the
goal. With all the talk about too many red cards being
handed out, no one has mentioned that it has allowed
creators like Okocha to truly show
their
talents.
Who do you think the best keepers in the tournament
are?
—Jacco de Feyter, Leiden,
Holland
I know why you're asking me this. Yes,
Ed van der
Sar of the Netherlands is one of the best keepers of the
tournament. So is Denmark's
Peter
Schmeichel. But you know what? Contrary to what a lot of people say,
as long as a keeper isn't a total spaz I don't think he's
that important, not in the way
Dominik
Hasek is to his hockey team. Look at Brazil and France, two of
the best teams in the tournament. Brazil's
Taffarel is one of the worst 10 keepers in the World
Cup, and France's
Fabian
Barthez isn't much
better.
We talk a lot about the U.S. team maturing over the past
eight to 12 years. What about the fans? How do you measure
fan progress, and media progress for that matter? It seems
this year is the first time all matches are broadcast in
English in the
U.S.
—Troy Otillio, San Jose,
Calif.
Given the U.S.'s awful performance in France, I'd say that
American fans are improving far more rapidly than their
team. Sam's Army, the U.S. supporters group, was in
full-throated force in Lyon and especially in Paris. Its
members sing creative songs
all game long and don't stop when the U.S. is losing. After
the loss to Iran,
Frankie
Hejduk was the only U.S. player who remembered to walk out and
clap for his fans (until three others followed his lead).
When I asked him about it afterward he told me it was
important to show some respect. The fans certainly deserved
it.
The American media has also given more attention to this
World Cup. For example,
The
New York
Times published five soccer articles in its sports section the
day after the U.S.'s opening match.
Sports
Illustrated devoted more than 30 pages to its World Cup preview.
Whether the U.S.'s dismal record here will hurt that
coverage remains to be
seen.
What is your impression of the stadia in France? Do you
agree with those who say that more intimate soccer stadia
such as the ones in the smaller cities in France could be
the key to MLS' future success, rather than the huge NFL
enormodomes most MLS teams are currently
in?
—Alex Seldin,
Philadelphia
You're exactly right. MLS would do well to imitate the
30,000-to-40,000-seat stadiums in France. I've been to
games in Montpellier, Lyon, Nantes and St. Etienne, and the
atmosphere in each has been intimate and most important,
loud. American fans don't
often understand that stadiums in other countries usually
aren't very big. Could you imagine what going to Los
Angeles Galaxy games would be like if you could pack L.A.'s
30,000 fans into a raging crackerbox instead of the Rose
Bowl? Going to an MLS game
would become a totally different
experience.
That's all for now. Thanks for your questions, and we'll do
this again next
week.
Send a question to Grant
Wahl and come back throughout the World Cup to read more of his
responses.
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