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U.S. must look ahead—way
ahead
Posted: Wed July 1,
1998
Sports Illustrated soccer writer Grant Wahl will answer
your World Cup questions through the Finals.
Click here to send a
question.
PARIS—I watched the last U.S. game of the Cup (thank
god) at an establishment called "Route 66" on Rue
de Lappe near the Bastille last Thursday night. Big
mistake. "Route 66," it turned out, was one of
those faux-American places where Americans don't
happen to be welcome. How was
I supposed to know? There was a big TV up front with the
American flag hanging below it. When I asked the
not-so-friendly bartender if we could tune in the U.S. game
he said no, he couldn't. Puzzled, I pointed out the
American
flag to him. He shook his head again. And so my group was
shunted off to a dusty corner to watch the game on a screen
not much larger than the overpriced beer I was
holding.
Not that the U.S. team deserved to contaminate any more
cathode ray tubes after finishing last—dead
last!—among the 32 teams here. The Yugoslavia game (or
what I could see of it) was more of the same: the U.S.
could dribble and pass just fine so long as
none of that occurred in Yugoslavia's side of the field.
That's all. The U.S. was horrible, and there's not much
else to do but look ahead and decide what needs to happen
for the U.S. to
improve:
1) Hire D.C. United's Bruce Arena as
coach. He's the only American qualified to do the job (a fact
that has been true for the last three
years).
2) Send the team's young players on the first flight to
Europe. MLS has received interest from European clubs for
Eddie Pope, Frankie Hejduk, Brian
Maisonneuve and
Brian
McBride. They're still young enough to get better before it's too
late.
3) Do more than pay lip-service to player
development. The "2010" initiative and "Project 40"
are the right ideas for American player development. It
will take time to see if they produce any
results.
In the wake of getting bounced, U.S. coach
Steve
Sampson quit the team on Monday, but insisted that he wasn't
pressured to leave by U.S. Soccer Federation president
Alan
Rothenberg.
In international competition, you almost never see a coach
fail because he didn't do enough. Rather, coaches fail by
doing way too much.
Once Sampson started to try to put his own stamp on the
team, he
failed.
Sampson wasn't totally to blame, but right or wrong, he'll
take the brunt of criticism from the fans, the media and
the players themselves. He never proved he could coach
professional
players.
What's next for him? He says he's had offers from several
Central American countries and MLS is a possibility, though
I could see him coaching Costa Rica before the Tampa Bay
Mutiny. He has become a big enough "name" that he
could coach MLS, but then again, he has hurt his
credibility by coming in last place at the World Cup. The
question MLS teams will ask themselves is, do they want
someone with a high profile, but without
proven success coaching
professionals?
Here are my picks for the first two quarterfinals: On
Friday,
I'll go with Brazil to race past Denmark, and France to use
the Stade de France to full advantage in beating Italy,
most likely on penalty
kicks.
Keep an eye on these
matchups:
Danish goalkeeper Peter Schmeichel vs. Brazilian forward
Ronaldo. The world's best keeper takes on the world's best forward.
My bet's on Ronaldo to score at least
twice.
French midfielder Zinedine Zidane vs. Italy's back
line. The tournament's most stylish playmaker returns after a
two-game suspension for a red card. Italy's defense is on
its last legs after losing two players to injury. The
crystal ball says Zidane finally earns that big Rogaine
endorsement
here.
After much consultation and debate (O.K., it took about 10
minutes)
here's my first-round All-Tournament
team:
GK José Luis Chilavert,
Paraguay
Forget about the free-kick sideshow. He's amazing at
keeping the ball out of his own
net.
D Pierre Njanka,
Cameroon
He scored the best goal of the
Cup.
D Lilian Thuram,
France
Intercepts everything that comes his way, and just as
talented
advancing
the
ball.
D Thomas Helveg,
Denmark
A defender who worries only about defending, and does that
very
well.
M Mustapha Hadji,
Morocco
Inventive and always
confident.
M Ariel Ortega,
Argentina
Killed Jamaica with two goals on hellbent
runs.
M Cesar Sampaio,
Brazil
Little-known Brazilian has discovered a scoring
touch.
M Jay-Jay Okocha,
Nigeria
Can beat you on the ground or in the air with long diagonal
passes.
F Christian Vieri,
Italy
The surprise of the tournament with five
goals.
F Gabriel Batistuta,
Argentina
Scored hat trick in eight minutes against
Jamaica.
F Marcelo Salas,
Chile
Showed he could finish with flair on the world
stage.
First-round MVP:
Vieri.
He gets a bad rap for having limited skills, but his
fabulous second-round goal against Norway disproved
that.
Enough of my babbling. Here's some of
yours:
Who do you blame for the U.S.'s poor showing in
France?
—Richard Rowlands, San
Diego
Sampson may be less popular than the heads of most
cigarette companies right now, but he's by no means totally
at fault for the U.S. disaster. Last time I checked, in
fact, Sampson wasn't one of the players who were incapable
of penetrating the
offensive thirds of Germany, Iran or Yugoslavia. So
blame the
players—every single one of them—for not being skilled
enough and not having the confidence to attack without
hesitating.
Blame
MLS for not creating the environment to produce
international-level talent.
And yes, blame the
coach for lacking the subtlety to let his players play with a
minimum of interference from the
sidelines.
Why are Tab Ramos, Eric Wynalda and Jeff Agoos so mad?
Wynalda showed nothing for his playing time and Ramos
wasn't much better. Agoos lost his spot to a better player
(David Regis). I note that European teams weren't impressed
by these
guys.
—Joe Vahlsing, Alexandria,
Ky.
The U.S. veterans are angry because they didn't want to
finish dead last in their final World Cup, and because most
of them sat on the bench more than they thought they would.
You're right about Wynalda. For years he was a great player
for the national
team, but not many folks have pointed out that he hasn't had
a good game for the U.S. in two
years.
By the way, have you ever noticed that every article
mentioning him includes the phrase "all-time leading
U.S. goal scorer?"
How come no one ever calls Joe-Max Moore "the second-leading active U.S.
scorer?" And why was no one angry that the "second-leading active U.S. scorer" didn't start against Germany, or
that he played a defensive role against Iran and
Yugoslavia?
About your commenting last week on Tore Andre Flo as an
overrated player: After his goal against
Brazil—winning a one-on-one race against Junior Baiano
and shooting it past Baiano's left foot and Taffarel's
right hand to the far right corner, in one of the most
beautiful single efforts of the Cup so far—I would
reconsider. Not to mention his acting skills in falling
down at the right moment and helping trick the American
referee into giving him a game-winning penalty
kick!
—Yuval Warshai, Ann Arbor,
Mich.
I've never met you, Yuval, but I would wager good money
that both you and
I could beat Junior (Olé!) Baiano
one-on-one. So I still think Flo is overrated, and I'll hold my
ground until I see him get off the bench for Chelsea, his
English club
team.
Which match will be the most exciting to watch in the
second
round?
—James Tracy, Costa
Rica
I hope you got to see Argentina-England on Tuesday. The
Univision telecast was particularly exciting. Lead
announcer
Andres
Cantor is originally from Argentina, and his popular
"Goooooal!" calls included a few extra
O's.
Do you think there is any chance coach Cesare Maldini will
use Roberto Baggio, Christian Vieri, and Alessandro Del
Piero in the same Italian lineup? I think this would be a
devastating surprise attack in the later stages of the Cup,
possibly against
France.
—Dave Tedesco, Huntington,
N.Y.
I'd love to see it too, but it won't happen. Maldini, being
Italian, is never going to risk hurting his defense by
throwing three forwards on the field at once.
Baggio deserves to
start, though. Del Piero looked awful against
Norway.
What does the U.S. Soccer Federation have to do to
establish a national team to compete on a world level? Do
we have to restructure our youth program? Do MLS teams
have to sponsor youth teams similar to German powerhouse
Ajax, or create minor leagues and pay players to bypass
college
soccer?
—Chris Reynolds, Swarthmore,
Pa.
Here's the deal: A country like the U.S. can't get better
without putting a lot of money into its soccer development
program. There's not enough in MLS for the clubs to have
youth teams, so the league is doing what it can with
"Project 40," which
encourages talented players to skip college soccer and develop
with the
pros.
Meanwhile, U.S. Soccer is using part of its '94 World Cup
largesse to initiate "Project 2010," a more
extensive development program modeled on the
Nick Bolletieri
tennis camp system. As much as I cringe when I hear
Bolletieri's name associated with soccer, and as hilarious
as the idea of the U.S. winning the Cup in 2010 sounds
right now,
I'm willing to give it some time and see if it produces
some
players. My gut tells me that instituting this kind of project
from above is like trying to start up a democracy in a
third-world country—history and prevailing attitudes
aren't working in its
favor.
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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