WORLD CUP USA ’94 / THE FIRST ROUND : U.S. Finds Itself on the Hot Seat : First round: Game against Switzerland in expected humidity of Silverdome shapes up as a must-win situation for both teams.
PONTIAC, Mich. — They have brought it on themselves, the players and their leader.
If there is pressure on the U.S. World Cup team to advance beyond the first round--and there is, to a considerable degree--the team can blame its own sporadic success and the brash prediction of the president of the U.S. Soccer Federation, a man well familiar with hyperbole.
“We are a lead-pipe cinch to get out of the first round,†Alan Rothenberg said.
He made that bold and hopeful boast months ago. But it comes home to roost today, when the United States opens its World Cup campaign against Switzerland in the Silverdome. The U.S. players are hoping they don’t have to dine on Rothenberg’s words.
Not since 1930, when the United States was invited to play in the World Cup in Uruguay, has an American team made it to the second round. It is a fact that rides uncomfortably against another: Never has the host team failed to make it past the first round.
All of which makes today’s game something of a must-win situation. U.S. coaches, U.S. Soccer Federation officials and, until recently, U.S. players, all have commented that to advance, they must beat Switzerland. The theory is that among the Group A teams, which include Colombia and Romania, Switzerland is the team the United States has the best chance to beat. In the Swiss camp, of course, the sentiment is the same about the vulnerability of the United States.
The constant drumbeat of must-win has receded recently and been replaced by a let’s-be-sensible approach, which notes that if the Americans can’t earn the three points for a victory over the Swiss, there are always Colombia on June 22 and Romania on June 26.
“We want to win, yes, everybody wants to win,†U.S. midfielder John Harkes said. “But it’s not devastating if we don’t win the first game. It’s not like if we lose against Switzerland, our hopes have gone and we will wither away.â€
Harkes was on the U.S. World Cup team in 1990, the much-maligned “bunch of college kids,†the youngest team in the tournament with an average age of 24. Six players on this team were on the 1990 team, and each professes to be eager to erase the memory of three consecutive losses.
“We are a different team, better and more experienced,†said Tab Ramos, another veteran of 1990.
The USSF has spent millions to make sure the team is different. In Italy, U.S. players were encamped in a bleak facility in Tirrenia and visited with their families through bars in a fence. This team is ensconced in a posh resort at Dana Point and works out at a multimillion-dollar training center built to the specifications of Coach Bora Milutinovic.
It is the presence of Milutinovic, more than anything, that has raised the expectations of the team. Indeed, so influential has Milutinovic been that the team has taken on his unpredictable personality, showing flashes of brilliance amid periods of mediocrity.
Milutinovic’s coyness with reporters extends to the team as well. No player, with the possible exception of goalkeeper Tony Meola, has been told if he is starting, and the defenders have not been told if the team will play with four backs in a flat formation or with a sweeper who roams behind three defenders.
Milutinovic probably will play the four-back scheme against Switzerland. In the four-back system, Thomas Dooley plays as a defensive midfielder, where he can help initiate the offense while also being available to mark an opponent.
The suggestion that Harkes play at right back rather than in the midfield appears to have been rejected. That means the defense will line up with Alexi Lalas, Marcelo Balboa, Cle Kooiman and Paul Caligiuri. With Claudio Reyna nursing a strained hamstring, the midfield figures to be manned by Ramos, Dooley, Mike Sorber and Harkes. Eric Wynalda will play at forward and Ernie Stewart at striker.
From Switzerland, the United States can expect an organized, disciplined attack.
“They put pressure on the ball, but at the same time they have some weaknesses we can exploit,†U.S. assistant coach Timo Liekoski said. “If we win the ball early enough, I think it’s important that we try to play the ball forward quickly so they can’t set up defensively.â€
Pressure-cooker conditions will probably prevail in the Silverdome. The plexiglass-covered arena is likely to be a cozy, humid environment for the revolutionary indoor grass, a pampered lawn that was cultivated in Camarillo, Calif., and nurtured in the Silverdome parking lot.
If they could spend $1.5 million on grass, you’d think someone might have been able to spring for an air conditioner, but the Silverdome, seldom used in the summer, has none--and temperatures in the Midwest the last few days have been in the 90s, with high humidity.
When Germany and England played here last summer, the players raved about the condition of the field but most estimated they had lost eight to 10 pounds of water weight in sauna-like conditions. Switzerland included a visit to a sauna as part of its preparation.
In truth, however, little can be done about the sticky heat.
“It’s not a great factor, but it is a factor,†said U.S. assistant coach Steve Sampson. “At this level and in this competition, every factor in the game becomes important.â€
