Americans Land at World Cup With a Thud
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
As the Americans approached their debut game against the Czech Republic yesterday, there was much talk about the last time the United States played the Czechs in the World Cup – that 1990 disaster when the Czechs (they were part of Czechoslovakia then) ran up an overpowering 5-1 victory.
Yesterday was supposed to be different; yesterday was supposed to show that the Americans have grown up. Yesterday was also supposed to show the Czechs that they couldn’t boot the Yanks around any more.
Yesterday showed none of those things, and was virtually 1990 revisited. The Czechs, who romped to a 3-0 victory, are still a class or two ahead of the Americans. There is little point in microanalyzing a game in which one team is so superior to the other, in every position on the field. But coach Bruce Arena is accustomed to receiving praise whenever the United States fares well, so he should – and no doubt, he will – realize that he has been living a charmed life in the four years since the Americans amazed the world by reaching the quarterfinals of the 2002 World Cup.
Expectations of American success have been raised to ridiculous levels (it has to be admitted that FIFA has not helped to bring sanity to the situation by ranking America fifth in the world). But this was the first high-intensity game since those heady days in Korea four years ago, and the Americans screwed it up badly. Their sparkling duo, Landon Donovan and DaMarcus Beasley, were simply holes in the air: “Landon showed no aggressiveness tonight,” Arena told reporters after the game, then added, “We got nothing out of Beasley on the night.”
It’s worth asking why Beasley, whose recent performances for the national team have been poor, was in the starting lineup anyway.
Striker Brian McBride made no impression whatever on the Czech defense, but Arena left him on the field for 77 minutes. As for Arena’s tactics, forget it. When a team is dominated to this extent, to talk of tactics is to ponder the merits of a sprinkler system while the house is burning down.
Arena’s postgame, abrasively public criticism of his players – his naming of Donovan, Beasley, and Keller – will be welcomed by some as an unusually honest approach.
In fact, it is anything but honest. This is Arena’s team, and he is rewarded to the tune of $1 million a year for coaching it. He should stand up and admit that the team was wrongly prepared for this game in terms of player selection – an obviously faulty tactical approach – but above all in mental preparation. The Czechs, right from the opening blast of the referee’s whistle, seemingly surprised the Americans with their top-level play.
Of course, to point out that the Czechs dominated, is also to admit that America was not good enough. I’m afraid they were not. The soccer they played was, of course, the soccer that they were allowed to play by the Czechs. Sadly, the Czechs were in an overwhelmingly stingy mood and the Americans could do nothing about it.
Arena now has his team in deep trouble. In the history of 32-team World Cups (i.e.1998 and 2002) 23 teams have lost their first game, and only one of those 23 losers advanced to the second round. An hour after the humiliated American players left the field in Gelsenkirchen last night, we saw Italy beat Ghana 2-0 in Hanover. Those are the Americans’ next two opponents (Italy on Saturday, Ghana next Thursday), and they put on a display of soccer that was streets ahead of anything produced by America in its truly shambolic display against the Czech Republic. To be certain of progressing to the second round, the U.S. has to beat both of them. Possible? Just about. Likely? No, definitely not.
