USA soccer shamed again

Wildcat File Photo Arizona Summer Wildcat Seth Doria

I was walking around the Student Union yesterday when I heard a loud roar came up from the television area.

Curious, I walked over to see what the noise was about, why people would be gathered en masse with such emotion.

The answer: Argentina had just narrowly missed scoring a goal in their World Cup match against England.

All that noise for a goal that didn't even go in.

Imagine the emotion if it was the United States almost scoring or narrowly missing being scored on.

Imagine if people all across the country were gathering in bars or restaurants just to see a soccer game, or if there was a jumbo screen set up in Rockefeller Center so everybody could watch.

Imagine if the scene in Tucson following the 1997 Arizona men's basketball championship were repeated nation-wide.

Unfortunately, though, those scenes seem a very long way away after America's big step backward at this year's World Cup.

If you hadn't heard, of the 32 teams participating in the international tournament, the pride-filled USA team finished dead last. South Korea did better. So did Japan. So did Saudi Arabia.

And it's not as if those teams had more individual talent. USA defender Alexi Lalas, who starred for the Americans in the 1994 World Cup but did not play a minute in France this year, said this was the most talented USA team ever.

Some of the blame certainly falls in the lap of recently resigned coach Steve Sampson, whose controversial decisions, particularly excluding 1994 team captain John Harks, never let the Americans get into a groove.

You could tell by Sampson's smug grin that he wouldn't be able to get his players believing in his system, which he changed almost as frequently as he did his starting lineup.

The consensus among those who watched the loss to Iran was that the Americans outplayed the Iranians the entire game except for two lapses which led to goals. The knock on USA was that they just couldn't finish their chances.

Some of the blame can also be placed on bad luck, with USA getting stuck in the same group as Germany and Yugoslavia, two of Europe's better squads.

But when all the blame has been thrown about, the fact still remains that America is not a soccer country. Translated, this means America will never win the World Cup.

Soccer is an extremely difficult game to master. It's not enough to have speed and dribbling skill. You need instinct, both for the flow of the game and your teammates.

Michael Olowokandi, who was chosen as the first pick overall in last week's NBA draft, didn't start playing basketball until about four years ago. That could never happen in soccer.

To field a team as good as Argentina's or even Nigeria's, America would have to find players who haven't done anything but play soccer since a very young age. It takes years of practicing in back lots and streets and any other available place to develop an instinct for the game, to be able to expect what will happen next.

USA did not have that instinct. Every time Claudio Reyna had the ball near the penalty area he would blast a shot, most of which sailed over the cross bar. Frankie Hedjuk ran and played as hard as he could but most of the time he wasted his efforts with a weak cross.

Contrast this with the Brazilians or Germans or Dutch, who can blend individual stardom with tight passing and solid defense. Brazilian midfielders know where Rolando is going to go. Jurgen Klinsman, a German forward, can either fake out his defender to the corner or the middle of the field, but more importantly, when he finds an opening he will still have the presence of mind to pass if someone has a better shot.

The Yugoslavians never would have given up a goal like the second one given up by USA against Iran.

For as long as Americans are split between basketball, baseball and football (the tackling kind) as our national sport, USA will always be a joke among international soccer powers.

The best young athletes will choose another sport over soccer, which leaves coaches scrambling to bring in foreign players who could be nationalized as Americans just to play.

America will continue to lose, which will further disinterest popular society in the game.

Eventually, soccer in America could return to the same status as NFL Europe holds in that continent, nothing more than a novelty.