Winning Makes Soccer a Bit Easier to Swallow

One month to go before the World Cup takes to slumming on U.S. soil and the home team is building up one righteous head of steam.

Armenia was defeated Sunday at Cal State Fullerton, 1-0.

Estonia fell the week before, 4-0.

We have been kicking some serious former Soviet Socialist Republic butt, just wiping the soccer field with these tiny recently independent states.

Latvia, Lithuania, Azerbaijan--keep on lining them up.

Team USA isn’t afraid of anyone it can’t locate on a map.

As for Colombia and Romania, well, the young Americans are trying to convince themselves that time is on their side. A lot can happen in a month, right? Our top players return from Europe in a week or two, Coach Bora Milutinovic can fiddle with the mix in a couple final warm-ups against Greece and Mexico and, with any amount of luck, we make our stand before the world against Switzerland--June 18 at the Silverdome--without inflaming any panic in Detroit.

“I’d like to get it going right now,” U.S. defender Alexi Lalas said. “Realistically, we could still use the next month to fine-tune things, but I’m optimistic. Come June 18, I’m totally confident we’ll be ready, individually and collectively, to have a successful World Cup.”

A successful World Cup--talk about your relative terms. In Germany and Brazil, a successful World Cup is defined as flying home with the lumpy gold trophy in the overhead bin. The American slang is completely different. After sitting out the World Cup for 40 years and being slapped around in 1990, a great run for the United States in 1994 would be playing well enough in its first three matches to earn a fourth.

“The second round, yeah,” Lalas said, trying to imagine the day. “That’s our initial goal. We can no longer be happy just to be there. We have to do something once we’re there.”

Especially now that the World Cup is our stage, for the first time ever--and who knows about the last?

“It wouldn’t hurt, man,” Lalas said.

The World Cup didn’t come to the States without a fight. At first, the purists were so peeved, they had to remove their monocles to wipe the fog from them. The United States was a baseball-loving, hot dog-inhaling, soccer-illiterate land of heathens--totally unworthy of hosting such a sacred event. Americans have no appreciation, no respect for the game. I mean, just look at the way they play it.

Team USA hadn’t done much recently to shatter the stereotype, either. Before Sunday’s victory over Armenia, the United States’ international record in 1994 was a pitiful 3-4-7. Included were losses to non-Cup participants Iceland (2-1) and Chile (2-0), lethargic ties with Denmark, Bolivia and Moldova and a 3-1 defeat in the Joe Robbie Cup to a Swedish national team playing without most of its World Cup starters.

The victories came against Norway, Moldova and Estonia--a veritable American League West of international soccer.

“We went through a month-long period dealing with cuts and outside problems and it really affected our play,” midfielder Claudio Reyna said.

Outside problems?

“We weren’t playing well and the excuses were flying,” Reyna said. “When you’re losing, all you hear is the criticism. ‘They’re not fit.’ ‘They’re not ready.’ ‘The wrong guys are on the field.’

“I think we’re out of that rut now. We have two wins in a row, even if they are against lesser teams. We just have to get a winning attitude and take that into our (final tuneups) against Greece, Saudi Arabia and Mexico. Those will be three great preparations for us.”

When you’re a U.S. national soccer team member, you take your silver linings wherever you can find them. Sunday, for instance, Lalas saw one in the stands. Titan Stadium was packed--official attendance was listed at 9,753--which was a sizable improvement over the 2,158 scattered souls who witnessed last week’s rout of Estonia, which apparently doesn’t travel well.

“Hell, yeah,” Lalas said. “It’s so much better to play in front of a big crowd. Even if a lot of the fans here were for Armenia.”

And in three weeks, Team USA will play Mexico at the Rose Bowl, and a crowd of 60,000 is expected, and most of them will be cheering the team in green, red and white.

“It’s a reality for U.S. soccer players,” Lalas said with a shrug. “A lot of our games are played at home, yet in front of hostile, anti-U.S. crowds. We’re used to it.”

Lalas chalks it up as part of “all the crap you have to go through as an American soccer player. All that stuff--battling other sports for attention, trying to find (a club) team that will have you, trying to play a game the rest of the world has an undying passion for, yet in your country, you have to toil in anonymity.”

What will it take to change that?

“Money, maybe,” Lalas suggested.

“I don’t know. People are either going to dig it, or they’re not. This country is very ripe for it to happen, but not everybody is gonna love it. We’re not asking everybody to love it.

“For those who do, they have a great summer ahead of them. For those who don’t, at least they’ll have a chance to see and maybe gain a respect for the best level of play in the world.”

And a U.S. victory/minor miracle or two?

It wouldn’t hurt, man.

* U.S. TEAM WINS

Frank Klopas scores his fourth goal in five games as the U.S. national soccer team defeats Armenia, 1-0. C11