Wild Cards Are Mild Cards as U.S. Soccer Fills Roster
So the United States defeated Barbados, 7-0, in a World Cup qualifier at Foxboro, Mass., the other night, proving . . . what, exactly? That Team USA, playing in its own backyard, is seven goals better than Team Club Med?
No, if you’re looking for a true measure of the United States’ standing in international men’s soccer, look and listen this week as the 16 nations that have qualified for the Olympic men’s soccer tournament finalize their rosters--augmenting their under-23 talent with three overage “star-quality” players.
Italy is mulling the additions of strikers Roberto Baggio and Christian Vieri, a Sydney-raised goal poacher who is currently the world’s third-most expensive soccer professional, purchased last year by Inter Milan for a then-record $50 million. Chile is trying to enlist forward Marcelo Salas, who scored a goal and assisted on two others in last week’s startling 3-0 upset over Brazil in a World Cup qualifier.
Nigeria is bringing back the man who captained its 1996 Olympic gold-medal winning squad, two-time African player of the year and Arsenal star Nwankwo Kanu, along with AC Milan defender Taribo West.
And the United States? Last week, Coach Clive Charles announced the three overage “wild-card” additions to his 18-man Olympic roster.
And they are:
Jeff Agoos. Chris Armas. Frankie Hejduk.
Not exactly The Shot Heard From Here To Down Under, that one.
Three wild cards, three chances to skim the cream of the national team, three opportunities to keep up with the rest of the world--and what does Team USA come up with?
Agoos, a 32-year-old left back who was cut from the 1994 World Cup team and didn’t play a minute during the United States’ 0-3 1998 World Cup run. (Which, come to think, could be construed as a ringing endorsement.)
Armas, the starting defensive midfielder for the Chicago Fire who might be unavailable anyway because of a strained knee ligament.
And Hejduk, a natural right winger who will be playing out of position at right back in Sydney, which will be more than he usually does as a chronic bench-sitter for the German club team Bayer Leverkusen.
By way of disclaimer, Charles says his three wild cards are not necessarily the best players available, but the best-fitting spare parts for his team, which needed defensive reinforcement after right back Steve Cherundulo because of a knee injury.
Which sounds reasonable enough, although the question must be asked:
Who were the best players available?
Goalkeeper Kasey Keller is the closest thing the United States has to a world-class player--Keller played during the 1996 Olympics--but his most pressing assignment is reclaiming his starting job with the Spanish club Rayo Vallecano. Charles already had a capable goalie in Colorado Rapid starter Adin Brown, so Keller was permitted to remain in Spain.
Who else? Claudio Reyna? The long-standing “future of American soccer”--and we’re still waiting-- has yet to throw fear into international defenses. Cobi Jones? Same thing. Someone who can put the ball in the back of the net? So far on the road in World Cup qualifying, the U.S. varsity has scored one goal in Guatemala and tied, and scored one goal in Costa Rica and lost. If national team Coach Bruce Arena had any kind of answer for Charles, it would be: Schedule more games against Barbados.
It’s a sobering scenario: Team USA will arrive in Sydney with Agoos, Armas and Hejduk as foils for Vieri, Salas and Kanu, largely because there really was nothing better available. On the bright side, Hejduk, the Jeff Spicoli of American soccer, will probably be able to catch some cool waves at Bondi Beach after the United States is eliminated.
FASTSKIN: A PROGRESS REPORT
After the U.S. Olympic swim trials were concluded in Indianapolis on Wednesday, Speedo, manufacturer of the “Fastskin” bodysuit, issued a news release proudly claiming that “42 of 48 Olympic team members [qualified] in the Speedo Fastskin” and “incredibly, none of the 24 male Olympians qualified in the traditional racing brief and 13 of the 24 female Olympians wore non-traditional styles.”
A rousing success then?
Not so fastskin.
Richard Quick, U.S. women’s swim coach, said he saw swimmers switching back and forth between different styles of swimsuit throughout the trials.
“You noticed people getting up on the blocks--sometimes they were wearing the long sleeves, sometimes they were wearing [no] sleeves, sometimes they were wearing the long legs and the next time up they were wearing to the knees,” Quick said.
“I don’t think we quite knew what was working best for particular body types or events, even. But I do think between now and Sydney, with enough practice in those suits on our fast days, you can learn some things that will help.”
U.S. men’s Coach Mark Schubert said “the jury is still out” on the bodysuit.
“Obviously, there are people swimming very, very fast in them,” Schubert said. “But I think we’re going to be a bit more specific as to what suit for what stroke, or what suit for what body type.
“For some people, the bodysuit is a very good thing. I think it was unfortunate that we didn’t have enough time to practice in them because basically this meet was an experimentation. A lot of athletes that didn’t have a good experience in them in their first or second swim reverted and maybe needed to try a little bit more.
“I think we’re going to learn perhaps how to better use the suit, through some experimentation, or when to put it on. Whether to put it on wet, etc. We were all kind of playing with that here.”
Australia Olympic swim Coach Don Talbot, scouting the opposition in Indianapolis, was less than impressed.
“I think if you put a bloody G-string on them,” Talbot said, “they’d go just as fast.”
EIGHT DAYS IN INDY, ONLY FEELS LIKE 80
Eight days of swim trials were too long for everyone involved, swimmers, coaches, media and spectators included.
“I think the most onerous thing about the whole deal,” Schubert said, “was eight days. It’s hard to keep adrenaline and enthusiasm [up] over eight days. But we needed to do that because NBC is making us do that for the Olympic Games. We have to practice it. We have to be ready for it. And it was the right thing to do.”
AND THE PERIS-KNEEBONE’S CONNECTED TO SYDNEY
Nova Peris-Kneebone, who became the first Aborigine to win an Olympic gold medal as a field hockey player in 1996, has qualified for her second Olympics in a second sport--the women’s 400-meter run.
Peris-Kneebone finished second to world champion Cathy Freeman in the 400-meter final Friday at the Australia Olympic track and field trials. Freeman is also an Aborigine, creating the possibility that half of Australia’s women’s 1,600-meter relay team will be of Aboriginal descent.
“That would be awesome,” Peris-Kneebone said.
DIFFERENT KIND OF TENNIS COURT
Lisa Raymond, attempting to litigate her way onto the U.S. Olympic women’s tennis team, gets her day in arbitration court Monday in New York.
Raymond, the world’s top-ranked women’s doubles player, is protesting her exclusion from the Olympic team, which is currently composed of singles players Lindsay Davenport and Venus Williams and the doubles team of Venus and Serena Williams. Serena is unranked as a doubles player, having played fewer than the three tournaments required to be ranked, but U.S. captain Billie Jean King selected the sisters as a team because of their doubles championship at Wimbledon--and some hinting by Venus that the best way to guarantee her participation at the Summer Games was to make sure she would be playing doubles with her younger sister.
Raymond believes she deserves Serena’s roster spot on the basis of her world doubles ranking.
One ominous sign for Raymond: Nathalie Tauziat, left off France’s Olympic team after writing a controversial book entitled “The Underside of Women’s Tennis,” lost her appeal despite being the No. 2-ranked women’s player in France.
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Staff Writer Lisa Dillman contributed to this column.
