TIME: Almanac 1993/TIME Almanac 1993.iso/time/061190/0611260.000

Text File | 1992-08-28 | 5.4 KB | 115 lines

                                                                                SPORT, Page 59

Here Come the Yanks!


Shut out for 40 years, a U.S. soccer team goes to the World Cup


    For most of the globe, soccer's World Cup competition is the
very soul of sport, a month-long extravaganza of adrenaline,
athletics and nationalism. But American sports fans hardly
notice the quadrennial event. Not only are the Yanks mesmerized
by the summertime rapture of baseball, golf and tennis, but
most of them find soccer -- which the rest of the world
perversely calls football -- a frustrating, often impenetrable
game. What kind of sport is it, after all, where players can't
use their hands, pass the ball with their feet, butt it with
their heads, only rarely score goals and touch off stadium
riots when they do?

    But when the games kick off in Italy this week, Americans
would do well to join the 1.2 billion soccer nuts from Beijing
to Sao Paulo who will be glued to their TV sets. Reason: for
the first time in 40 years, the U.S. has a direct stake in the
outcome of the World Cup, as a scrappy American squad takes the
field along with 23 other national teams. Moreover, the U.S.
is scheduled to be the host of the 1994 event, marking the
first time that the World Cup championship will not be held in
Europe or Latin America.

    The U.S. team owes its improbable Italian sojourn to
improving youth programs. Although professional soccer has
never gained much more than a toehold in the U.S., some 2.5
million U.S. school kids play the game. Their fast improving
ranks have stocked U.S. college squads and provided the
national team with better players than ever before. Another
boost for the home team: Mexico, a tough, world-class contender
that vies in the same qualifying group as the U.S., was banned
from competition for using ineligible players.

    Can the Yanks make it to the final contest in Rome on July
8? Highly unlikely. In 1950 an unheralded U.S. squad shook the
soccer establishment to its shoelaces by beating mighty England
in a Cup game. But in this age of cautious play, when winning
the Cup can net international stars $250,000 each in bonus
money, the Americans will probably go winless. In the first
round they are up against veteran squads from Austria,
Czechoslovakia and Italy, a three-time champion. Bookmakers
give the U.S only a 1-in-500 chance of bringing home the Cup.
But U.S. Coach Bob Gansler gamely vows that his boys are "going
to come out and bare our teeth. Hopefully, we'll make it into
the second round."

    Meantime, Italia '90 continues the trend toward World Cup
extravagance. Thanks to global television hookups, the games
have become elaborate public relations displays, and Italy has
already spent some $4 billion to improve its video profile.
Traditional powers, including Brazil and West Germany, will
probably dominate the fields. Italy's Azzurri, which boasts a
muscular sophistication, has every intention of using
home-field advantage to make Italy the first nation to win a
fourth Cup. Holland's Edward Sturing and Argentina's Diego
Maradona, perhaps the world's best player, figure to shine
brightly among the game's top stars.

    The biggest potential problem may come from remote Cagliari,
one of the twelve cities in which the games will be played.
There some 30,000 British soccer fans are expected to show up
to cheer on their team -- and raise a ruckus. British
professional teams were banned from European play in 1985
because of the destruction caused by their notoriously rowdy
fans; last season the thugs wrought havoc in Holland, Sweden
and Germany. In anticipation of possible trouble, more than
3,000 Italian riot police will be on hand to contain any
outbreaks of hooliganism.

    World Cup organizers are hoping that European fans will not
export their violence to the U.S. in 1994. The world soccer
community is counting on a special boost from the
American-based games. Several traditional soccer powers have
suffered economic problems in recent years, including Colombia,
which withdrew as the 1986 host in favor of Mexico. The U.S.,
on the other hand, offers a stable economy, excellent
telecommunications, hotels and airlines. The venue also appeals
to soccer's ruling body, the Zurich-based Federation
Internationale de Football Association, which is hoping to
stimulate new interest in the game. In July 1988, after some
high-powered salesmanship by the U.S. Soccer Federation, Ronald
Reagan and the Congress, the U.S. was chosen over Brazil and
Morocco as the 1994 host.

    The American edition of the Cup will profit from impending
rule changes designed to put scoring magic back into the game.
World-class soccer has become a defensive bore: 0-0 contests
are not unusual. Only 2.5 goals per game were scored at the
1986 Cup, the lowest in history. In Italy this month, FIFA has
vowed to crack down on fouls made by defending players, in
hopes of promoting more goals. Expected future rules will
further enhance the chance of scoring, with the aim of charming
a new American audience in the process. Says Scott LeTellier,
president of the U.S. World Cup organizing committee: "I think
we are going to show the world that we have a different type
of enthusiasm here for soccer."


By J.D. Reed. Reported by Bruce Crumley/Paris and David E.
Thigpen/New York.