Imagine the U.S. national team that just clinched passage to the World Cup next summer. How would it fare in Korea and Japan against other nations that survived the arduous campaign of qualifying?
Based on its roller-coaster Hexagonal performance against the likes of Jamaica, Honduras, Mexico and Costa Rica, low expectations might be justified.
It is encouraging, however, that Coach Bruce Arena was the first to say so.
“Now we have eight months to produce a better team than we produced in 2000-2001,” Arena said in his opening comments after the Jamaica game. “We still have a long way to go.”
Those eight months are already seven; the inaugural game of the finals is May 31. Some of the questions the U.S. team must address in that stretch:
Is the team capable of competing athletically, when Tony Sanneh will be 30, Cobi Jones and Joe-Max Moore will be 31, Carlos Llamosa will be 32, David Regis and Earnie Stewart will be 33 and Jeff Agoos will be 34?
Will younger players who missed much of qualifying with injuries, such as Clint Mathis, Ben Olsen and Josh Wolff, be ready for that level of play?
Can the players realize that although there is no longer a common goal such as qualification to unify them, they cannot become selfish, that they must accept Arena’s personnel decisions for the team’s sake?
The team will play approximately 13 games before its World Cup finals debut. Arena said in a recent online chat that he will try some new players, but that “we won’t be able to continue to experiment throughout 2002. At some point early on we’re going to have to get a final group in mind and start working towards preparing for the World Cup.”
This approach, too, is encouraging.