The United States is playing in the World Youth Championship for the sixth time. For Jay Hoffman, the tournament marks the culmination of his first stint as a head coach in the U.S. national team program. SOCCER AMERICA: You’ve just returned from Toulon, where the U-20s went 1-2-1 and beat Colombia 3-1. Were you happy with the team’s performance? JAY HOFFMAN: Yeah, I was. I thought we played very well, and I think we grew a little bit with each game. In France, it was a situation where we were sort of serving two masters ù one being that we want to win the World Championship and the other being that we wanted to do well there also. We would like to have gotten to the final, and we needed to beat Portugal to do that. Had the kid for Portugal not stuck one in from about 25 yards out in the upper 90 … but that’s the game. I think the kids feel good about the way they played ù they played with a lot of confidence ù and you could just see them gelling and things starting to click, so it was a good tournament for us. SA: What is the team’s goal as it heads into the World Championship? JH: Well, our No. 1 goal is to win! I think the big key for us right now is to make sure we go in there with the right attitude to get into the next round. We can’t figure we’ll do it in the second or the third game ù pretty soon you run out of games in that situation. You have to have a big target at the end, but you’ve also got to hit some intermediate targets before that. SA: The U.S. has been drawn with China, Ireland and Ghana in the first round. Do you think this will be a difficult group? JH: Is it going to be difficult? Yeah, I think all the games are going to be difficult. I don’t see that there are any teams that will be there that shouldn’t be there. I think it’s going to be a very competitive tournament from start to finish, no matter who you play. We have to realize that China, for sure, will be better than when we played them the last time. We both know a little bit about each other. That’s a very key game for us to get off on the right foot. We didn’t play the Republic of Ireland’s national team that will be at the World Championship, but we did play an under-21 select team when we were in Europe. Since most of the Irish players are in the English First Division, you know they’re going to be quality players with a certain level of professionalism. That was one of the reasons why we took the kids to Europe ù so they could be exposed to the European-type game. I just got two tapes of Ghana, but I haven’t had a chance to look at them yet. SA: You’ve had the team training together full-time since January … JH: We said: “For us to be as successful as we can possibly be, we need a six-month residency camp. We need to have you guys together all the time so we can bridge that gap with the rest of the world’s U-20s who are playing with Boca Juniors or River Plate or Bayer Leverkusen or whatever professional team. We’ve got to try to emulate that for you guys to take you up that next step.” Looking back over the past six months, I think we’ve done a pretty good job of bridging that gap. Is there still a little ways to go? Sure, there certainly is, but it’s made these youngsters into different players ù they’ve really developed. SA: What have been the pluses and minuses of having the team together for such a long period of time? JH: One of the biggest pluses was just their attitude and commitment to the program ù to make it go and to become the best possible players. That’s a real credit to those guys ù they gave up a hell of a lot. It hasn’t been easy for them, by any means. They’re in a situation where they really can’t escape each other. The guy at Boca Juniors gets up and practices in the morning, practices in the afternoon and then says to his teammates, “I’ll see you tomorrow morning.” My guys were going back and eating dinner with each other and saying, “Well, if we’re gonna go bowling tonight, I guess we’re all going to go.” You’d have a guy playing cards with the guys at night, and then getting up the next morning and trying to beat one of those guys out of that spot in, say, left-sided midfield. But the group was very focused; they have a definite purpose. They were able to handle adversity and keep going. It’s great to look at how far they’ve come by being in a soccer environment every day. They’ve re hotel that was still in the process of being built when I was there ù I think it just opened on May 26. In that sense, I have absolutely no problem with it. That’s why we try to take them on these trips where you’re not always staying right in the mid dle of downtown Manhattan with 65 channels on the TV and everything from McDonald’s to a five-star restaurant right there. So we took all these trips and now when we get to the World Championship, whatever’s presented to us in the way of travel or hotels, it’s not a problem or a distraction. We’ve been there and done it, so we can just focus on the task at hand. I think the heat is going to be a factor. The humidity there is high, and it’s hot. But we’ve got evening games, so that’s not so bad. And we’ve tried to prepare for the heat. We’ve done some acclimatization stuff with people at the OTC, and our doctors have talked to the team about nutrition and fluid replacement. SA: Have you heard anything from FIFA about the potential for bribery in Malaysia, particularly in light of some of the unsavory incidents that occurred at the last U-20 championships in Qatar? JH: The only thing I’ve seen in regards to the bookies was an article I picked up in one of the local newspapers when I was over there. I spoke to the kids about it, and I’ll certainly speak to them again about it. Unfortunately, that’s a potential situation in these places where gambling is very evident. When I went to the hotel there, they were very good about showing me the floor and saying, “This is your floor and you’ve got these rooms and this room will be for security.” I’m sure the LOC and FIFA have put security in place so that nobody can just come up to the floor and talk to the kids. by Soccer America Online Editor Pete Bailey