Steve Sampson
On where his team has faltered: “One area which is the key to success is precision in front of goal. Executing in front of the net has been good, but we are obviously not finishing.”
On how he feels his team has played: “Three of the four halves have been quite good. We displayed the ability in the Iran match to attack and take the game to them, but we just didn’t reward ourselves.”
On the American public’s expectations: “The bottom line is that the American public is not going to buy into anything until we are world champions.”
On the team’s progress: “To go from a team that overly respected opponents in 1990 and ’94 to a team that dealt with over-respect against Germany in the second half, to an attacking game against Iran is a definite improvement. One key injury that impacted the Germany match was Frankie Hejduk’s hamstring injury. I felt we needed someone to get behind the Germany defense. Not once could I put the team on the field that beat Austria.”
On questions about his own future: “I’ve gained an enormous amount of international experience. I would hope to continue with the national team, but if that does not happen I have already had several offers elsewhere.”
On how the U.S. Soccer hierarchy has accepted the two results: “I have talked to Alan (Rothenberg) Hank (Steinbrecher) and Sunil (Gulati), and they have been extraordinarily sincere. All three have wanted an attacking brand of soccer and they received that last night.”
On the future of U.S. Soccer: “The blueprint of U.S. Soccer is to identify players at an early stage that have great athletic ability. We must do a better job of drawing these athletes into the sport of soccer. We must continue to find players with personality; players that are willing to take the game to their opponents. Look what Frankie Hejduk and Brian McBride have done for this team.”
On where U.S. Soccer rates internationally: “We are not among the elite but we can compete with any second tier European country or top South American country. We are not to the point, player to player, to compete with the best teams in the world.”
On his approach to the Yugoslavia match: “In my mind, there are three ways to look at it. I can go with younger players that will build our future, older veterans who have gotten the team to this point, or a combination of the two. In any case, we must put a team on the field that will compete.”
On Yugoslavia: “Yugoslavia is an elite team. We have to play intelligently but at the same time we have to take risks to create scoring opportunities.”
