Delroy Wallace Coral Springs, Fla. Now that the U.S. team did not go beyond the first round, do you believe that Coach Sampson got the best out of his players? Did the “best” players play? <Paul Kennedy: Did Sampson get the best out of his players? Of course not. Did the best players play? Really, the question is, were there any other choices? Only three come to mind: John Harkes, Roy Lassiter and Jovan Kirovski. Of the three, the one to me who may have made a difference in at least getting a result out of one game is Kirovski. Sampson said in May he didn’t need Kirovski because he had an abundance of talent at Kirovski’s position, but that notion went out the window when Frankie Hejduk got hurt. Mike Burns was a disaster in the first game. When Hejduk came back, he got the ball a lot, but he was never that dangerous. His crossing is atrocious. Kirovski, for my money, would have been a better choice. Jeff Brody Silverdale, Wash. I’m not sure what to believe about the cause of the U.S. team’s problems in the World Cup, but after watching all three games, I felt Claudio Reyna’s play was substandard — more disappointing than the play of any other team member. Was he suffering from an undisclosed injury or did he simply have a terrible World Cup? Pete Bailey: I didn’t hear anything about Claudio being hurt, although he had some minor injuries that kept him out of training on a few occasions during the last couple of weeks in May. In the Germany match, Reyna was effectively marked out of the match by the physical play of Germany’s Jens Jeremies, and the U.S. team’s timidity in the opening half meant minimal possession and thus few meaningful touches for Claudio. In the Iran and Yugoslavia matches, I thought that he became frustrated and ended up trying to do too much — tracking back to win balls, running the offense and trying to score more often than normal. That, to me, indicates a lack of confidence in the surrouding players. Perhaps if he had been playing with more veterans, a fully-fit Tab Ramos, or with a group of players that had spent more time together (Regis had only played two matches with the U.S. before the World Cup), he wouldn’t have needed (or felt the need) to work so much. One reason for Reyna’s success in the Bundesliga this season was that Wolfsburg had a solid defense and ball-winning midfielders who would then get him the ball in a position to attack. With the U.S., this has not happened on a regular basis. That’s one reason Steve Sampson was so high on Chad Deering at one point — as Deering had teamed with Reyna in midfield during Wolfsburg’s early-season success. Strangely, Deering did not play again after the Germany match, and I thought he was one of the better U.S. players in that game. Despite that, this tournament was an opportunity for Reyna to prove he can be THE MAN for the U.S., and it didn’t happen. He may not be the kind of playmaker who can single-handedly take over a game. However, he is still an excellent, skilled player, and the U.S. would do well to build around him for 2002 — the question is whether enough quality supporting players (who can get him the ball in the right position, or who can put away what Reyna sets up for them) can be found to play with him. Bruce C. Daniels Running Springs, Calif. Why was Preki Radsavljevic so conspicuously absent from the U.S. national team line-up? Pete Bailey: That’s a good question, Bruce. I was certainly surprised that Steve Sampson opted for Roy Wegerle to replace Eric Wynalda in the Germany match with the U.S. only down 1-0 at the time. Preki seemed the natural choice, considering his previous heroics against Costa Rica and Brazil and the “supersub” tag Sampson had given him. When Preki did play, he had mixed results. I thought he helped to spark the U.S. attack when he came on in the Iran match, but against Yugoslavia, he was ineffective. The Yugoslavs had obviously scouted him, for they knew how to shut down his pet moves. That, coupled with his limited defensive capabilities, is probably why he was not in Sampson’s starting eleven. David Edwards Boulder, Colo. Why is Alan Rothenberg allowed to decide who will be the next U.S. coach when he will be stepping down as president later this summer? Wouldn’t it be more useful to let the new president make that call since he/she will be guiding the future of U.S. soccer? It’s like getting stuck with someone else’s baggage. Paul Kennedy: First of all, who’s going to stop Rothenberg from picking Sampson’s successor? The feeling is that the candidates to replace Rothenberg don’t have the international experience to make the decision on their own. If U.S. Soccer wants the best candidate, it can’t wait two months — he will be snapped up by another team. Jerry Salgado, Austin, Texas Did it seem to you that Nigeria threw the game against Paraguay in order to eliminate Spain? I got that impression as well as the announcers with Univision. The video shows obvious lack of intensity in the Nigerian side. I am upset because I took time off work to see the game. Pete Bailey: I don’t think they “threw” the game, Jerry — that’s a pretty harsh charge. The fact is, Nigeria had already clinched first place in the group, and Bora Milutinovic — like many coaches in this tournament and in previous ones — chose to rest some players and not to start players who were carrying a yellow card and could possibly have been suspended for the second-round match. In addition, captain and defensive stalwart Uche Okechukwu missed the game for having already accumulated two yellows. No, Nigeria didn’t pull out all the stops to try and win the match (neither did Brazil against Norway for that matter), and that was to Paraguay’s advantage. However, Nigeria’s responsibility was to put itself in the best position to do well in the entire tournament, not to try to help Spain. While it’s unfortunate that the Spaniards were eliminated so early, they have no one to blame but themselves for failing to get the necessary results against Nigeria and Paraguay. By the way, one of the arguments against resting players for meaningless first-round matches is that it can break up a team’s rhythm. One could certainly say that Nigeria certainly looked out-of-sync in the early part of its loss to Denmark.