After gaining a huge helping hand from South Korea, the USA qualified for the second round of the 2002 World Cup despite getting thumped, 3-1, by Poland. Here are U.S. reactions:
Claudio Reyna, U.S. captain
''We're lucky. We owe Korea, I guess, a little bit of thanks but a lot of teams get through with four points. In the past we've been unlucky sometimes and I think overall we deserve to get through. ''We're through to the second round because of their result, not because of what we did. We needed a point today and we couldn't do. We owe them a big favor because they went out and won. ''We're not happy with the way we were beaten today but we'll take it.''
Bruce Arena, U.S. coach
On his feelings about today's game and advancing to the second round): ''Certainly, we are elated to qualify for the second round, however, I am disappointed with tonight's results. I must give credit to Poland, they played very well. If you play a team of that much quality and you get behind by two goals in the first five minutes, you will have a very difficult battle ahead of you, and we certainly faced that. At the same time, our guys never quit and played well at good parts of the game.'' On whether this World Cup has been full of surprises: ''Nobody would have picked out the results in this group. It was an unusual World Cup. There will be interesting results ahead of us in the round of 16.'' On the prospects for the next match with Mexico: ''We know our next opponent quite well. They played extremely well in the tournament. Mexico is an outstanding team, and they were minutes short… winning three games [at this World Cup]. They will be a very difficult opponent for us on Monday. It's our job for the next 72 hours to get our team ready to play, mentally and physically.'' On his message to fans at home: ''We have very much appreciated their support, but we are disappointed that we didn't give them a better performance tonight. However, we have accomplished a lot for US soccer. We look forward to giving them, hopefully, a much better performance in the match with Mexico.'' On his prediction for the remaining matches in this World Cup: ''I think I'd be crazy to make any kind of prediction because I don't think anybody would have believed that some of the quality teams are home. Some other teams such as the U.S. and even South Korea have advanced. It's been a very surprising group, it's been a very surprising tournament. And I would imagine that there would be more surprises in this World Cup down the road.''
