They understand the challenge that awaits, the difficulties and pressures facing them, the advantages and disadvantages their preparation has provided for this most important of tests.

Say this about the Americans who seek passage to the Sydney Olympics: They bear no illusions about what lies ahead.

Expectations are gargantuan: Anything other than qualification for the 2000 Games would be calamitous, a major setback – to American soccer’s momentum, if nothing else.

One slip-up and it might be over.

That is the reality of CONCACAF’s final Olympic qualifying tournament, which kicks off April 21 at Hersheypark Stadium in Hershey, Pa. The six-nation affair concludes nine days later, but the final means nothing. A semifinal victory on April 28 is worth one of 16 spots in Australia, but the path is a prickly one, indeed.

None of this troubles U.S. under-23 coach Clive Charles and his charges; they may know what’s ahead, but concerned about it?

“Remember, I’ve been to a World Cup,” says Charles, Steve Sampson’s assistant at the disastrous ’98 finals. “What I want to do is enjoy it, I want my players to enjoy it, and when they run out on the field, I want them to give everything they’ve got.

“Soccer is a game. It is a game. You play your best when you’re having fun, and we’re going to do that.”

It’s no guarantee of success. The Yanks are in by far the more difficult of the two first-round groups, teamed with Honduras and Canada, and if they don’t win it, Mexico – most assuredly – awaits in one of those all-important semifinals.

The Mexicans, with a superbly talented roster blooded by much full national team experience, are thought a shoo-in for Sydney. The Americans are the next best thing.


‘ONE OF SIX HORSES.’

Charles, who has spent the past two years – in circumstances far from ideal – preparing for this moment, doesn’t buy it.

“The people who pick the favorites, it’s their opinion,” he says. “If it’s their opinion we’re the two favorites, so be it. We don’t necessarily see it that way. We’ve got six teams, and on any given day, they can beat each other. We don’t go in feeling we’re an underdog or a favorite.

“We’re just one of six [horses] trying to get our noses ahead.”

They do so with the most professionally and internationally experienced team the Americans, qualifiers for the past five Games, have sent into Olympic eliminations.

Everyone except forward Conor Casey, who plays for Charles at the University of Portland, gets paid for playing. Eight of them – goalkeeper Adin Brown, defenders Ramiro Corrales, Brian Dunseth and Chad McCarty, midfielders Joey DiGiamarino and Ben Olsen and forwards Chris Albright and Josh Wolff – are MLS starters. Another four are based in Europe, with defender Steve Cherundolo and midfielder John O’Brien seeing regular first-team action.

Fifteen of 18 players on Charles’ roster – all but Casey, Brown and midfielder Peter Vagenas – have played in a FIFA world championship.

One-third of the group has experience with the full national team, and Olsen is a regular in Bruce Arena’s squad.


‘A GREAT BUNCH OF GUYS.’

Charles has depth at every position, skill and power up front, speed on the flanks and a defensive unit that has largely been together since Jay Hoffman started assembling his squad for the 1997 U-20 championship in Malaysia.

“The strength of the team,” Charles says, “is the fact that it is a team. They all get along very well, they all enjoy playing for each other.”

“It’s a great bunch of guys,” echoes Dunseth, the captain. “There are no a*******. Every single guy on the team is somebody I keep in touch with, through e-mails or phone calls. It’s hard to say that about any team.”

The hope is that chemistry will cover fissures in the team’s preparations. Charles has been able to gather the group sporadically, preferring his players to gain experience with their clubs, and the pre-tournament camp that began April 10 in Ft. Lauderdale was the first time the entire squad has been together.

“Gelling as a team is a big part of success, and we haven’t been together that much,” says Olsen, who has played just twice with the U-23s, a quick series last year against Germany’s U-21 team. “[Fort Lauderdale] is very important; it’s where we’ll get to know each other.”


‘A VERY SMALL WORLD.’

Olsen is familiar with his teammates. He’s one of eight who played in Malaysia, Chris Albright is a D.C. United cohort, and he’s seen others in college or with the national team.

“I know what these guys are about,” he says. “I know Josh and DiGi and the goalies, John O’Brien. … The backs, Dunseth and McCarty, I’ve been playing with them for years.

“That’s the beauty of soccer being a very small world.”

The Americans’ professionalism will mean only so much. Their opponents, too, are professionals.

Honduras drew with Mexico in the qualifying round. Several of its players competed for the impressive Honduran team at the Gold Cup, and it is also expected to have Cagliari striker David Suazo.

Canada, which awaits on April 23, returns virtually the same team – and Coach Bruce Twamley – that played champion Argentina close at the ’97 U-20 World Cup. Eight Maple Leafs play for the full national team and eight are based in Europe.

A loss to either, perhaps a tie against either – or an unforeseen Mexican collapse against Guatemala or Panama – and the Yanks get Mexico in the semis. Worst-case scenario?

“We have to deal with whoever’s in front of us,” says Albright. “We shouldn’t think about Mexico until we play Mexico. We may never see Mexico.”


‘OUR WORK IS CUT OUT.’

The Americans may not make it so far. There is a buzz about the Hondurans, and Canada’s got strong defense and confidence following its Gold Cup triumph that featured six of its potential Olympians.

“We’ve got to be sharp, we’ve got to be intense, we’ve got to finish our chances,” Olsen says. “Our work is cut out for us. We’re going against great competition, but saying that, we as a team certainly have the talent to [qualify]. …

“The talent’s there. The talent’s amazing.”

It’s up to Charles to put the correct combinations on the field. He’s spending the week in Florida assessing DiGiamarino’s recovery from ankle surgery, determining how he’ll use U-17 stars Landon Donovan and DaMarcus Beasley, figuring out his combinations up top.

Then he’ll send them onto the Hersheypark turf to have some fun.

It’s serious business.

“The modern game,” he says, “is about what you do on both sides of the ball. And we’re playing against another team trying to do exactly the same thing.

“It’s a matter of who imposes his will on the other.”

by Soccer America senior editor Scott French