For the incumbent U.S. players, U.S. Cup 2000 was a fine prelude to World Cup qualifying. For Coach Bruce Arena, it was a mixed bag of encouraging results and disruptive variables. For U.S. Soccer, it was a disappointing year in the tournament’s otherwise estimable history.
The United States’ victory in the event was overshadowed by the absence of Mexico’s true national team, but two wins, a tie and a plus-seven goal differential can only reinforce confidence.
Arena insisted the South African team that the United States destroyed, 4-0, was a good team, but it was hardly polished. The 1-1 draw with Ireland was marred by atrocious weather and a controversial non-call on the U.S. goal. In beating Mexico’s makeshift team, the United States merely avoided ridicule, according to Arena.
As expected, Arena fielded two entirely different lineups for the first two games, thus giving all 22 players a chance to show something.
Cobi Jones and Brian McBride, under scrutiny entering the competition, proved themselves to be the first-choice duo at forward. Jones lit up South Africa with two goals and two assists then added an assist against Mexico. He also officially became the team’s most senior member when he broke Marcelo Balboa’s record of 128 caps. McBride put away the most important goal of the Mexico game — the first one — and had a solid tournament.
Claudio Reyna successfully shed whatever shackles that had prevented him from joining the attack regularly in the past and developed a promising combination with Earnie Stewart and Jones. Reyna showed a renewed willingness to take players on the dribble, including an impressive slalom through four Mexicans in the finale and ventured frequently into the penalty area.
Jeff Agoos played two of his best games in a national team jersey, including the 100th of his career. Carlos Llamosa, his D.C. United teammate, was nearly flawless.
The next most notable performance was that of Ante Razov, who scored his first two international goals and secured for himself some measure of consideration for qualifying.
Several other players had adequate showings, but players on the fringe such as C.J. Brown, Jason Kreis and Steve Ralston had to feel a bit cheated by the conditions under which they got their chance. Still, the tournament reaffirmed that Arena has several viable options at most positions on the field.
“Over that string of 16 games that it takes to get to the World Cup, you’re going to need more than just 11 guys, so it’s important that guys are developing now and gaining that experience,” Reyna said. “I know last time we used something like 20 or 25 guys to get to the World Cup, so it’s important that we develop a deep squad and I think Bruce has done that.”
NO CONTROL GROUP. Arena’s plan of using U.S. Cup as a final player evaluation before qualifying began to deteriorate weeks prior to the competition. Injuries to Eddie Pope and Robin Fraser meant Arena would have to wait until qualifying itself before finalizing a back line.
Factors beyond his control continued in Foxboro, Mass., when a steady rain and wind gusts up to 60 mph rendered the match against Ireland a mess.
“I think it would be real unfair to use this game as a means of evaluating players,” Arena said afterward. Following the Mexico game, however, Arena modified that stance, saying “even though the conditions were lousy, you can still see some things on players. I can’t completely ignore the game even though that was the worst game I’ve ever been around in terms of conditions. I have a pretty good feel for where they fit in on our roster.”
The team that faced Mexico, ideally, was supposed to be the team that would play the first qualifier, since there will be no matches in between. But in addition to the defensive questions, Eddie Lewis was out with shoulder and ankle injuries. Arena chose John O’Brien to start in his place on the left and the Ajax-based midfielder seemed uncomfortable.
The watered-down Mexican team also made it difficult for Arena to gauge where his team stands. Still, he was able to find positives.
“We got three games that we needed to get in,” Arena said. “We got to know each other a little bit more again this time. I got to look at all 22 players. … The most difficult part any national team coach has is trying to get your team together. It’s been very frustrating over two years, as far as having your team together in one place at the same time. We haven’t quite done it yet, but we’ll get there.”
‘ACCIDENTAL NATIONAL TEAM.’ Turmoil within the Mexican federation and conflicts with domestic league playoffs and the Copa Libertadores prompted the arrival of UNAM Pumas dressed in Mexico’s clothing. The slap in face was not taken kindly by U.S. Soccer or by Hugo Sanchez, who was sent in place of Mexico Coach Manuel Lapuente.
“We invited a top 10 team in the world,” Arena bristled.
U.S. Soccer planned to withhold the Mexican team’s appearance fee.
“I give the yellow card to the Mexican [soccer] federation for not planning the national team’s schedule more adequately,” said Sanchez, who termed his group “an accidental national team.”
The attendance for the U.S.-South Africa game at RFK Stadium, 16,570, was the second-lowest in tournament history for a game involving the home team. The weather in Foxboro not only killed any chance of a walk-up crowd, it caused more than 7,800 people with tickets to stay home. The 45,008 that watched the final day’s matches was surprisingly good, considering the lack of Mexican stars.
Overall, the attendance average of 30,012 was the third-lowest of the seven U.S. Cup tournaments.
Arena aptly summed up the lead story of the tournament:
“Because of the situation we were put in … with the Mexican team, we had everything to lose and in some ways nothing to gain.”
by Soccer America associate editor Will Kuhns