U.S. coach welcomes Agoos, Armas and Hejduk, but he can’t find a spot for Victorine

It’s the most arduous of processes Clive Charles must endure on his road to Sydney, and no matter the outcome, he was never going to be ecstatic.

And so it was when the U.S. under-23 coach on Aug. 15 unveiled his 18-man roster – plus traveling alternates – for September’s Olympic tournament.

Deep thought, weeks of it, had gone into the selection, and if it is the strongest, deepest, most capable group the Americans could field in Australia – as Charles believes it is – the truest emotion accompanying the announcement was relief that there no longer was a decision to be made.

Steve Cherundolo’s knee injury last spring proved pivotal in Charles and assistant coach John Ellinger’s overage player decisions and in how they dealt with building depth around the field, and its reverberations echoed until the end, when versatile Sasha Victorine was cut with Charles’ final chisel.

“That was very difficult,” Charles said a few hours after the announcement. “I had 20, 21 names, and it was just a matter of me not wanting to cut people, people like Sasha Victorine in particular. … That wasn’t easy.”

Victorine, who missed the qualifying tournament in April with a groin injury, was the toughest of trims needed to open roster space for defender Jeff Agoos, defensive midfielder Chris Armas and wing-defender Frankie Hejduk – the overage selections – and for left-sided defender-midfielder Joey DiGiamarino, who also was sidelined during the qualifiers.

Defender-midfielder Evan Whitfield, dropped from the team just before the qualifying games, is the other addition to the group that competed in Hershey, playing his way back onto the squad with a series of strong performances for the Chicago Fire and in the U-23s’ victory over Bolton in a July friendly.

FEW SURPRISES. There were no real surprises, aside from Victorine’s omission. Those who missed the jump from Hershey to Sydney were youngsters in need of more seasoning (DaMarcus Beasley and John Thorrington), the alternates who filled in when DiGiamarino and Victorine went down (Eric Denton and Brian Winters), and the injured Cherundolo.

Charles began building this team in early 1998, using a core of players who had largely been together since Jay Hoffman started preparations in 1995 for the 1997 U-20 world championship. Half the players headed for Australia were part of his first U-23 camp, including seven from the ’97 U-20s – defenders Brian Dunseth, Chad McCarty and Ramiro Corrales, midfielders DiGiamarino, John O’Brien and Ben Olsen, and forward Josh Wolff.

Goalkeeper Matt Napoleon, who will travel Down Under but be eligible to play only if Adin Brown (who hasn’t played since June 24 with knee and quadriceps injuries) or Tim Howard are unable to, also was part of the ’97 group Charles inherited.

“Chemistry has a lot to do with it,” Ellinger said. “These players have gotten along great, they’ve kind of been on the same page as far as philosophy … we feel very comfortable with this group of players.”

The decision on overage players took a turn when Cherundolo tore an anterior cruciate ligament during training last May with German Second Division club Hannover. Hejduk, who played in the ’96 Atlanta Games and the ’98 World Cup, quickly came into focus.

“As soon as Steve went down – bam! – we needed a right back …,” said Charles, whose team faces the Czech Republic (Sept. 13) and Cameroon (Sept. 16) in Canberra and Kuwait (Sept. 19) in Melbourne in Group C play. “At the time, Bruce [Arena, the national team coach] was playing him some at right back, and I just thought, well, he’s currently playing international football at right back, and we need a right back. We don’t have to look much further.”

He had already decided, more or less, on Armas, a pit-bull midfielder whose performances for the national team, in particular, impressed Charles. “Every time I see him play for the senior team, he plays well,” Charles said. “It’s a no-brainer.”

The Agoos determination, too, was made early in the process. Charles said he “just felt we needed more experience at left back.”

DEPTH AT EVERY POSITION. Those decisions made, Charles and Ellinger sought to improve depth, make certain they had at least two players for every position. Thorrington, a right-winger, lost out in a numbers game: Hejduk, Olsen, Whitfield and Chris Albright can play on the right, and all can play elsewhere, too.

Victorine, who can play any central midfield role or as a forward, was impacted by the Americans’ depth in attack and central midfield.

Armas and O’Brien, a starter at Ajax Amsterdam who played in the U-17 World Cup in 1993, are a formidable tandem in midfield, potentially the strongest link in the U.S. lineup.

Wolff, Albright, Conor Casey and Landon Donovan are very good U-23 forwards, good enough to put a quick end to Charles’ consideration of Cobi Jones and Brian McBride.

And Donovan or Peter Vagenas are better suited to a playmaking role should the Yanks shift from their favored 4-4-2 to a 4-3-3 alignment.

“Sasha’s a good enough player to be in the squad – I think he would have done well,” Charles said. “I suppose it was a matter of who do you leave out to bring him in. … If we’d had a roster of 19, he’d be going.”

Victorine instead will serve as an alternate, although U.S. Soccer is not officially announcing alternates.

“I’m a little disappointed that I’m not going, at least not [unless someone has to pull out],” Victorine said. “But it wasn’t a big surprise. Once I knew they were bringing in a defensive midfielder [with one of the overage selections], I knew it would be hard for me. I understood my chances were a little narrowed.”

DEFENSIVE QUESTIONS. The additions of Hejduk and Agoos, it is hoped, will answer any questions about the back four. Corrales, strong on the attack but questionable defensively, likely gives way to Agoos, and Whitfield provides cover for Hejduk.

Agoos is coming off knee surgery, and Hejduk’s Olympic availability is attributable to his declining status at Bayer Leverkusen, for which he has not played since late 1999.

The starting center backs, captain Dunseth and McCarty, have worked in tandem since 1995, but Dunseth has performed poorly with New England. Dan Califf, who has greater potential than either, will back them up.

Most perplexing is why Charles hasn’t considered Chicago’s Carlos Bocanegra or Kansas City’s Nick Garcia, perhaps the two finest young defenders in America. Both are 21, veterans of the 1999 U-20 World Cup – they were teammates of Califf, Howard and Albright – and frontrunners for MLS’s Rookie of the Year Award.

It’s a matter of style, Charles insists.

“What Garcia does,” Charles said, “is man-mark very well – he’s a very good man-marking defender. So is Bocanegra. They’re both very good at it.

“What we ask our left and right backs to do is a totally different role. We play a zonal back four as opposed to a man system. Bocanegra and Garcia are way more suited for a man-marking job.”

by Soccer America senior editor Scott French