The road to the World Cup began with unexpected success in the Hexagonal, but three straight losses set the stage for a dramatic climax. Just as U.S. coach Bruce Arena had predicted.
The first time someone suggested to Lamar Hunt that the U.S. national team’s first game of the final round of World Cup 2002 qualifying be played at the stadium he built in Columbus, Ohio, something akin to “Are you crazy ?” blurted from his mouth.
The thought of playing soccer at Crew Stadium in February seemed implausible, but when Hunt realized his venue needed some cold weather improvements soon anyway, the idea was not so far-fetched.
The stadium had been winterized, meaning that all its water pipes were empty and would have to be heated in order to be used. Hunt promptly spent about $150,000 to expedite the purchase of heating systems for bathrooms and concessions stands as well as the rental of about 30 heavy-duty portable heaters.
In the days before the game, groundskeeper Darian Daily rolled a tarp over the dead grass, positioned a portable heater on each corner of the field and let the tarp billow up and form a bubble of warmth that tricked the grass out of dormancy.
A few days before leaving home, the Mexican team received a shipment of official game balls from U.S. Soccer – including several neon orange balls for use in snow. The mind games had begun.
Once weather reports cleared any threat of precipitation, that gesture could be viewed comically, but temperatures on game night hovered in the mid-20s, and Mexico did not leave its cozy locker room until kickoff.
Whether the weather actually helped the host team was debatable – especially after four U.S. players were hurt during the game – but for the first time in an important game on American soil, Mexico encountered very little support. U.S. fans, meanwhile, stomped, clapped and shouted throughout and provided a boost in their team’s 2-0 victory.
The next home match followed suit as 37,319 supporters from across the country converged on Kansas City on a weeknight. Only a handful came to cheer for Costa Rica. The United States eked out a 1-0 victory.
Prowess at home kick-started the final round of qualifying. With the exception of the Honduras game at RFK Stadium – the lone home loss – the U.S. team discovered more passionate crowds favorably inclined to its cause on its soil than in any previous qualifying campaign.
“Getting 12 points at home was a big lift for us,” captain Claudio Reyna said. “We did the business at home, and that’s a big reason why we qualified.”
DEPTH CHARGES. U.S. coach Bruce Arena said he knew his lineup months in advance of the Mexico game, yet two starters, including his captain, left before halftime. Brian McBride’s eye swelled shut, and Reyna pulled his ever-fragile groin muscle.
Off the bench, Arena was forced to use two players whose fitness was already suspect and whose experience in qualifiers was even more questionable. Josh Wolff had just returned from a hernia surgery, and Clint Mathis had recently decided against surgery for a sprained knee. The two MLS products factored in both goals against Mexico – the first, a breakaway for Wolff in which he outfoxed a charging Jorge Campos.
“So many things that could go wrong went wrong, and that’s why getting the first goal was such a huge moment,” assistant coach Dave Sarachan said. “That win really gave us some momentum.”
Together, Mathis and Wolff went on to spark victories against Honduras – 2-1 in San Pedro Sula – and Costa Rica before they, too, fell victim to injury in the worst ways. First, Wolff’s foot broke in late April after a tackle from Tampa Bay’s Craig Demmin. Then Mathis’ knee gave out in preparation for the June friendly with Ecuador, less than two weeks before the U.S. game in Jamaica. Both were finished until qualifying was no longer in doubt for the Americans.
Reyna, who had missed the game in San Pedro Sula, earned a caution-points suspension for the game in Mexico, then injured his groin again, taking him out for two more qualifiers, the critical return matches with Honduras and Costa Rica.
At that point, Arena might have mused that at least his defense was healthy, but it wasn’t. After losses to Costa Rica and Honduras suddenly dropped the United States to fourth place, Arena found out that stalwart Jeff Agoos had been sick – an ailment later diagnosed as bronchitis – but had tried to play through it.
“If I was aware of it, I probably wouldn’t have played him against Costa Rica,” Arena said. “When you take a guy who’s been arguably our best player throughout qualifying, it impacts us to a certain degree.”
But even to the last meaningful match, MLS players stepped in to fill the gaps left by others when it mattered most.
Carlos Llamosa was suspended for the Jamaica match at Foxboro Stadium, so Eddie Pope trained with five teammates at D.C. United to stay ready. D.C. United’s season had been over for more than a month, but the mini-training camp for Pope worked. He marked Onandi Lowe out of the game that would send the Americans to the World Cup.
Landon Donovan, who would not have been in the picture if not for his return from Germany where he wasn’t playing, drew the crucial penalty kick that gave the Americans the win over Jamaica and their berth in the World Cup.
MOOD SWINGS. The pressure on Arena and his team was evident, even when things were off to a good start early in the year.
Prior to the match in San Pedro Sula, Arena clashed with press officer Rich Schneider. According to Schneider, Arena cursed at him profusely in front of U.S. Soccer officials and the team upon arriving in Honduras because he saw a local holding a U.S. roster while walking through the airport.
“Bruce is a different person with his staff than he is with his players and assistant coaches,” Schneider said. “Some of his less admirable qualities come out. In the end, it was just a personality conflict. We just didn’t get along. It didn’t matter that the roster had been released two weeks prior and was probably about 50 percent accurate. He had me pegged as a moron from the get-go.”
U.S. Soccer let Schneider go soon after the trip.
While Arena’s demanding style reached a boiling point at times, he kept the brunt of his anger away from his players, according to Reyna.
“Through it all, [Arena] remained as calm as he could be,” Reyna said. “There was pressure for all of us, but from the time he took over through the Jamaica game, he didn’t change. He was good at making sure we were relaxed and maybe even made us believe we were better than we are at times. I think he was able to get the best out of a lot of guys.”
Arena needed to be a calming influence when dealing with his goalkeepers, who each had their periods of discontent. Both were capable of starting, so both wanted to start. Brad Friedel started the first two qualifiers, Kasey Keller the next three, while Arena hedged at calling either his No. 1.
According to several sources, Friedel quit the team following the June match against Trinidad & Tobago in Foxboro, a game he watched from the bench.
After the 2-0 win over the Soca Warriors, the Americans had 13 out of a possible 15 points and seemed headed to the World Cup. It later became evident, though, that Arena might need Friedel back.
Keller started in goal for the Mexico match, but Arena flew to England soon thereafter to meet with Friedel. The Blackburn keeper returned to the team, to play against Honduras and Costa Rica.
Arena needed Friedel when Keller moved from Spanish club Rayo Vallecano to Tottenham and suddenly found himself without match fitness.
This time it was Keller who was upset, publicly questioning why he lost the starting job.
Arena declines to comment on what transpired with his goalkeepers, but after the three-game slide, he spoke about general selfishness creeping into the team.
“We’ve had too many players that have worried about themselves – and their playing time – as opposed to the team,” he said.
Those concerns were quickly superseded by the team’s overall morale after three straight losses to Mexico, Honduras and Costa Rica. The Mexico and Costa Rica losses – 1-0 and 2-0, respectively, on the road – weren’t entirely unexpected, but the 3-2 loss against Honduras was not as close as the score indicated and placed the team’s chances in jeopardy.
“That kind of shook us a bit,” Sarachan said. “That game itself was an emotional roller coaster, and it was something that no one had expected, to the extent that we were exposed like we were.”
SURPRISE! One of Arena’s mantras throughout the two-year process of qualifying was “it’s always going to come down to the last game or two,” and having said that throughout helped his players recover from the drubbings they took against Honduras and Costa Rica.
“When the reporters and outside people started to question whether or not we’d qualify, we never harped on the people we were missing,” Sarachan said. “We hit a bad stretch, and we didn’t get caught up emotionally because we knew at the end of it, after eight games, this is probably where we’d be.”
After missing the three-game skid, Reyna returned to the team for its win-or-face-near-certain-elimination match against Jamaica, as did John O’Brien. Despite the starkly different circumstances surrounding the team than when he last played, Reyna said he was “still quite comfortable” with the team’s chances.
Another Arena mantra throughout the two-year process of qualifying was “things rarely go as planned,” and the final round opener should have sufficient proof of this theory.
Arena is big on planning but always has tried to keep his halftime talks simple. At halftime of the Mexico game in Columbus, the one thing he wanted to make sure of was that the Americans didn’t give up a stupid goal early in the second half. Luis Hernandez and Francisco Palencia were pressing, and Arena told his players not to fool around with the ball in the back.
“What happens?” Arena recalled. “Agoos plays a ball to Friedel’s left foot in the first 45 seconds.”
Friedel’s left foot is his weak foot – better than Keller’s – but still disaster loomed. The Americans got out of the jam, and Wolff scored soon thereafter at the other end.
Arena’s warnings always implied preparing for the worst. Not even Arena anticipated the strangest quirk of fate to befall his team – perhaps because it was for the best.
As Joe-Max Moore put the finishing touches on a 2-1 victory over Jamaica, lowly Trinidad & Tobago was pulling off a bewildering coup in Honduras.
Two years worth of escalating tension was suddenly lifted – the U.S. team had qualified.
“We expected that we’d qualify in Game 9 or 10,” Arena said. “What wasn’t expected was the cycle – the peaks and valleys.”
NO MYSTERY. Said Reyna: “When we lost a few games, there was more dissension within the team, but that’s normal. Everyone realized the most important thing was the team, and I think that has to be our approach all the way through the World Cup. It’s not a mystery of tactics or anything, but it works.”
Team chemistry can make or break a team in World Cup qualifying. Reyna pointed to other World Cup 2002 finalists – Ireland and Ecuador – that overcame the odds to qualify.
“It plays a big role,” said Reyna. “We don’t have any world stars or anything on our team, so the only way we are going to get results is if we work hard for each other.”
by Soccer America Associate Editor Will Kuhns