More on the Head Moron Sampson:
U.S. Soccer Players Rip Coach
NANTES, France (AP) - When they shoot at the net, U.S. soccer players miss. When they go after coach Steve Sampson, they make sure they hit the target.
For weeks, veterans on the team have been seething about their lack of playing time. On Wednesday, they finally started venting, saying Sampson's personnel moves wrecked U.S. stability and spirit heading into the World Cup.
U.S. career scoring leader Eric Wynalda, benched during the humiliating 2-1 loss to Iran, still wouldn't speak about the move. Wynalda was threatened with being sent home earlier this month while the team was based at Saint-Jean D'Ardieres, two team sources said on the condition they not be identified. Alexi Lalas also was
threatened with getting cut, one of the sources said.
Preki Radosavljevic, angry he won't start tonight's World Cup finale against his former nation, Yugoslavia, lashed out at Sampson after practice Wednesday. And Lalas, who has emerged as the most vocal of the veterans, seemed to express the feeling of most of the players who were on the team in 1994.
"Any team, regardless of what level, especially the World Cup level, needs leadership and a spirit and personality out on the field," he said. "There's a spirit that exists within the U.S. national team that's been existent for years - at big games, at big times, at historical moments ... it's a spirit, chemistry, a personality of a group of guys who grew up together on the field. We have missed that spirit."
John Harkes, the team captain until he was cut by Sampson on April 14, said in an interview from his home in Virginia that several players called him from France with the same sentiment.
"It's so wrong. After all the hard work we did going into the World Cup, to see everything end so abruptly, it's kind of sad," he said. "I sensed that team chemistry is a lot different."
Harkes, Tab Ramos, Wynalda and Marcelo Balboa all were veterans of the 1990 and '94 tournaments. Sampson cut Harkes, saying he wouldn't play a more defensive role and didn't provide leadership.
"Chemistry is something you build on for years and years," Harkes said. "It's what soccer is all about, what happens when you cross that line. It just hasn't happened recently. It wasn't there."
Radosavljevic, who turned 35 Wednesday, criticized Sampson for not starting him against the Yugoslavs, who want to win by a large enough margin to overtake Germany for first in the group and avoid a second-round matchup with the Netherlands.
Radosavljevic, who scored the lone goal in February's upset win over Brazil, didn't play in the opening 2-0 loss to the Germans and played the final 33 minutes against Iran. He said he didn't think he would start the World Cup finale.
He wants to start, "especially against Yugoslavia, especially against my former country, especially because the game doesn't mean that much."
"After the Germany game, he was trying to assure me that he believed in me," Radosavljevic said, "but I don't think that's the case. It seems everybody he gave a shot but myself."
Sampson, the first American-born coach to lead the team in the World Cup, said he didn't deserve to be fired for the team's performance.
>>The guy is desperately trying to save his ass, he should have had the same fate as the Korean, S. Arabia, and Tunisian coaches, fired after the second game.
"Everyone has to realize that this World Cup was more difficult than previous World Cups," he said, citing the tough group and the expansion of the field to 32 teams, which eliminated third-place wild cards.
>>So why you idiot you were predicting second round, anything less will be a failure, USA is a first class team, deserves respect, will get respect, etc.?
Naturally, he wasn't pleased with the players' verbal attacks.
"Players came here to play. They didn't come to sit on the bench. It's hard for players who didn't play," he said. "They have a choice whether to be professional or not. I've always been professional with them. I will never criticize a player through the press."
>>So why criticize Harkes when you cut him? Why criticize Wynalda after the first game when you let him all alone amonng Kohler and company? What could he have done better?
Wynalda didn't believe that and was angry over Sampson's repeated remarks about a lack of effort during practice and during the Germany game, one source said. Sampson at times has appeared to use his public assessments to motivate players.
Amidst all the turmoil, Roy Wegerle was one of the few players to publicly defend the coach, whose contract expires later this year.
"It's no one's fault, and we didn't come here to fail," Wegerle said. "When things don't go well for us on the field, players get frustrated and disappointed. ... We're all to blame. There's no one finger you can point at any individual."
>>Isn't if funny how the only player who did not deserve to even wear the US jersey is the only one defending Sampson?
I am getting over this...slowly<gg> |
