Here Come the Yanks!

By J.D. Reed

For most of the globe, soccer's World Cup competition is the very soul of sport, a month-long extravaganza of adrenaline, athletics and nationalism. But American sports fans hardly notice the quadrennial event. Not only are the Yanks mesmerized by the summertime rapture of baseball, golf and tennis, but most of them find soccer -- which the rest of the world perversely calls football -- a frustrating, often impenetrable game. What kind of sport is it, after all, where players can't use their hands, pass the ball with their feet, butt it with their heads, only rarely score goals and touch off stadium riots when they do?

- But when the games kick off in Italy this week, Americans would do well to join the 1.2 billion soccer nuts from Beijing to Sao Paulo who will be glued to their TV sets. Reason: for the first time in 40 years, the U.S. has a direct stake in the outcome of the World Cup, as a scrappy American squad takes the field along with 23 other national teams. Moreover, the U.S. is scheduled to be the host of the 1994 event, marking the first time that the World Cup championship will not be held in Europe or Latin America.

The U.S. team owes its improbable Italian sojourn to improving youth programs. Although professional soccer has never gained much more than a toehold in the U.S., some 2.5 million U.S. school kids play the game. Their fast improving ranks have stocked U.S. college squads and provided the national team with better players than ever before. Another boost for the home team: Mexico, a tough, world-class contender that vies in the same qualifying group as the U.S., was banned from competition for using ineligible players.

Can the Yanks make it to the final contest in Rome on July 8? Highly unlikely. In 1950 an unheralded U.S. squad shook the soccer establishment to its shoelaces by beating mighty England in a Cup game. But in this age of cautious play, when winning the Cup can net international stars $250,000 each in bonus money, the Americans will probably go winless. In the first round they are up against veteran squads from Austria, Czechoslovakia and Italy, a three-time champion. Bookmakers give the U.S only a 1-in-500 chance of bringing home the Cup. But U.S. Coach Bob Gansler gamely vows that his boys are "going to come out and bare our teeth. Hopefully, we'll make it into the second round."

Meantime, Italia '90 continues the trend toward World Cup extravagance. Thanks to global television hookups, the games have become elaborate public relations displays, and Italy has already spent some $4 billion to improve its video profile. Traditional powers, including Brazil and West Germany, will probably dominate the fields. Italy's Azzurri, which boasts a muscular sophistication, has every intention of using home-field advantage to make Italy the first nation to win a fourth Cup. Holland's Edward Sturing and Argentina's Diego Maradona, perhaps the world's best player, figure to shine brightly among the game's top stars.

The biggest potential problem may come from remote Cagliari, one of the twelve cities in which the games will be played. There some 30,000 British soccer fans are expected to show up to cheer on their team -- and raise a ruckus. British professional teams were banned from European play in 1985 because of the destruction caused by their notoriously rowdy fans; last season the thugs wrought havoc in Holland, Sweden and Germany. In anticipation of possible trouble, more than 3,000 Italian riot police will be on hand to contain any outbreaks of hooliganism.

World Cup organizers are hoping that European fans will not export their violence to the U.S. in 1994. The world soccer community is counting on a special boost from the American-based games. Several traditional soccer powers have suffered economic problems in recent years, including Colombia, which withdrew as the 1986 host in favor of Mexico. The U.S., on the other hand, offers a stable economy, excellent telecommunications, hotels and airlines. The venue also appeals to soccer's ruling body, the Zurich-based Federation Internationale de Football Association, which is hoping to stimulate new interest in the game. In July 1988, after some high-powered salesmanship by the U.S. Soccer Federation, Ronald Reagan and the Congress, the U.S. was chosen over Brazil and Morocco as the 1994 host.

The American edition of the Cup will profit from impending rule changes designed to put scoring magic back into the game. World-class soccer has become a defensive bore: 0-0 contests are not unusual. Only 2.5 goals per game were scored at the 1986 Cup, the lowest in history (see chart). In Italy this month, FIFA has vowed to crack down on fouls made by defending players, in hopes of promoting more goals. Expected future rules will further enhance the chance of scoring, with the aim of charming a new American audience in the process. Says Scott LeTellier, president of the U.S. World Cup organizing committee: "I think we are going to show the world that we have a different type of enthusiasm here for soccer."

CHART: NOT AVAILABLE

CREDIT: TIME Chart

CAPTION: Winner and average goals per game

With reporting by Bruce Crumley/Paris and David E. Thigpen/New York