Cherundolo Is Able to Grin and Bear U.S. Loss

FOXBORO, Mass. — It’s not common to find an American player smiling after a loss, but try as he might, Steve Cherundolo wasn’t able to get rid of the grin.

That’s because of the phone call he got while watching TV at home in San Diego on Saturday evening, telling him to hop on a red-eye and fly here to join the rest of the U.S. World Cup team.

It’s also because Cherundolo, a defender, spent Sunday afternoon watching from the bench and was in no way responsible for the two glaring defensive blunders that caused the U.S. to lose, 2-0, to the Netherlands in front of 36,778 at CMGI Field in the team’s final warmup game before leaving Thursday for Korea/Japan ’02.

So Cherundolo--called in as a replacement for injured Greg Vanney after Vanney had been called in as a replacement for injured Chris Armas--was still grinning when he got back on a plane Sunday night and flew back to San Diego.

From out of nowhere, he suddenly was going to the World Cup. Heady stuff for a 23-year-old who this season helped his club team, Hannover ‘96, win promotion to the German Bundesliga’s first division.

“Steve can certainly help the team,” veteran defender Jeff Agoos said.

“I think we need some cover in the back, and especially in the outside back positions,” Coach Bruce Arena said. “He gives us other options.”

The U.S. was certainly in need of those Sunday. In patches, it played well, but there were the usual breakdowns that even four years under Arena have not been able to erase.

The Americans outshot the Dutch, 18-14, but came up blank because too many shots went high or wide, and those that were well aimed were handled by goalkeeper Ronald Waterreus.

“We could have easily walked in at halftime with a goal or two,” said Arena, who had watched Brian McBride, Claudio Reyna and Eddie Pope all have on-target shots turned away by Waterreus.

Four minutes after Agoos had left the game because of a tight calf muscle and only seconds before halftime, the Netherlands grabbed the lead.

Pope, who earlier had cleared a shot by Roy Makaay off the line, again got in a tussle with the Dutch midfielder inside the box, and this time Makaay regained his feet before Pope and in time to steer the ball beneath goalkeeper Brad Friedel from the right side of the net.

“It was a bad goal to give up in the 45th minute,” Arena said. “It was a bad second goal [to give up in the 76th], but having said that, [there were] a lot of good things, some good individual performances.”

The U.S. plays Portugal, South Korea and Poland in the first round of the World Cup, and the fact that the Americans are 0-4 against European opposition this year was dismissed by Arena.

“Don’t worry about it,” he said.

But the Portuguese, the Koreans and the Poles will take some comfort from the almost farcical miscommunication between defender David Regis and goalkeeper Kasey Keller (who replaced Friedel for the second half) that allowed Andy van der Meyde to sneak in, steal the ball and tap it into the empty net to make it 2-0.

Those sort of mistakes can mean the difference between going to the second round and going home.

“Today, we played very well defensively for large segments of the game, but we broke down obviously on a couple of plays that made a difference,” Arena said.

Is the U.S. ready for the World Cup?

“Not today,” Arena said. “We’re not supposed to be ready today. We’re supposed to be ready June 5, that’s when we’ll find out if we’re ready. But I think we’ve made good progress in these two and a half weeks.”