Composed Reyna Means Everything in Cup Qualifier
COLUMBUS, Ohio — It’s been awhile since it happened, so Claudio Reyna has had ample time to calm down, to realize that losing his temper and going after the referee was not the wisest move.
On the other hand, were the situation to occur again, there’s no guarantee that one of U.S. soccer’s most gifted players would not fly off the handle again.
“I don’t think it’ll happen again, but you never know,” Reyna said Monday before the U.S. national team set off to practice for Wednesday night’s World Cup qualifying game against Mexico.
The stakes are seldom higher than when a World Cup berth hangs in the balance, so a disputed call, especially one that comes at the very end of a hotly contested game, always is likely to spark a firestorm.
Last July 23 in steamy San Jose, Costa Rica, Jamaican referee Peter Prendergast awarded the home team a penalty kick on a dubious hand ball call in injury time, then blew the final whistle seconds after Hernan Medford had scored, condemning the U.S. to a 2-1 defeat.
Reyna was incensed. He hurled his captain’s armband at Prendergast. He hurled some verbal abuse that was even more colorful. It didn’t help that Bruce Arena, the U.S. coach and Reyna’s former coach at the University of Virginia, was equally livid.
Both screamed profanities at Prendergast, but Reyna had to be physically restrained by teammates and assistant coaches.
In the end, the loss did not prevent the U.S. from advancing to this year’s final, six-team qualifying round. But Prendergast’s match report to FIFA prompted world soccer’s governing body to slap a three-game ban on Arena and to suspend Reyna for two matches.
To this day, Reyna insists that the call was a bad one, but says he has put it behind him.
“Those things happen,” he said. “But I think I’ve learned from that, and not to do that again. It’s important that I’m around. It’s important that all of us who are starters are on the field, unless injury takes us off.”
If any player is key to the U.S. chances of advancing to the 2002 World Cup in Japan and South Korea, it’s the 27-year-old Reyna, whose midfield position is pivotal to the team’s attack. He is, in a sense, the hub of the wheel.
Whereas Chris Armas is the midfielder charged with being the first line of defense, the player who is supposed to win the ball back from opponents, Reyna’s job is to set up the offense.
His passing is supposed to spring Cobi Jones or Earnie Stewart free on the flanks. He is supposed to sense the exact moment to send through balls to forwards Brian McBride and Joe-Max Moore.
If Armas is the destroyer, Reyna is the creator, the closest the U.S. has to, say, a Mauricio Cienfuegos or a Marco Etchverry or a Carlos Valderrama, to put him in some lofty company. He’s the playmaker, even though he doesn’t like the term.
“I think playmakers are kind of a dying breed,” he said. “All players can create and play.”
That’s what is expected of Reyna by the Rangers in the Scottish Premier League, where Coach Dick Advocaat, a former World Cup coach for the Netherlands, calls the shots.
Advocaat preaches what the Dutch once called “total football,” with every player getting involved on offense and defense. When there is only one playmaker, Reyna said, teams become too predictable.
“It’s quite easy to shut a team down, I think, if one guy is the one who is told to create and to set up goals,” he said. “These days there are so many good defenders. If you put one guy on him [the playmaker], you can stop the whole team.”
Mexico arguably is the toughest opponent the U.S. will face in its 10 qualifying games in 2001. But Reyna, a veteran of the 1994 and 1998 U.S. World Cup teams, has been through this before.
Only the Galaxy’s Jones, with 19 qualifying games to Reyna’s 18, has been dropped into the pressure cooker more often.
Originally from Livingston, N.J., Reyna has been on the national team for seven years and has been playing in Europe almost as long, first in Germany and now in Scotland.
He helped the Rangers win the Scottish championship in 1999 and 2000, and was named Honda U.S. player of the year in 2001.
On Wednesday night, he again puts on the captain’s armband. Hopefully, this time it won’t be thrown at anyone, least of all the referee.
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World Cup Qualifying
What: Mexico vs. U.S.
When: Today, 4:30 PST
TV: ESPN2, Telemundo.
Where: Columbus, Ohio.
Other opening games: Trinidad and Tobago vs. Jamaica at Kingston; Honduras vs. Costa Rica at San Jose.
