O'Brien dilemma typical of pressure exerted on Americans in Europe..

By Robert Wagman
SoccerTimes

WASHINGTON, D.C. (Sunday, July 8, 2001) -- When CONCACAF drew up its World Cup qualifying schedule for North America, Central America and the Caribbean, it carefully tried to mimic the Europeans and international calendar.

For instance, it carefully slotted three matches into a three-week period ending last Sunday. The idea was to push three matches into a space when the European and Mexican professional league seasons had ended, so there would be no club-country conflicts as national teams called in European- and Mexican-based players for qualifiers.

Good idea. Too bad it didn’t work.

On the final Sunday of these three weeks, when the United States lost to Mexico 1-0 in Mexico City, U.S. coach Bruce Arena’s team went into the match with problems in midfield. Glasgow Rangers’ Claudio Reyna was serving a yellow card suspension. The MetroStar’s Clint Mathis for the rest of qualifying following knee surgery.

So for the Mexico match, Arena was ready to turn to Ajax of Amsterdam midfielder John O’Brien to run things. Ajax, however, stepped in, and, for all practical purposes, prohibited O’Brien from remaining with the U.S., demanding he return to Amsterdam immediately under threat of being dropped from the first team if he was not at the team's first training session, fully fit, rested, and ready to go.

Ajax’s position is that it has to start training early this year for several reasons. Because of the World Cup, both the remaining European qualifying matches and the Cup itself in South Korea and Japan, the Dutch League has moved the start of its regular season forward into August. In addition, Ajax plays its first play-in match for the European Champions League in early August. Additionally, later this month, Ajax plays A.C. Milan and Liverpool in its highly-profitable, annual preseason tournament. So Ajax coach Co Adriaanse told O’Brien in no uncertain terms if he hoped to play this season, he had better be in Amsterdam, for the first day of training.

This put both O’Brien and Arena in untenable positions. O’Brien was injured while playing for the U.S. in the Summer Olympics last September, and he missed almost the entire Ajax season, returning as a starter only for final four matches. His absence, for an injury in something Adriaanse considered trivial, such as the Olympics, annoyed the coach greatly and he was not shy about voicing his opinion in public often.

Under world governing body FIFA’s rules, since the U.S.-Mexico was a full World Cup qualifier, Arena could have demanded O’Brien five days before the match, and if O’Brien wanted to play, there was nothing Adriaanse could have done to prevent it. So he threatened the player’s career to get his way. Had Arena called O’Brien in for the match, O’Brien’s probable choice would have been to decline the invitation. Arena spared his young player the dilemma.

There is also a double standard at work here, and it shows the lack of respect many coaches and clubs in Europe have for American soccer. The Netherlands was one of 24 nations in the World Youth Championship that ended Sunday. Had the Dutch not been eliminated from the tournament several days earlier, they likely would have remained in Argentina for another week. Adriaanse never uttered a word about his players on that squad, which included two of his starters.

It should be noted that many European coaches cooperated with Arena. The Bundesliga starts play this year the last weekend of this month, causing most German teams to start training in late June. Both U.S. midfielder Tony Sanneh, who next season will be playing for FC Nuernberg, and American defender Steve Cherundolo who plays for Hannover 96, were allowed to remain with the U.S. squad for the three recent qualifiers despite the fact their clubs had started serious preseason training.

Americans playing in Europe face this double standard constantly. Whether they are playing in Germany, France, Spain or the United Kingdom, when called into the U.S. national team, they face hostility from their clubs and coaches, who react with pride when their native players are called into international service.

As O’Brien found out last season, woe be it to the American player who is injured while away playing for the U.S. This is how one American who is still playing in Germany told me after he finally regained a spot in the starting side of his Bundesliga team after sitting out months with an injury suffered in a U.S. match.

"If one of the guys is injured while away with the German team, they (his Bundesliga team) will move heaven and earth getting him fit and back into the side," said the U.S. player. "But if I’m injured, or if one of our other non-European players is hurt while away with a non-European national side, we are pretty much on our own to regain fitness."

The U.S. very much could have used O’Brien against Mexico and his absence might have cost the U.S. a point in the standings had it tied instead of losing 1-0. Arena was clearly angered with how O’Brien was treated by Ajax and Adriaanse.

"I think it’s a classless thing to do, to be honest with you," Arena said. "It was going to hurt John one way or the other. It was either going to hurt him with us, or hurt him with Ajax. When a club puts a player in that kind of position, it’s unfair. I can’t believe playing here would have really hurt him playing for Ajax this season. At the same time, I understand issues clubs have with players. But this isn’t a friendly. It’s a pretty good experience for any player. He would have benefited from playing here."

Asked if he could have forced O’Brien to play, Arena responded "Sure, but then he doesn’t play next year for Ajax. You have to weigh the pros and cons."

So despite the phase-in of the so-called international calendar by FIFA, the club-country conflicts continue, and if anything, things will get worse as the World Cup approaches. As many as eight U.S. starters will be playing in Europe in the coming season, and all will fight for time off from their clubs for Cup preparations.

Actually, a showdown looms with CONCACAF having scheduled the next two qualifying match days for Saturday, September 1, and Wednesday, September 5, when European leagues stand down for the next UEFA qualifiers. Arena will demand that his full squad be available the full five days before the September 1 match and this time he will likely not take no for an answer.

Senior correspondent Robert Wagman's "It Seems To Me . . . " appears regularly on SoccerTimes. He can be e-mailed at bobwagman@soccertimes.com..