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Last Updated: Dec 15, 2007 - 2:55:41 AM |
When the United States opens its World Cup group schedule against the Czech Republic on June 12, Tony Meola will be parked in front of a television instead of pacing the goal line. his toughest decision will be whether to reach for the chips or pretzels.
The most-decorated goalkeeper in U.S. history was chosen as an alternate, a selection that recognized both his past accomplishments and his recent return from a potentially career-ending injury.
That's more or less OK with Meola, even if it means he won't accompany the team to Germany.
"A year and a half ago, three of the specialists in Achilles' tendons told me I'd never play soccer for the rest of my life," the 37-year-old Meola said recently after a workout with Major League Soccer's New York Red Bulls. "So this is an honor for me. I wanted to fight to get back to the national team level and I did."
At least one of Meola's Red Bulls teammates can empathize.
"I was an alternate for 1994 and '98, so I know what he's going through," said midfielder Chris Henderson, a teammate of Meola's on the 1990 U.S. World Cup squad. "As a player, you never want to hope someone else gets hurt to get your chance that way, but as one of the eight alternates, you just have to stay ready and stay sharp, because in one game or training session anything can happen."
Meola is testament to that. He injured his Achilles' tendon while playing with Kansas City in the 2004 MLS season and missed nearly three months. He was signed by the then-MetroStars last year and gradually regained the form that once made him the country's most durable goalkeeper. Last month in a game against Jamaica, he became the first U.S. goalie to make 100 international appearances.
Still, it wasn't enough to convince U.S. coach Bruce Arena to select him ahead of Kasey Keller, Tim Howard or Marcus Hahnemann for the 2006 team.
"Obviously he has meant a great deal to the program," Arena said last weekend. "He played in the World Cup and was an important part of those teams. It is a shame that he's not a part of this team, but there comes a time to move on for every player. He's had a marvelous career. He should be very proud of his accomplishments."
It wasn't so long ago that players like Meola and Alexi Lalas were the face of American soccer on the international stage: brash, telegenic and hardly caring that the rest of the world still didn't take them seriously.
The process of gaining respect was a slow one, but Meola seemed to be there at all the crucial junctures.
He was the winning goalkeeper in the biggest U.S. victory since its upset of England in 1950, a 2-1 victory over heavily favored Colombia in the 1994 World Cup at the Rose Bowl. Five years earlier, he was in the net when Paul Caligiuri's goal in front of a sea of red-clad fans in Port of Spain beat Trinidad and Tobago to send the United States to its first World Cup in 40 years.
In Rome the next year, he held Italy to one goal as the Americans regained a measure of confidence after being drubbed by Czechoslovakia in their Cup opener.
"We were just a young, overmatched team," Meola said, recalling the Czech game. "We could have done all the scouting and all the preparation, but we just weren't ready for what that first game was going to be about. Czechoslovakia was. We learned from that experience that the first game is the most important."
In a case of history repeating itself, the Americans play the Czechs, then the Italians, in their first two games in Germany. This time, though, Meola finds himself the odd man out behind Howard, considered the country's goalie of the future, the veteran Keller, the man of the present, and Hahnemann, who comes off a superb season for Reading in England.
"He has to take Tim for sure, based on the fact he's probably going to be the goalkeeper in the next World Cup and you don't want that to be his first one," Meola said. "I'm OK with that; I'm a realist. I've been doing this for a long time and I know it's a numbers game. "Am I disappointed to not go? Of course. If you don't have a competitive spirit, you probably shouldn't be doing this."
Meola plans to play at least two more years and then possibly remain with New York in an off-field capacity. Having been part of the first wave of American players to put the country back on the international soccer map, his legacy is already secure.
"Tony Meola is one of those players who got U.S. soccer to the level it is at now," said 2006 team member Brian McBride. "My first World Cup was 1998, but he had already been there and helped us a lot then. The way the federation treats us now, Tony had a lot to do with breaking ground and getting things accomplished for all the players who followed him. All those guys who were playing when I was growing up, they all made a difference."
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