Barto: U.S. soccer team has come a long way

When the United States soccer team left for the World Cup, it flew across the Atlantic, was put up in a cushy chateau in wine country and had the kind of treatment you would expect a "Dream Team" to have.

No strikes. No distractions. The way had been paved for an optimum performance from Steve Sampson's team, which met Germany today in its opening match of France '98.

That's a far cry from Barry Barto's "covered wagon" experience when the UNLV coach was a member of the national team in the mid-'70s. Barto and his teammates were true pioneers compared to Eric Wynalda, Kasey Keller, Tab Ramos and the rest of the '98 squad.

"It's light year's difference," Barto said Sunday from his Green Valley home while watching Croatia dismantle Jamaica, 3-1. "The organizational side is so much better than when we played. The training is so much better. You have full-time coaches, excellent facilities. Everything is done first-class.

"We'd have a game on a Sunday and they'd be picking up the phone calling guys on a Friday to see if they could play. We're playing Mexico in Azteca Stadium with 100,000 people and it's so loud you can't hear a guy screaming at you from three yards away, and we're trying to figure out who No. 7 is because we've never seen him before. He'd never practiced with us."

The U.S. Soccer Federation has indeed come a long way since the '70s, even though it had come a long way back then since the 1950s, when the Americans shocked the world by beating England 1-0 in the 1950 World Cup.

"I think it's great," Barto said of the pampered treatment today's players receive. "There's so much money now. But I don't think you can forget the hard work and the sacrifices that were made through the years by people to get it to this point. I think it's important that we remember where all this started."

Barto, who will begin his 17th season as UNLV coach in September, had been an all-American defender at Philadelphia Textile and played professionally in the old North American Soccer League. He remembers getting paid $300 a game to represent his nation and doing it as the enemy in his own country.

"The truth be known, we'd have played for nothing," he said. "The patriotism was just as strong back then as it is today.

"I remember playing Poland in New Britain, Conn., and they're playing the national anthem and the tape broke right in the middle. But the team kept singing at the top of their lungs.

"We're playing in our own country and we're being booed. But we won the game 1-0. That was a great thrill for me. It's funny, but when we played them in Warsaw, I felt more at home there than I did when we played them in Connecticut."

In 1994, the Americans were the home team and they took advantage by advancing to the second round, losing to eventual champion Brazil. Barto said the Americans face a daunting task trying to advance to the second round in France '98. But he said it is not impossible.

"I think four points should put them through (to the second round)," Barto said. "That means somewhere along the line, they have to win a game (worth three points). Three draws isn't going to get it done."

Barto said the Americans' success comes down to one thing -- offense.

"Defensively, we're solid in goal and in the back," he said. "The big question is, 'Can we score?' I think (Las Vegas resident Eric) Wynalda's our best chance to score and goals are the key to whether or not they go through (to the second round)."

Barto never got a chance to play in a World Cup final as the Americans failed to qualify in 1974. But the opportunity to make it is something he'll always cherish. And when he pulls for the national side in the tournament, he also pulls for the legacy of U.S. soccer, one of which he is a small, but important part.

"We had guys who could do the business," he said of the '74 team that came up short. "But I'm glad today's guys have the opportunities they have and I hope they can go far. The sport needs it and anything that helps soccer here, I'm all for it."

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