Georgia players making impact for U.S. World Cup team

By

Posted 6:45AM on Friday, May 17, 2002

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. - This U.S. soccer team has young legs - right now, banged up young legs. Three players hobbled off during Thursday night's 5-0 victory over Jamaica in a World Cup warmup. Goalkeeper Kasey Keller bruised a bone just below his left knee, star attacker Clint Mathis of Conyers broke the nail on his right big toe while scoring and defender Greg Vanney sprained his right knee. ``Man, these games are starting to hurt us more than helping us,'' said U.S. forward Josh Wolff of Stone Mountain. During Sunday's 2-1 win over Uruguay, defensive midfielder Chris Armas tore a ligament in his right knee, which will force him to miss the tournament. Now it seems like the goal for Sunday's game against the Netherlands - the Americans' last World Cup warmup - is to not get hurt. Bruce Arena, who with 31 victories surpassed Bora Milutinovic as the winningest coach in U.S. national team history, said his players could just as easily have gotten hurt ``stepping off a curb.'' ``How do you prepare for a World Cup? You don't play and you don't get touched?'' he said. Young players drove the offense for the United States, which improved to 10-3 this year. Wolff scored twice, and Mathis, Landon Donovan and DaMarcus Beasley got one each. ``The younger guys have been doing well,'' Wolff said. ``When you come on the field, you expect to be doing this.'' Ten of the 11 starters weren't in the opening lineup against Uruguay, including Keller, competing with Brad Friedel for the starting job in goal. Keller made a drive to stop Ricardo Fuller in the seventh minute, then was hurt in a 51st-minute collision with Jamaica's Deon Burton. Two minutes later, Keller was replaced by Tony Meola, a New Jersey native who was the U.S. starter in the 1990 and 1994 World Cups. ``I thought I could shake it off a bit,'' Keller said. ``If it had been a World Cup game, I don't think I would have come out.'' Mathis, who plays at Giants Stadium for the New York/New Jersey MetroStars, entered as a halftime substitute and provided an immediate spark, scoring in his second minute on the field off a pass from Wolff, his former teammate at the University of South Carolina. Connecting from 16 yards out, he was hit on the toe as he took the shot. He stayed in the game until the 63rd. ``Somebody either landed on it or kicked me,'' Mathis said. ``I scored so I didn't notice. Then it got worse and worse. I thought I could walk it off, but I couldn't. There was a lot of blood going there, and the nail was hanging off. It's no problem. It will be fine in a couple of days.'' Vanney, an alternate who appears the most likely replacement for Armas' spot on the 23-man roster, sprained his right knee and came out four minutes into the second half. Arena experimented with his shaky defense, starting Frankie Hejduk and Vanney as his outside backs and replacing Vanney with Tony Sanneh. Claudio Reyna dropped back into Armas' spot, John O'Brien took over as a playmaking midfielder and Donovan started on the right side. After a listless start, the United States went ahead in the 32nd minute when Donovan picked up the ball near midfield and sent a long pass to Joe-Max Moore, who crossed to a wide-open Wolff for a diving header from 6 yards. Mathis made it 2-0 with his ninth goal in 21 international appearances and Wolff, who has six goals in 17 games, scored again in the 60th from 18 yards off a pass from Donovan. Donovan beat goalkeeper Aaron Lawrence from a sharp angle in the 84th minute and Beasley scored two minutes into second-half injury time. NOTES: Sunday's win over Uruguay received a 0.8 rating and 2 share on ABC, meaning it was watched in about 844,000 households. ... Meola made his 99th international appearance.