U.S. Team Seeks Passport to Victory

A single telephone call is all it took.

Just a few words from Thomas Dooley in Germany to Steve Sampson in Westlake Village.

The result? Tonight, David Wagner, a 24-year-old midfielder for Schalke ’04 in the German Bundesliga, takes the field for the United States national soccer team against El Salvador at the Coliseum.

Wagner is the most visible of half a dozen newcomers Sampson, the U.S. coach, has brought to the team as it prepares for its World Cup ’98 qualifying campaign this fall.

Also drafted onto the 21-player roster are defenders Frankie Hejduk and Eddie Pope, midfielders Miles Joseph and Preki and forward Jason Kreis.

Of the six, Wagner and Kreis have sparked the most interest.

Until a couple of weeks ago, no one at U.S. Soccer headquarters in Chicago had heard of Wagner, whose name is not pronounced WAG-ner, as in Robert Wagner, the actor, but “VAHG-ner,” as in Richard Wagner, the composer.

“Let’s hope he can compose with his feet,” Sampson joked, then explained how Wagner was uncovered.

“Apparently Thomas [Dooley] was having a conversation with him a few weeks ago and the subject of where his parents were from came up,” Sampson said. “And Dooley discovered that [Wagner’s] father was American. So the light went off in his head and immediately he called me.

“So we got the ball rolling, making sure that FIFA released him because he has played twice for the under-18 national team of Germany and the under-21 national team.

“At 24 years of age and playing in the Bundesliga, he’s certainly a player that we need to look at. He literally got his [U.S.] passport five days ago.

“I’ve never seen him play, [but] I don’t need to know anything about him right now. All I need to know to bring him in is that he plays in the Bundesliga, he scores goals and is very good on the ball.

“We’ll probably look at him initially up top, maybe as a second forward.”

If it works out, Wagner could well retrace the path Dooley, his teammate at Schalke ‘04, followed to the national team. Dooley, 35, is also the German-born son of an American father. He was discovered in 1992 and became a mainstay of the U.S. 1994 World Cup team.

Kreis, meanwhile, has risen to national team level through his play this season in Major League Soccer. The 23-year-old three-time All-American from Duke has been outstanding as a striker for the Dallas Burn, having scored 12 goals and assisted on four more. The Burn is 11-0 in games in which Kreis has scored.

“Every single time Jason scores a goal, that team wins,” Sampson said. “He’s earned his right to be called into the national team.

“He can play wide. One of the things I will be doing [tonight and in other games before the Nov. 3 World Cup qualifying opener against Trinidad and Tobago] is moving players around. If we can’t find the answers to finding speed on the flanks in defensive positions, then we might convert some players.

“Kreis can play up top, he can play midfield, he can play wide. He’s a very versatile player. And he played on the left side in the MLS All-Star game and I thought he did very well there.”

Of the four other newcomers, Preki, the Kansas City Wiz’s gifted Yugoslav midfielder, will not be eligible to play tonight.

“Preki will not have his citizenship in time for the game,” Sampson said. “I’m keeping my fingers crossed he will have it in time for the Oct. 16 match against Ecuador.

“It’s red tape. Apparently, it’s with the FBI and they’re checking fingerprints and all that and that’s a laborious, long process.”

The three others--Hejduk, Pope and Joseph--played for the U.S. in the Atlanta Olympics and are trying to move up another notch. Pope, apparently, stands the best chance of doing so soon.

“I plan to play him about 45 minutes on Friday,” Sampson said. “I’ve been very impressed with Eddie during his time with [Washington] D.C. United and also during the Olympics. He’s a very simple player. He’s got very good speed and he’s also very good in the air. Those are three ingredients necessary to play in the back, but at the next level you never know. We’ll see how he does.”

Pope, 22, an All-American from North Carolina, was captain of the U.S. under-23 national team and played in the Pan American Games last year.

Joseph, 22, a forward from Clemson now playing for the New York/New Jersey MetroStars, and Hejduk, a 22-year-old midfielder from UCLA who plays for the Tampa Bay Mutiny, will hold reserve roles for now, Sampson said.

“I don’t want to push them too early,” he said. “I want to bring them along slowly.”

Except for Wagner, all the U.S. players are American based, 19 of them in MLS. Missing tonight will be such foreign-based players as Dooley and Claudio Reyna (Germany) Ernie Stewart (Netherlands), and goalkeepers Kasey Keller and Juergen Sommer (England).

Soccer Notes

Two MLS players, Galaxy midfielder Mauricio Cienfuegos and Washington D.C. United striker Raul Diaz Arce, will play for El Salvador, which has a new coach, Armando Contreras Palma. The game kicks off at 8 p.m. and organizers expect a crowd of 40,000 or more.