The Americans have nice uniforms, Romanian coach Cornel Dinu had said. And maybe in 100 years or so, they might be able to field a decent soccer team.
That was 17 months ago, after the United States had played Romania to a 1-1 tie in an exhibition game at Santa Barbara.Dinu was eventually fired, but the Americans still have an opportunity to prove his timetable was off by 98 years or so.
The United States, which already has established itself in this World Cup by beating Colombia 2-1, faces Romania, a 3-1 winner over Colombia, in a first-round finale Sunday at the Rose Bowl.
At a news conference Saturday, Romanian officials were still trying to explain away the remarks by Dinu, who was replaced Anghel Iordanescu. The new coach is considerably more circumspect than his predecessor.
"It's just the way he is," Adalbert Kassai, general secretary of the Romanian team, said of Dinu. "He is just a little bit more explosive."
Kassai, speaking through an interpreter, added: "But the U.S. team over the last two years has grown up a lot, and we appreciate this. We believe the relationship between our teams is very good."
Cristian Bivolava, Kassai's deputy, added that Dinu's comments in Santa Barbara were "not isolated for him," explaining that other comments by the coach after a game in Mexico "brought us to the brink of a diplomatic scandal."
The Americans and Romanians are both virtually assured of advancing to the second round, but the winner of Sunday's game will finish either first or second in the group.
Although the former Romanian coach had a low opinion of American soccer, the current coach and players apparently don't, having watched the United States-Colombia game on television in the airport in Detroit. They were pre-paring to fly back from a 4-1 loss to Switzerland, which had tied the United States 1-1 in its opener.
"We already knew the United States in terms of competitiveness and aggressiveness," Kassai said of the Americans' upset of Colombia. `We were surprised by the frequency of the attacks by the U.S. and the degree of danger they created. . . .
"Maybe one of our problems will be to deal with the heat (expected to be in the 90s) during the game. One of the other things is that we must look to stop their attack along the sidelines. But, of course, that will be up to the technical (coaching) staff."
There were no players or coaches at the Romanian news conference, bringing protests from reporters. Goran Havik, a FIFA press officer, said soccer's governing body has made it clear that coaches and at least one player should be available for interviews, and FIFA might consider disciplining the Romanian federation.