Cary, N.C. – They heard chants of “Osama bin Laden! Osama bin Laden!” in Mexico. They had firecrackers thrown at their villa all night in Guatemala. Their security detail in South Korea consisted of tanks at the airport and helicopters shepherding them to their hotel.
So when the players on the U.S. national soccer team land in Hamburg, Germany, on June 1 for the World Cup tournament, no chances will be taken. Greeting them at the airport will be the expected heavy artillery security and a bus.
It will be the only team bus in the 32-team field that won’t sport its nation’s flag.
“Anytime that a lot of countries can get together and the world’s watching, that means some people start to lick their lips a little bit,” reserve goalkeeper Tim Howard said Tuesday. “That’s a little bit frightening.”
The U.S. team is in this suburb of Raleigh for a weeklong training camp void of security issues. The media is minimal. Team security has kept the few interested spectators away.
Germany, however, will be different. The war in Iraq has angered much of the non-Muslim world, and threats of terrorism have mounted the past three years.
“The time I was concerned most was the Confederations Cup in France in 2003, when Iraq was still very fresh,” said Landon Donovan, in his seventh year with the national team. “It was very real. I’m sure there were constant threats, but there were a couple of pretty serious threats. That’s when you consider whether we should just go home.”
French intelligence agents were omnipresent, and the American players were told not to wear any U.S. team clothes and to travel only in groups.
Donovan said he’s not so worried anymore. The experience at the 2002 World Cup in South Korea made the players feel secure to the point of making light of what was by far the tightest security in the field.
“In 2002 we had fun with it,” said forward Brian McBride, in his third World Cup. “We had our own SWAT team. There were times where they almost ran people off the road because they were being friendly and waving at the bus.”
The decision to travel by bus without the Stars and Stripes was made more than a year ago. It came well before the recent release announcing the decorated buses of the other teams, “thus nullifying any security risk,” according to Jim Moorehouse, director of U.S. Soccer communications.
The team hasn’t needed an American flag to attract attention in Mexico and Central America, where it plays qualifying games. The players had every fruit in Latin America thrown at their bus, saw horrific signs, and the Osama bin Laden chant sent tremors across America.
However, the Americans are used to it. They also understand it.
“Our government policy dictated around the world is big, and we’re kind of a visual entity of our government, even if our personal views aren’t,” said starting goalie Kasey Keller who has played his 16-year pro career in England, Spain and now Germany. “I think that’s what most of Germany and Western Europe realizes, that it’s not an issue for our soccer team. I’m not treated strange in Germany because they oppose the war in Iraq. They can differentiate between individuals and government.”
The root of the venom toward Americans, the players say, is athletic jealousy. For decades, U.S. soccer was the punching bag of soccer-rich Central American countries. However, the U.S. has blitzed through the last two qualifying stages, going 8-4-4 for 2002, then upset Mexico in the World Cup’s round of 16. The U.S. qualified for Germany by going 12-2-4.
Suddenly, the U.S. has become a superpower on the field, too.
“The hard part for us is you don’t realize how much is gamesmanship and how much is anti- Americanism, especially now that we’re so dominant in our region,” Keller said. “We go down to Mexico or (El) Salvador or Guatemala or Costa Rica or whatever. I don’t think too many of them are really anti-American. I think it’s an issue where maybe if we disrupt them we give our team a better chance of winning the game.”
Germany isn’t taking any chances. It is deploying 30,000 police and 250,000 regional law officers, but a 1949 German law that separates police from military will not allow the deployment of 7,000 soldiers. The U.S. team is a special challenge, because its headquarters is the Park Hyatt on Moenckebergstrasse, the busiest shopping street in Hamburg.
Germany will provide 24-hour security and limit access, but will not shut down the street. Could something tragic occur?
Said Howard, “It’s a thought we don’t even want to have to entertain.”
Staff writer John Henderson can be reached at 303-820-1299 or jhenderson@denverpost.com.
