Soccer: A clash of canny tacticians as US and Germany meet

SEOUL - On one side of the pitch in tonight's second quarter-final showdown will be a German hero with brief coaching experience.

Opposing him will be the United States' most successful sports coach ever, but whose international playing career was fleeting.

Germany's Rudi Voeller, 42, and American coach Bruce Arena, 50, are easy-going and friendly, have lifted their national teams from the ashes of disastrous defeats and have made some deft tactical moves to set up tonight's match.

But the similarities stop there.

Voeller, one of the most popular characters in German soccer, has scored 47 goals in 90 internationals and taken part in three World Cups, lifting the coveted trophy in 1990.

He had no coaching experience when he took over from Erich Ribbeck as a caretaker in the wake of Germany's disastrous first-round exit from Euro 2000, but he was immediately accepted.

Arena, a distinguished college lacrosse and soccer player, has just one international cap, as a substitute goalkeeper in the US team that lost 0-2 to Israel in 1973.

But he had 17 winning seasons as a University of Virginia coach, led DC United to two Major League Soccer cups, and has a 0.623 winning percentage since taking over the American team in late 1998, the best record of any US national coach.

Voeller has agreed to guide his team until after the 2006 World Cup finals in Germany, and his decision has won approval from all those who count in German soccer, including Cup-winning captain and coach Franz Beckenbauer.

Arena has far surpassed his modest goal of rebuilding US soccer from a disastrous 32nd and last showing at the 1998 finals, but shrugs off questions about his future, insisting he is thinking only of tonight's match in Ulsan, South Korea.

Voeller does not let anybody dictate what he should do, making lineup changes that helped to seal Germany's 2-0 first-round win over Cameroon and their 1-0 defeat of Paraguay.

He ignored suggestions that Miroslav Klose had too little experience to play at this level, the Kaiserslautern striker paying him back with five goals.

"The coach has done everything right," said playmaker Michael Ballack.

The tactically astute Arena has defied convention with frequent substitutions and lineup changes, placing well-rewarded faith in relatively untested midfielder Landon Donovan and starting second-choice goalkeeper Brad Friedel.

"He lets the team play. He's not a dictator," said Friedel. He and Donovan have been pivotal in the best American showing at a Cup since 1930.

German captain Oliver Kahn, who was Voeller's team-mate in the 1994 Cup squad, said his boss was unflappable.

"You always had the impression that nothing could affect him. He's still very much like that."

Voeller has only lost his cool once in this campaign, hitting back at critics of Germany's sluggish performance against Paraguay.

Arena, amiable but notorious in US soccer circles for undiplomatic bombshell comments, disagreed with criticism of Voeller, whom he called "a very good coach and a terrific guy".

Arena expressed empathy for Voeller and his heavily favoured side for having to answer to a soccer-mad homeland.

"If we don't win this game we'll do fine. We'll be home and everyone will be happy with us," he said. "I'm not sure how the German team will do if they lose to the US. They may not be heading right to Frankfurt after the game."

- REUTERS

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