World Cup Skulduggery
On Nov. 10, during a break in training for Sunday's U.S.-El Salvador World Cup qualifier, U.S. captain John Harkes returned to his hotel room in Providence and listened with mounting anger to a message that had been left on his phone. As Harkes, a midfielder, later reconstructed it, the man said, in part, "Mr. Harkes, I'm contacting you because I represent El Salvador. You're experienced. You understand what this game means. If you have any interest at all, please call me back." He didn't identify himself. In another hotel room U.S. forward Roy Wegerle received a similarly suggestive message. Harkes and Wegerle had little doubt about what the caller or callers wanted to discuss: throwing the game for money.
This sort of intrigue is nothing new to international soccer, and perhaps it should have been expected after the U.S.'s victory over Canada on Nov. 9. For the first time the Americans had qualified for the World Cup with a game to spare. Meanwhile El Salvador's hopes of making it to France next summer rested on beating the U.S.
Harkes and Wegerle told U.S. coach Steve Sampson about the calls. Sampson responded by engaging in some defensive maneuvering. In addition to giving the American players code names and telling the hotel operator not to put through callers who didn't use them, Sampson—code name Smitty—talked to his players at a Nov. 11 practice. "Please understand the ramifications of any action that you take based on these calls." he told them. "You could lose your international career, and it could be an enormous black eye to the federation. Don't take any risks."
Harkes and Sampson reported the contacts to U.S. Soccer, which monitored the situation but took no action. Then, proving they'd been listening to Smitty, the Americans went out on Sunday and scored the first three goals against El Salvador on the way to a convincing 4-2 victory. El Salvador closed its locker room after the game; the country's soccer federation could not be reached for comment.
"This has never happened to me before," Harkes (code name Ian) said after the game, "but I guess it happens all over the soccer world. People talk about it all the time." U.S forward Eric Wynalda explained, "A game of this magnitude meant millions and millions of dollars to a little country in Central America. And people will do strange things when money's involved."
. In a way I was 
