U.S. Team Gets a Kick in Right Direction : Soccer: National team moves into Mission Viejo training site for 1994 World Cup.

The U.S. soccer team settled into its new home in Mission Viejo on Monday, or at least that part of it that wasn’t under mud and water. There was no clubhouse to move into, and the facility’s new world-class fields were soggy and inhospitable. But players and officials were delighted at the prospect of a home after years of wandering.

“Our World Cup team will no longer be Gypsies,” said Alan Rothenberg, president of the U.S. Soccer Federation. “They will no longer be vagabonds, moving from city to city.”

The $2.3-million facility, built by the city of Mission Viejo, will be home for the members of the U.S. national team and will serve as the training site for the 1994 World Cup squad.

More than that, the facility signals the United States’ commitment to fielding a respectable team for the first World Cup held on U.S. soil.

“(This training center) allows our team to look and act like full-time professionals,” said Hank Steinbrecher, secretary general of the USSF.

Members of the national team have been spread around the country and sometimes travel as many as 250 days a year. For them, the prospect of settling into a “home,” even for 18 months, is exciting.

“People don’t know what it is to live in a hotel for most of your life,” team captain Tony Meola said. “When I get home, I forget what normal life is like. I go to call a buddy who lives down the block and I dial ‘9’ to get an outside line.”

The USSF is providing housing for the players and their families in apartments within walking distance of the soccer fields. There are about 22 players at the facility, a number that is expected to fluctuate.

Most international soccer powers have long had sophisticated national training centers. But the United States has never made that financial commitment, nor could it have justified the expenditure. But several factors have mandated the establishment of the training center, the prime one being the World Cup, to be held in nine U.S. cities in June and July of 1994.

As hosts for the 24-team tournament, U.S. soccer officials have added incentive for a respectable showing by its team. To that end, they hired a new coach, Bora Milutinovic, and have pledged to do whatever is necessary to facilitate the team’s success.

Soccer officials expect that, with the addition of the training facility, the U.S. team will improve after being ousted during the first round in 1990.

Most players agree that the stability provided by the training center will have a positive effect on the team.

“We used to go into a town for a week,” said midfielder Brian Quinn. “Whether we had a good result or a bad result, we couldn’t get together the next day to analyze it. Players would disperse throughout the United States. We didn’t have continuity.”

Milutinovic was most responsible for the training center. He said that when he was hired, he was asked to provide a “wish list” of what he needed to put together a team capable of winning the World Cup. At the top of his list was the establishment of a national training center. And, because Milutinovic lives in nearby Laguna Niguel, he lobbied hard for the Mission Viejo site in Orange County.

Despite the recent rainy weather, Rothenberg said Mission Viejo was selected because of its climate and the opportunity to practice year round.

Mission Viejo Mayor Robert D. Breton joked about the unusually cloudy skies: “I will ask the city council at tonight’s meeting to pass a resolution to not allow any rain to fall while the team is training here.”

The seven-acre facility is located at Oso Viejo Community Park and will include a 3,800-square-foot clubhouse, which is expected to be completed in April. The facility will be converted to a youth sports center after 1994. At that time, the U.S. national team will train at a USSF facility in Orlando, Fla.

The two fields are not yet playable because of recent heavy rains. Milutinovic said he hoped to be able to get the team out next week, but was skeptical. Heavy training on a soggy field can do permanent damage. The two lighted fields have been built to precise specifications, using the same hybrid grass as in the Rose Bowl, which will be the site of the World Cup final.

Milutinovic said he wanted the team to get used to the surface, just in case. Such optimism carried the day Monday, with players and others proclaiming that the United States would be the “Denmark of 1994,” a reference to the upstart Danish team that won the European Championship last year.

“I will imagine to myself that we will be in Pasadena next year,” Milutinovic said. “Some people will laugh and not believe what I say. I believe it.”