Byline: Associated Press
ROCHESTER, Mich. Bora Milutinovic can take the heat.
While his U.S. team practiced for an hour Thursday under a sun that made it 93 degrees by noon, he stood in the middle of the field with a jacket on.
``I don't sweat,'' he said, zipping down the jacket to reveal a soaked T-shirt. ``Look nothing.''
He is, as Winston Churchill said about Russia, ``a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma.''
Milutinovic led Mexico to the quarterfinals of the 1986 World Cup, then took over Costa Rica just three months before the 1990 tournament and led it to the second round. Now, he faces the task of trying to ensure that the United States doesn't become the first World Cup host eliminated in the first round.
All the underdog talk isn't for him.
``First, I don't enjoy to be dog,'' he said this week.
Velibor Milutinovic is like Casey Stengel, entertaining and mystifying. Bora does his routine in English, Spanish, French, Italian and Serbo-Croatian and is comprehensible in none.
``If you have any questions, I'll do my best not to answer them,'' he once said to open a news briefing.
Milutinovic keeps players as off-guard as reporters. They don't know for sure if they're going to start until the day of a game although they usually can tell from how much attention they get from him in practice. Most don't mind the uncertainty, believing it gives everyone a sharper edge.
``Once you know your coach in and out and you know what's going to happen every day, that's not as good,'' forward Ernie Stewart says.
Milutinovic, a Serbian, was hired in March 1991 by U.S. Soccer Federation president Alan Rothenberg on the recommendation of Franz Beckenbauer, whoturned down the job after leading Germany to the 1990 title.
After he took over, the Americans were 8-2-3 for the rest of 1991. Overall, the team is 29-31-26 under Milutinovic, including 7-1-1 with the full roster of players.
In Mexico and Costa Rica, he is a soccer god, a ``miracle worker,'' who is mobbed in public. In the United States, cameras crews from Spanish, Italian and French stations surround him.
But for English-speaking television, he is sound-bite death because of his inability to speak well.
``Mr. Alan told me in 1991, `Bora, you need to speak English,' '' Milutinovic said last month, referring to Rothenberg. ``Then, my results were good. After I studied a little English, the results don't come so good. Now Mr. Alan tells me, `Bora, you need to speak Spanish.' ''
Milutinovic speaks his own brand of syntax, switching from language to language in midsentence and inventing words that are combinations of several. He talks about how the team has turned around ``360 percent.'' His favorite phrases include:
``par example'' (for example)
``I explicate'' (I explain)
``Criminal'' (terrible play)
``Como se dice'' (used when he gets stuck; it's Spanish for ``How do you say it?'')
``Tranquilo'' (when he wants players to relax; it's Spanish for ``peaceful.'')
``I am so happy'' (any time he's asked how he is)
He rejects the notion that his lack of English hurts the ability of soccer to market itself in the United States.
``Television is not so important,'' he says.
Even when reporters get exasperated by his refusal to give a straight answer, he smiles and exudes charm.
``I try to be who I am,'' he says. ``But if I try to be who I am, I'malways smiling. People say, `You're not serious.' ''
He's about 54 now, five years older than his listed age. He lowered it when he was a player, to try to convince clubs he was younger.
Now, as a coach, he is almost a mystical figure for players with inexplicable ability to improve teams. Asked what he feared most about the United States, Romanian forward Ilie Dumitrescu said, ``The best enemy is Bora Milutinovic with his experience.''
Milutinovic and Brazil coach Carlos Alberto Parreira will become the only men to lead three different nations in the World Cup. Milutinovic won't say whether he intends to stay on as U.S. coach after his contract expires in December.
``You have to win games,'' he says.
He likes his house on a hill in Laguna Niguel, Calif., 10 minutes from the team's training camp. But his wife, Mari Carmen, and daughter, Darinka, know about moving on. He makes it sound inevitable.
``I am coach,'' he says. ``I have suitcase packed.''
Notes:It appears it won't be known until Saturday if midfielder Claudio Reyna's right hamstring has healed enough to let him play against Switzerland. If he can't start, Mike Sorber probably will replace him. . . . Swiss forward Adrian Knup is doubtful for the game because of an ankle injury sustained last weekend against Bolivia. Midfielder Ciriaco Sforza, who also has missed practive this week, is bothered by muscle problems in his right leg. . . .The high temperature Thursday was 95 degrees.
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