Edition: U.S. / Global

Sports of The Times; The Soccer Fan With Two Teams

By George Vecsey
Published: June 18, 1989

There are many advantages to America being a nation of immigrants, but they do not always translate into a home-team advantage for the national soccer team. No matter where the United States team plays within its own borders, there will always be vocal and knowledgeable Americans with an undeniable bond to the Azzurri of Italy or La Seleccion of Mexico.

Even in the hinterlands of New England yesterday, there was a Latin flavor to the crowd that watched the United States squirm past Guatemala, 2-1, to gain 2 vital points in its quest for the 1990 World Cup in Italy.

The Guatemala fans arrived in caravans, horns honking, and they paraded into the stadium displaying blue clothing, blue paint on their faces and blue banners. Their cheers and whistles drowned out the American fans, until the final five minutes, when a few American fans managed a brief ''U-S-A'' chant of their own.

With all the suburban programs and the money spent on soccer in the last generation, there is still the feeling that the United States players are still diligently practicing what they were taught, whereas players from Latin American nations are playing a game that has been their life since childhood.

For one American spectator, there was a deep understanding of what soccer means to the Guatemalan players.

Dr. Kenneth Ewing is a proud American with a family practice in Port Washington, L.I., and a son at the Naval Academy at Annapolis. But when the Guatemalan players ran out on the exquisitely kept grass field yesterday, Dr. Ewing could feel the familiar pumping in his chest.

''My head tells me one thing,'' he said. ''My heart tells me another. I wore this uniform. I sweated in this uniform.''

Dr. Ewing recently recalled growing up in Guatemala City, learning the only game in town:

''We started playing when I was 2 or 3,'' he said. ''You could kick a ball against a wall for hours. The weather was conducive to playing all year 'round. The country is poor. You didn't need all this equipment that kids need to play American football, that they outgrow from year to year. You just played. Construction workers would play at lunch time. Masons, bricklayers. They would eat for 20 minutes and play for an hour.''

The boys in the La Pedrera neighborhood organized their own team, the way American youths used to organize their own sandlot baseball teams. They paid 25 cents a week and bought shirts, naming themselves Portland, after the cement company where Dr. Ewing's father was an electrical engineer.

When he was 16 1/2, the young man turned professional, playing first for the Folgar team, then for Chichicaste, named for a local plant much like poison ivy: ''We were a small, poor team, but we gave an itch to the bigger teams.'' Then he joined the Municipal team, which played before 50,000 fans in the national stadium -''like when the Dodgers played in Brooklyn,'' Dr. Ewing said.

At the age of 20, he was named to the national team for a regional match in Tegucigalpa, Honduras. He can recall arriving at the foreign dressing room and being handed the white jersey with the blue stripe, and the blue shorts, the white and blue stockings.

''Up to then, you always wanted to look good so you would make it to the majors,'' he said. ''But now you are half-scared, half-nervous, because of the responsibility. That makes a difference.''

He played for the national team around 25 times from 1958 through 1965, and then played professionally in Toluca, Mexico. But when he emigrated to the United States to complete his medical training, he had never reached the most important tournament in the world.

By virtue of its prosperity rather than its soccer skill, the United States will be the host of the 1994 World Cup, automatically seeded into the final 24. Although the United States is starting to do well at the junior levels, it has not qualified for the World Cup on its own since 1950.

Yesterday's victory brought it just one staggering step closer to Italy, but the United States still has three games in Latin countries later this year, and must gain some points somewhere against fans who will not be nearly so benign as Amrican crowds.

Although the American players certainly stand their ground and exhibit courage and some skill, the United States is not yet producing instinctive players who can turn the game around with a play they have made a million times in a dusty playground.

''My own theory is that education makes better athletes because they can understand instructions, make adjustments at halftime,'' Dr. Ewing said. ''I think the future of soccer in the U.S. must be at the college level. But you must have many different levels because competition produces great players.''

No matter who advances to the World Cup in Italy, Dr. Ewing has an invitation from an Italian man he resuscitated many times when he was an intern in New York. Yesterday, the doctor and some soccer pals from New York chartered a van to watch the giant play tiny Guatemala.

''Who do I root for?'' he asked. ''I played for that team. I was captain of that team. I don't want them to win? If I said no, I would be a liar.''

Photo of Dr. Kenneth Ewing who played soccer in Guatemala (NYT/Vic DeLucia).