Brad Evans’ winning goal came almost out of nowhere
Brad Evans has always been something of an afterthought with the U.S. national team.
He started once in 2009, played in a friendly a year later and was a late substitute in two inconsequential games in 2012. His bio doesn’t even appear in U.S. Soccer’s 288-page media guide.
But anonymity won’t be a problem from now on. Because Friday, in the waning moments of stoppage time, Evans went from forgotten man to hero by delivering a soft 10-yard shot from the edge of the box to beat Jamaica, 2-1, in a World Cup qualifier.
Not only did Evans’ goal — not surprisingly, his first with the national team — give the U.S. its first victory in a qualifier in Jamaica, but it lifted the Americans to second in the CONCACAF standings after four matches, trailing only Costa Rica on goal differential. And with its next two games at home — Tuesday in Seattle and June 18 in Sandy, Utah — the U.S. is well-positioned for a big push toward securing a berth in next summer’s World Cup.
“It’s pure elation after the goal for sure,” said Evans, who fell on his rear end after spinning and chipping the ball over Jamaica keeper Donovan Ricketts and inside the far post. “It’s a great feeling and I’m happy for the team.”
A team that originally didn’t include Evans. When U.S. Coach Juergen Klinsmann summoned players to training camp last month, Evans wasn’t among those called up. But questions about injuries and fitness on the back line earned him a late invitation, then two consecutive starts.
“I think he’s growing into his role. He understands that it’s there for him to grab,” Klinsmann said of the versatile Evans, a natural midfielder who played right back Friday. “He’s finding his game, finding an understanding with the center backs and finding an understanding with the midfielders.
“This is not happening overnight, but we need to give him time to play that role. The moment was there for him” Friday.
And the timing of that moment probably couldn’t have been better for Evans, a former UC Irvine All-American. Not only was he able to fill a gaping hole in Klinsmann’s lineup against Jamaica, but his next game with the national team comes against unbeaten Panama in Seattle, where Evans, who has played the last five seasons with Major League Soccer’s Sounders, figures to get a hero’s welcome.
As for the rest of the U.S. team, Klinsmann will have a lot of decisions to make before Tuesday. Midfielder Jermaine Jones, who plays a crucial role in Klinsmann’s style of play, sustained a concussion early in the second half against Jamaica, leaving his availability for Panama in doubt. And forward Jozy Altidore, whose first-half header was his first goal in World Cup qualifying in nearly four years, hobbled off the field in the 83rd minute pointing to his left hamstring.
Altidore missed more than a month after straining the same hamstring in 2011.
Out for sure is midfielder Graham Zusi, who picked up his second yellow card in the final minutes of regulation Friday, earning him a one-game suspension. And only seconds after Zusi’s caution, it looked as if the U.S. had bigger problems on its hands when Jamaica’s Jermaine Beckford took advantage of some defensive confusion to tie the score on a header.
As it turned out, that goal, the second for Jamaica in the final round of qualifying, only made Evans’ score more dramatic.
“That’s football,” U.S. keeper Tim Howard said. “I’ve been there a thousand times. You feel as low as dirt, then all of a sudden you feel like world-beaters.”
Such swings in mood and momentum have become commonplace for the U.S. this year, one in which inconsistency has been the only constant. But at least they’re not Mexico.
Although Mexico stands third in the CONCACAF table with seven points after five games, it has been an enigma in the final round of qualifying. After going unbeaten, averaging 2 1/2 goals a game in last year’s group stage, Mexico has played to four draws this year — going scoreless in three of them.
This was expected to be one of the best — and certainly the most explosive — Mexican teams in recent history, one boasting world-class strikers in Javier Hernandez and Giovani dos Santos and international experience in midfielders Gerardo Torrado, Andres Guardado and defender Carlos Salcido, who average 115 caps each.
Instead they’ve lacked creativity and cohesion, which has made them seem more desperate than dominant.
Mexico and the U.S. need only finish in the top three in the six-team CONCACAF tournament to earn berths in the World Cup, something both should have little trouble doing. So the real question is how long are they likely to stay in Brazil.
For the U.S., that answer is still months away. But for Mexico the next two weeks could be telling because after Tuesday’s home qualifier with first-place Costa Rica, El Tri heads to Brazil to play in the Confederations Cup, a kind of World Cup dress rehearsal where it will face Italy, Brazil and Japan in a seven-day span.
kevin.baxter@latimes.com
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